Having trouble with baguettes
Hi everybody! I just made an account after lurking around here for a while. You guys seem to be really helpful and I could really use some help.
I work at a restaurant as the night time bread baker, and I was hired to bake bread and change the recipes (a lot of them are no good). I've done my job so far, but the one thing that's giving me trouble are the baguettes.
My bosses recipe wasnt very good - but I at least managed to get the baguettes to look somewhat nice and really got my scoring down. They simply just did not taste good, and the crumb was awful. It was dense and chewy and the crust not crispy.
ive been using this recipe now: https://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/recipe-for-80-hydration-baguette/comment-page-4/#comment-647983 [1]
and the crumb is BEAUTIFUL. It's airy, holey and has tons of flavor. But they look terrible. for some reason, no matter how long or short I proof them at the final proof, they bulk up in the oven and get almost fat and not uniform. And, scoring is a nightmare because the dough is so wet.
if I want to get any type of scoring I have to score VERY deep and repeat the slashing a few times to actually get a deep score, and even then, the scoring looks awful and the crust is still dull.
I set my oven to 550 and place a sheet pan on the bottom rack to preheat, and once in the oven I add either hot water or ice cubes. I still don't get the oven spring I want. I'm also using a very nice convection oven, fairly new.
when shaping the baguettes the dough has a lot of air bubbles and you have to be very gentle as to not pop many. Im just at a loss here. I want them to look nice and I made some last night and they looked TERRIBLE.
does anyone have any idea why they are turning out bulky, fat and under scored?
or does anyone have a bakery friendly baguette recipe they would like to share?
(the picture is of the best batch I have gotten so far, and i am not happy with how they look)