We spent the month of November in northern California, where we lived for 15 years. In SF for Thanksgiving with long long time friends, we stopped at one of the Arizmendi Bakeries that dot the bay area. Among other delectables, we picked up their Sesame Semolina Jalapeño Cheese breadsticks, which we both fell for immediately. Upon return home my wife asked if I could try to duplicate them. So…
Been keeping a low profile around here, minding my own business - mostly.
I finally got around to baking this bread after promising Lechem (Abe) that I would. My grain selection was bulgur, steel cut oats and flax & sunflower seeds. Indeed, all the crowing around TFL for this bread is well deserved and it is quite delicious.
My trip to Paris in June yielded these two useful results: I was able to meet M. Bouabsa at his bakery for a few minutes and I came home with four 1K bags of T65 flour. I’m certain that the flour isn’t the best quality as it was the house brand bought at the local Carrefour on my last full afternoon. Held in abeyance until this weekend.
A bit of a come-on, but for comparison the lead photo is my standard 84% hydration ciabatta crumb, as is this next of a full loaf.
Friends soon visiting asked if I could bake ciabatta for them. I had to re-aquaint myself. Rather than make my old standby ciabatta at 84% hydration, I wanted to try another option.
Like Ulysses to the Sirens. Like rodents to the Pied Piper, like Cupid’s arrow to the heart, and like Springboks to Spring Break - or at least to the watering hole on the Savannah. Abel Sierra posted his version of Baguette au Levain a few days ago. Lovely, and that might have been that! Except that in response to Old Baker’s comment stating that he would try it, Abel’s reply was "Maybe it's difficult to get this result at home.
Or at least upping the hydration. My first two runs had the hydration at the prescribed 73% and then 70%. That first at 73 presented issues with a too sticky dough being difficult to shape and then to extricate from a heavily floured couche. The subsequent run at 70 yielded much better results as I documented earlier.
The video below is my step by step journey in baking Maurizio Leo’s Levain Baguettes. It is self explanatory with almost all steps included. However, I eliminated the levain build and final mixing of ingredients as I’ll take a guess that there are some somnambulists on TFL just looking for a good video to ease them into Dream Land. Please watch and hopefully you will enjoy the video as well as the voiceover.
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Anyone who has been around TFL long enough and is suspiciously odd (or bored) enough knows that my baguette journey began with my baking the Anis Bouabsa baguette. For the uninitiated, M. Bouabsa is a bread baker in Paris who won the quite prestigious annual city-wide competition in 2008 for the Best Baguette in Paris, and with about 30 competitors it was no small feat. His rewards included accolades, bragging rights and a meeting with the French President.
An old friend, Field Blend #2. But with a new twist. I recently returned to Mr. Hamelman's all AP 125% hydration levain (from my all rye version of it) and had a hankering to combine this with Mr. Forkish's FB#2 formula. A Hamelkish or Forkelman Frankenstein.
