alfanso's blog

Plus one little batard...

Used my own levain on these.  3x300g, 1x550g.

alan

In my most recent entry, dabrownman urged/challenged me to make David Snyder's Pugliese Capriccioso boule as baguettes.  So what is a boy to do?  Hmm.

At 74.5% hydration to go along with a 75% AP : 25%Durum flour mix and 20% levain, it seemed like a fine idea.  I had to sneak this one in somewhat quickly as:

Yeah, I know.  I've posted my version of these SJSD's before.  But I have a new oven (again).  I recently posted my first two bakes with the new oven, the Tartine Country Bread done up as baguettes.  I was a bit perplexed as to how long the baguettes took to bake: 32 minutes at 300g each.  Way too long in my book.  And I wondered whether it was the oven, or me or the dough, or or or...  So I needed to return to a reliable workhorse for a comparison bake.

About a year and a half ago, The New York Times featured the formula for the Tartine Country Bread in their food section.  I dutifully copied it off and even more dutifully dropped it in the back of my pack of formulae for "sometime in the future".  Finally deciding to make the loaf as baguettes, I didn't stop to consider that there is a Tartine baguette formula also and that it is quite different than for the Country Bread, and with a much lower hydration.  

Jeffrey Hamelman's pain au levain with mixed sourdough starters.  I've made this before as both baguettes and batards.  So this is nothing new now, although it has still only been a small handful of bakes so far.  I like the concept of the two starters, one stiff and one quite liquid.  As much for an interesting change of pace as well as the process.

Just for a change of pace I thought that I'd try a riff on the Raisin-Pecan WW Levain that I've been baking, which are based on Ken's Artisan Bakery's gems.  A voyage not too far offshore to visit an Apple-Walnut WW Levain version.

The first two for our S.F. friends visiting with us earlier this week, and the third for our TG dinner with cousins nearby.  Happy Thanksgiving.  alan

A pair of Greenstein/Snyder Jewish Rye loaves 

A pair of Raisin-Pecan WW Levain Batards, plus one little baguette just because...

A pair of SJSD Batards 

Sure, as it has been months since I tried these out once before.  Sold at Ken's as demi-baguettes.  As long as I'm on my thang about changing baguettes to batards, and vice versa, why not?  Those black things on top are/were golden raisins, not black jelly beans...

Reversing direction from my recent thang to make baguettes from boule/batard formulae.  I searched TFL and found minor but inconclusive evidence that anyone had published their results for creating batards from the Bouabsa baguette format.  So it was high time that some silly goose decided to do it.  I waddled into the tide with both webbed feet.

Still converting boule and batard formulae to baguettes.  This time it is Jefrey Hamelman's Pain au Levain with mixed SD starters.  I'd made this once before, when I first started doing batards and had just then recently created a rye starter.  And now its number came up to make some baguettes - and one batard (just for old time's sake).