Very first baguettes
Ok, so this weekend, I posted for the first time in over two years, and I mentioned that I'm not very adventurous......and, yet, here I am, posting about making my first ever baguettes. I have long drooled over the many wonderful baguettes posted here, with Alan's leading the pack. So, I got a bit of a wild hare, and decided that I'd give the baguette shape a go. I started with one of my standard formulas - 75% AP, 10% WW, 10% Semolina, 5% Rye @ 70% hydration. After doing a bunch of reading, and watching the King Arthur baguette shaping video, I dove in.....
I made up a standard batch with 1200g flour, autolyzed, S&F'd, and bulked. I pulled off three portions of about 355g each, the remaining portion was destined for my usual batard. I bench rested the dough, then shaped, and ended up with this (I floured the bejeezus out of my couche due to sticking issues the first time I used it!):
Proofed these up for about 90 minutes at room temp, then popped them into a 475f oven with steam:
Hee, hee.....I forgot to determine the length my stone would accomodate!!! What a dope! :) Oh, well, soldiering on.......
Well, I'll be darned, these don't look too bad at all (15 minutes with steam, 15 without):
Crumb shot (I love the color of semolina!!):
I was so excited, I had to have a sandwich in the vein of those I've had in Paris (butter, meat, cheese):
I'm pretty happy with how this first attempt turned out. I will measure my stone for next time, will probably reduce the hydration to make for easier handling until I get used to shaping these, but really, I have no complaints! They will get better with practice!
R
Comments
One good thing I immediately notice that most novice bagueteers have problems with is the scoring. I can see that you are already putting some angle on the blade and not digging straight down.
Also that your scores are maintained within a small width of the baguette from side to side and that they overlap. All good, and gives you a leg up on that aspect.
What you will find is that over the course of a very short amount of time a muscle memory will kick in and you will automatically be rolling them out to a uniform length, give or take a few 1/4 inches at most.
The shaping is the difficult task to get right for most of us, and that will only come with time. The pre-shape, to me, is an essential step so you'll want to pay a lot of attention to that. What is misshapen at pre-shape will be amplified at final shaping time. Consistency across the barrel of the dough, whether completely straight or one that bows a little in the middle, as well as an appropriate surface tension by the time that you seal the seam and proceed to the rolling out. Our fine David Snyder states that shaping and rolling baguettes is a task that takes an iron fist in a velvet glove. I agree.
A lot more. It isn't like calculus or anything hard, it just is a bit of its own little world. Almost nobody figures out how to ride a 2 wheeler the first few times, and this is no different. The only real remedy is practice. And you are already a step on the way.
I like the dark bake too!
alan
If you are using a new couche, a few words"
Brought to you by your good friends at Couchie-Coo Couches. And give Jimmy Durante his nose back please.
Double post!
Thanks for the great comments, Alan, I'll take them to heart! I will definitely be trying these again, as they were well received by my wife and daughters, too! With a bit more practice, I'll get a process down that I can repeat and tweak.
On the couche.....I've used it once before with miserable results since I didn't prep it right. That's why it got so much flour this time! I was much happier with that part of the process, and feel it will only get better as I get used to using it, and it gets broken in.
Rich