Some Days You...

 Well, you know.

Although I went into some detail with my panned bread recipe (which has stabilized at my last published formula (or can get snazzed up with the addition of 12-15% each of toasted chopped walnuts and prunes) I've been working up other formulas and channeling Richard Blais - ever unhappy with my baguettes -  I have been tweaking formulas that others might call successful.

Last weekend things seemed to go well.

My first bake was a variation on the "Bear-guettes" formula where I took the hydration up to a (for me) stratospheric 70%.  I was unhappy with the results of the non retarded dough, but given a long cold stay in the refrigerator and then warmed up at room temperature for a couple of hours, the dough was supple and easy to handle.

I always cut a baguette in half and then in half lengthwise as a drive time snack for my faithful limo driver and when I saw it, I just had to take a quick snap as I ran out the door to catch my plane.

The formula is simplicity itself. (In my browser I do not seem to be able to create the all important borders and shading, so I am breaking up these formulas into non-standard format)

	Overall formula	Baker's Percent
Total Flour	36.9 oz	100%
AP Flour	36.9 oz	85%
Water	25.83 oz	70%
Salt	0.66 oz	2%
Yeast	0.060 oz	0.165%
Seed	.37 oz	20%
Total Wt	36.9%

 

Pre ferments

	Poolish	Baker's Percent	Levain	Baker's Percent
	% flour	10%	%Flour	5%
AP Flour	3.69	100%	1.845	100%
Water	3.69	100%	1.845	100%
Salt
Yeast	pinch
Seed	0.738	20%	0.369	20%
Poolish total wt	7.38
Levain total wt			4.059

 

Hand mix.

Allow 12-14 hours to ripen.

Final dough

	Final Dough
AP Flour	31.365 oz
Water	20.1105 oz
Salt	0.6642 oz
Yeast	0.060885 oz
Seed
Poolish	7.38 oz
Levain	4.059 oz

 

Mix to shaggy mass and autolyse for 45 minutes.

Mix in spiral (or by hand) to moderate development  - 3 minutes.

Allow to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Refrigerate overnight. (I actually divide this into 2 baguette sized chunk to allow it to warm more quickly in the morning)

 Remove from refrigerator.

Allow to warm to room temperature (2-3 hours)

Divide (I divide into 6 pieces)

Pre shape round

Shape baguette

Proof 1.25- 1.5 hours

Score

Bake with steam 5 minutes at 500F then 12 minutes at 460F with convection.

The other formula I have been working on I describe as "Country Bread."  While the classic baguette limits us to a very strict list of ingredients and shapes, I wanted to make a bread that had a more varied list of ingredients and perhaps a different shape.

One thing that I began to think about was making a bread with a more distinct sour flavor.  My levain lives "free range" and is fed at least once a day. My house sitter feeds it when I am away and it does not undergo the indignity of being left in a refrigerator until it is cold and sad and creates hooch.  As a result, it is a very mild levain.  What I found out was that by using it with a rye pre ferment, I could get a sour flavor.  I finally got a formula to my liking which is presented below.

Overall formula

	Overall formula	Baker's Percent
Total Flour	37.5 oz	100%
Bread Flour	28.125 oz	75%
Rye Flour	3.75 oz	10%
Whole Wheat	5.625 oz	15%
Water	24.75 oz	66%
Salt	0.50625 oz	2%
Yeast
Seed	0.5625 oz
Poolish
Rye Levain
Total Wt	63.31875 oz

 

Note that I am using Bread Flour - this does not work as well with all purpose flour - even King Arthur All Purpose

Both my rye and whole wheat flours are freshly ground.

Pre ferments

	Rye Levain	Baker's Percent	Whole wheat poolish	Baker's Percent
% flour pre fermented		10%		5%
Rye Flour	3.75 oz	100%
Whole Wheat			1.875 oz	100%
Water	4.875 oz	130%	1.875 oz	100%
Salt
Yeast			Pinch
Seed	0.5625 oz	20%
Wheat  poolishwt			3.75 oz
Rye Levain wt	9.1875 oz

 

Mix by hand and allow to mature 12-14 hours

Final Dough

	Final Dough
Bread Flour	28.125 oz
Rye Flour
Whole Wheat	3.75 oz
Water	18 oz
Salt	0.50625 oz
Yeast
Seed
Poolish	3.75 oz
Rye Levain	9.1875

 

Note that there is no additional yeast - this is not a typo...

Mix to shaggy mass and autolyse 45 minutes.

Mix with spiral for 7 minutes to good gluten development

Bulk ferment 5 hours total - one fold at 2.5 hours

Divide (I make 3 pieces)

Pre shape rounds

Shape batards

1.5 hours proof.

Score.

Bake with steam 10 minutes at 480F and then 20 minutes at 460F with convection.

The photo...

 

Last, but not least, I was looking over my old formula spreadsheet and comparing it to the BBGA standard.  My old spreadsheet took the amount of the seed used in the levain into account as part of the % of flour pre fermented - the BBGA standard does not. While this keeps the math much simpler, it causes the actual amounts of flour pre fermented to be understated vs. my method.

I've been thinking quite a bit about the impact of my altitude on baked goods in general and decided to drop the amount of flour pre fermented in my baguettes to  7% in the polish and 5% in the levain.

Frankly, I wasn't quite happy with the timings on this formula (which had me loading the oven at 9PM after an 8 AM start on the mix) but the results were nice without having to do a retarded ferment.  I may be on to something...

I'll leave the formula as a math exercise for the reader  (and those of you who bake at lower than Mile High altitudes may wish to skip this entirely), but here is the money shot...

 

I have a list of formulas that I want to develop this year and for the next bit I will be working on multigrain and "seedy/nutty" bread.  We'll see how that goes.