- Flour500 gms Giusto's Baker's Choice
- Water375 gms
- Yeast1/4 tsp Instant
- Salt10 gms
- Mix flour and water and autolyse for 20 minutes.
- Add yeast and mix by folding dough in the bowl.
- Add salt and mix by folding dough in the bowl.
- Mix dough by folding and stretching in the bowl for 20 strokes. Repeat this 3 more times at 20 minute intervals.
- Refrigerate dough, covered tightly, for 21 hours.
- Divide into 4 equal parts and preshape gently for baguettes.
- Allow preshaped pieces to rest, covered with plastic, for 1 hour.
- Shape into ficelles (short, thin baguettes).
- Proof en couche or on parchment paper dusted with semolina for 45 minutes.
- Pre-heat oven to 500F with baking stone in middle rack and a cast iron skillet and a metal loaf pan on the lowest rack. Preheat 45 minutes or longer before baking.
- 3-5 minutes before baking, place a handful of ice cubes in the loaf pan. Shut the oven door. Bring water to a boil.
- Transfer the ficelles to a peel and load them onto the baking stone. Pour one cup of boiling water into the skillet. Close the oven door.
- Turn the oven down to 480F.
- After 10 minutes, remove the loaf pan and the skillet from the oven.
- Continue baking for another 10-15 minutes until the loaves are nicely colored, the crust is hard all around and the bottom gives a hollow sound when tapped. Internal temperature should be at least 205F.
- Cool on a rack completely before slicing.
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Handsome ficelles!
Great oven spring too, David! Did you slash them in one stroke from end to end, or did several cuts burst open together? Lovely colour. Do you stretch them into shape, or do you roll them?
Thanks, hansjoakim!
The ficelles were shaped using the traditional technique for baguettes. I slashed them with one long stroke. I thought it would work better given how thin they were.
David
David,
Giusto's Baker's Choice is a type that I do not have access to. I primarily use any thing KA because of its accessibility in the supermarkets. I live in Indiana so certain flours do not make thier way here. Can I use a KA product that is close to the Giusto's?
Many thanks,
Chuppy
P.S. Have you ever worked in a proffessional bakery or just a home artisan?
Hi, Chuppy.
Giusto's Baker's Choice has 11.0-11.5% protein. KAF AP flour is 11.7% protein. That's probably a reasonable substitute, but it's likely other brands of AP flour have lower protein/gluten.
No, I've never worked in any part of the food industry. What do you mean "JUST a home artisan?" ;-)
David
David,
So your saying that I could continue to use KA on a regular basis? I do like the quality of flour that is milled by KA. Once again we are limited to what we can purchase in the grocery.
What I meant by "Just" a home artisan, is have you practiced your skills by only baking at home. By the looks of your loves, you seem to have a professional touch to what you do. The pics of the ficelles are absolutely amazing to look at. I only wish I could produce such baked goods. Hopefully, with the help of others on The Fresh Loaf, I can begin trying to replicate what others like yourself have been doing for quite some time.
From my understanding, the bakers method of measuring ingrediants by percentage is a very fluent langauge and one that is importanat to understand the basics of bread baking in general.
Thank you for your reply,
Best regards,
Chuppy
David,
Nice to see you... and your bread! They look lovely. I don't drink café au lait anymore except on a rare occasion as a treat, but one of my very favorite breakfasts is a BIG café au lait with ficelles like yours spread with butter and jam. Absolutely heaven! Add to that sitting at an outdoor café on the edge of the beach in a town called Collioure:
http://www.collioure.com/gb/index-gb.htm
I have been playing around with baguette recipes, but these remain my favorite.
Jane
Nice to see you, too!
Je suis d'accord! I had half a ficelle, cut end to end with butter and homemade strawberry jam for breakfast. No café au lait, though - just a pot of very delicious Kenyan coffee from Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Portland.
And no outdoor café nor beach, either. <sigh>
David
hi, tried your recipe to the letter, yesterday / today, except i doubled the quantity.
results dissapointing as they didn't rise, I made each baguette about 250 grammes each,
tastes ok - but flat as a pancake.
any ideas why?
Many thanks.
James
Hi, James.
When you say "they didn't rise," I assume you are referring to the shaped baguettes. You describe the baguettes as "flat as a pancake." That's pretty flat! Was that before or after baking?
Regardless, you have two issues, as I understand your questions:
Shaped baguettes not "rising" (but spreading out?) could be from any combination of the following:
1. Gluten insufficiently developed.
2. Not developing a good "skin" of gluten on the loaves when shaping them.
3. Room too cool. You may have needed to proof longer.
4. Not supporting the sides of the baguettes while proofing. (How did you proof them?)
5. Insufficiently active starter. (I assume you added the 1/4 tsp of Instant yeast).
The "flat as a pancake" issue needs your clarification regarding at what stage the loaves were flat. Even if they spread a lot during proofing or transferring, if you did everything else right, they should have had good oven spring and rounded out a lot. If they didn't spring, you may have shaped the baguettes to roughly (popping the bubbles that form during fermentation0, over-proofed, not heated your oven stone enough, not steamed the oven well.
These possible explanations are not mutually exclusive. Everything matters.
Hope this helps you problem solve.
David
Hi David, thanks for the response.
'Flat as a pancake' was a touch of British exaggeration on my part, They were pretty flat and didn't form the roundish shape as you'd expect, (more alligators than Pythons). That was after baking; they rose a reasonable amount during proofing.
As for shaping, I did them in the same way as always, Bertinet style - you might say.
Proofed for 21 hr's exactly in the fridge and out an hour to room temp before the first rough shaping, and after the second baguette formation, on a couche well floured, as is the custom.
As far as yeast goes I used 1/2tsp of Instant yeast as quantities were doubled.
I know it doesn't make sense, the only thing i can think of is that the yeast I used was bad? Or insufficient for the flour I'm using, I use Manitoba, or very strong canadian bread flour that whole foods here in London sell.
They just didn't spring up.. Too embarrased to attach pic's will try again with 20g of fresh yeast I think..D'you reckon that's a good idea?
many thanks.
James
Hi, James.
If your starter is active, you shouldn't need more yeast. I generally make these now with no added yeast. I think you need to consider the causes of poor oven spring.
If you are using high gluten flour, you may need to mix longer to develop the dough. It should lead to higher loaves, if you are doing everything correctly.
David
'nuff said
David
Mini
David
Very nice David. Looks like marvelous crunch with that crust.
It was indeed crunchy!
David
Rosalie
But only 3 "beautifuls?"
So, which of the 4 ficelles didn't you like? ;-)
David, emulating the classic Jewish mother.
... Beautiful, with an extra Beautiful for good measure.
Rosalie
Hi, Rosalie.
Now you're exagerating! (But I do appreciate it.)
David
Wonderful ficelles! I really appreciate the way you wrote out your directions for making them...everything very nicely done and the jam, coffee, cafe au lait....just my cup O tea!
Sylvia
David
Looks very tasty....
beautiful color, crust and crumb!!!!!
Thanks for posting these wonderful pictures and recipe. I had good luck today with your recipe adapted to a room-temperature ferment -- see here. I don't know how you managed to get such great rip on the top with this wet dough.
Scott
You did a good job. I posted more details in your topic.
David
They look really super - I MUST give this method a go! Thanks for sharing !
Andrew
Let us know how yours turn out.
David
As my regular baguette bake follows PR's Ancienne formula (which my kids and grandkids literally inhale), I had to try your ficelle recipe, David.
I wasn't sure of what the dough temperature was supposed to be so, I nuked the water for about 30 seconds (my well water is so cold in the winter, drinking a full glass causes brain freeze).
The next evening I removed the dough from the cooler and had to make a quick trip to YouTube to check out the baguette shaping videos. The dough was so responsive that I missed the mark of short, thin baguettes, winding up with three long thin baguettes and one shorter one (I should have weighed the dough before cutting it). There was no going back at that point and while my shaping skills need work, it was great fun working with the dough.
I should have slashed deeper, or vertically. Actually, I'm surprised I was even able to get a few cuts in.
The ficelles tasted wonderful; the crumb was nice and open, and the crust was crisp and chewy.
I will definitely practice making more of these, but am curious about the water temperature you used, and what effect using water of 40F would have.
Thanks so much for posting this formula. These will make great Christmas gifts!
Hi, Lindy.
Your crumb is outstanding! Wow!
I don't obsess over water temperature, although if a recipe is specific about it I follow the instructions. 40F is pretty cold, though. When I start with cold water, I usually warm it to "tepid" - 70-85F. The main effect of colder water would be to slow down fermentation. That is good for flavor development, but it could be a problem if timing is important to you.
I''m glad you liked your results. You should try this recipe with 100 gms added sourdough starter and 10% rye flour. The flavor is even better, in my opinion. The crust is less crunchy and more chewy with the sourdough, of course.
Thanks for sharing your results.
David
Wow! Your crumbs is great! I am a firm believer that baguettes really don't have to be picture perfect to be incredibly GOOD! The "proper" look will come with practice. (I still haven't managed, but don't care). You can play with the hydration depending on the flour you're using.
Tell us what you think of the sourdough version. I like it even better than these ones.
Jane
I love your philosophy, Jane...although I'm a bit late in saying so! I tried the sourdough version but in my enthusiasm to load the oven, one baguette flew off the stone to the bottom rack. If I ever do that again, I think I'll just let the fallen bread bake (or maybe burn) in place because I lost a lot of oven heat while fishing it out. The baguttes that managed to stay on the stone were quite tasty, but didn't get the benefit of a sustained blast of heat and steam.
I'm going mix up two batches tomorrow after work so I can bake them the next morning for Christmas Eve dinner.
I really must thank you for getting Mr. Bouabsa to share his formula, and to you and David for working out the details and making them available here. It is a great gift that keeps on giving each time they're baked While I'm at it, I have to note my appreciation to Mark for his baguette shaping video. Better shaping has led to better scoring....but still not as pretty as David's.
Joyeux Noël to you and your loved ones.
I have had some terrible oven bread disasters! But losing one baguette is better than a whole loaf. Oh well, perfecting baguettes is lots of fun anyway. I think I'll do some up for Christmas, too. I really have to decide what I'm going to make for the meal, though!!!
Joyeux Noël et très bonnes fêtes à vous tous aussi!
Jane
I will definitely try the sourdough and rye variation - tonight, in fact.
Thanks so much for posting the formula and for your encouragement!
Lindy
I tried this tonight but I don't have a scale (yet), so I used an online conversion to approximate. I used 5 cups of flour when I think it should have been more like 4. Does this sound right?
After I realized it wasn't right I adjusted the water up at the beginning of the autolyse and tried to follow the method but the dough was very elastic, nowhere near what the video shows. I'll still cook the bastards, no sense in wasting the flour but I don't have high hopes. Who knows, stranger things have happened.
I'm going to try this recipe again later this week when I finally break down and buy a scale.
I baked the dough that I messed up on the measurements with. Well, it's a testament to this recipe because they didn't come out half bad. I continue to bungle the techniques and my oven really has a difficult time getting up to and sustaining the high temperatures required to give a good crisp crust, but overall a decent baguette.
Here's the crumb. I had to turn the flash off or you couldn't see it very well.
With my new knowledge (and a scale) I'll try again this weekend with I'm sure improved results.
Good work for a first attempt. Just from the appearance, I think you needed higher hydration, but there are some alternative possibilities.
How is the flavor?
I like your attitude! Looking forward to seeing your progress.
David
I thought the flavor was very good but not as good as others I've made using a poolish start. Hopefully that comes around this weekend when I try again.
Of course my kids thought they were great and ate them all already. What can I say, they're easy to please :)
hi,
first, thank you for sharing!
second ive tried the directions posted but my baguettes dont seem to bloom in the oven. i suspect it must be due to my shaping skills. when shaping the baguette after the 60min rest, how 'tight' do you roll? is one to treat the dough gently or push out the air? i watched a few clips on youtube and it seems that the final shaping of the baguette is pretty tight.
Hi, koalatree.
This should be a fairly slack (wet, sticky) dough. You should handle it very gently when shaping. You absolutely do not want to "push the air out," but you don't want to do that in any bread when you are shaping. Well, maybe popping huge bubbles in a ciabatta.
There are lots of other things that influence bloom in the oven though. You must not over-proof. You need a hot oven. You need high humidity in the oven for the first third to half of the bake.
David
good news i made progress. after rereading many times your post, i used extra water in the skillet, proofed much less, and it made such a big difference. i tried 2 diffrent flours. 1 gold medal all purpose and the second is gold medal bread. the all purpose was much better. the breads with more of a rise was the all purpose. the first batch sort of well done. also it was in the fridge for 36+ hours. thanks for the help!
Very nice crumb, koloatree.
Crust is a bit well done. Do you think you baked them too long, or was the oven too hot?
David
ahh yes, the first batch was overdone by accident. also i forgot to turn down the temperature! sometimes i get too excited watching the bread bake, i forget directions. i think that i figured since i keep opening the oven, i might as well set the temp slightly higher to compensate for heat loss. i will try again this wednesday.
Trying your formula and improving my baguette scoring techniques will be the focus of my upcoming weekend baking. Would you please give me some suggestions on what I could have done differently in terms of angle, depth and handling, etc., based on my 090525 batch? Any comments are greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Yippee
Hi, Yippee.
I'm not sure what your question is. Your "090525 batch" was a boule, unless there is a message I can't find. Scoring boules is quite different from scoring baguettes. Both techniques are covered in my "Scoring Tutorial." I don't have anything to add to that.
If I am misunderstanding your question, please clarify.
David
Sorry for the confusion. I meant the '090525 Baguette Make-over' entry. Thank you.
Yippee
Hi, Yippee.
Thanks for the reference. Now I see.
Looking at your baguettes on Flickr, I can see how you need to change your scoring.
Assuming you want the "traditional" baguette scoring rather than the single cut I used for the ficelles, you need to make each cut almost parallel to the long axis of the baguette. Each cut should be about 4 to 5 inches long. Each cut should overlap the previous one by 1/4 to 1/3. The cuts should have about 1/2 inch of dough between them, where they overlap.
Please excuse my poor drawing, but I hope it helps.
Don't forget to hold the blade at a shallow angle to the loaf and to make each cut quickly and firmly, about 1/4 inch deep. You are creating a "flap" of dough that will, hopefully, open up and rise above the surface of the loaf during baking to create nice bloom and a nice ear.
Good luck, and let us see your results!
David
Here is the picture of the scored dough before it was sent in the oven:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33569048@N05/sets/72157618981352446/
Makes a perfect illustration of your 'wrong' sample.
I bought the following three Giusto flours on my way home:
Ultimate - high protein whole wheat - $5.99 / 5 lbs
high protein fine whole wheat - $3.69 / 5 lbs
Baker's Choice (organic unbleached?) - loose - $1.29/lb
BTW, my Super Peel has arrived. Hopefully this will end my frustration of loading slack baguette dough onto the stone. Then I don't need the baguette pan anymore.
I'll keep you posted of my results. Thank you very much.
Yippee
David:
I've put your scoring skills to use for the first time. The results were encouraging. Please visit my blog entry 090602 Sourdough Rye Bread.
Your baguettes are on the way. Thank you very much.
Yippee
Hi, Yippee.
I saw your rye. It looks wonderful! I'm looking forward to seeing your baguettes.
David
David:
My baguettes were over proofed last night and did not have much oven spring. Therefore, the 'ears' did not show at all. I'll redo it and keep you posted. Thank you.
Yippee
David:
I may have failed the scoring test but the taste and texture of these baguettes were phenominal. My kids have told me that these were the best tasting baguettes I've made so far.
Hope my next batch would be picture perfect as well.
Yippee
It will all come together for you. I have complete confidence, having seen the other beautiful breads you have made.
Positive reviews from your "customers" is always energizing, of course.
David
David:
Please visit my blog to see my last attempt in making your baguettes. Thanks again for your help!
Yippee
You are definitely making the fast progress I expected of you!
David
Thanks for all the wonderful help here. After my 5th loaf I've made some progress using
Hamelman's “Stretch and Fold in the Bowl” no-knead technique
After 21 hours my dough had more air, bubbles, and activity that I had ever seen. I wasn't really sure where to go from there hoping to not mess it up so I went back to recipe written above (and cut and pasted steps7-16 below, now numbered 1-10).
I divided the dough into 4 pieces VERY CAREFULLY as instructed but felt like I lost some of the air and bubbles. After resting for an hour I VERY CAREFULLY "shaped into ficelles" and here I felt like I lost even more air and bubbles. i DON'T THINK i EVER RECOVERED FROM THERE AS (please excuse the caps) as during the resting times I never got any more rise. Could someone please go into more detail about how to exactly proceed following the 21 hours in the fridge. I felt like I was so close only to watch it go out the window after waiting the 21 hours. The taste was good, the crumb was fair but my bread didn't "Blow" like I want it to. Any help is Greatly Appreciated. Thanks.
Hi, MISSiShrimpi.
I'm not clear as to what didn't work. You got good taste and good crumb. What wasn't good? Photos would help.
What you describe is little expansion during proofing, as I understand it. This could be just that you needed to give the baguettes more time. It might also be that your weren't gentle enough in pre-shaping and shaping them. This takes practive.
When you say they didn't "blow," are you talking about oven spring?
David
curious David. Why both the skillet with boiling water and the ice cubes in the pan? Just for the quantity of steam?
I normally steam by adding some water to a pyrex pan while the oven comes to temp, then add 2 or 3 cups to the pan at bake time for the first 10 mins.
I assume that the cast iron isn't "injured" with this use?
As it happens, I'm not using that technique any more. However, the idea is to have the oven humid when you load it and to have a burst of steam right after loading. What you are doing probably accomplishes the same thing. However, you are not going to be getting the burst of steam with pyrex that you do with cast iron - especially with the lava rocks.
We have pretty hard water, so the cast iron skillet gets mineral deposits. I bought a new skillet to use just for oven steaming.
David
Hi David,
Just a few questions before I try this on the weekend:
Where do you get these plastic scrapers?
Any recommendations, from you or others on shaping these sticky boogers when you have limited space? Love the stretch/fold in the bowl method while living in my RV but still figuring out where the heck I'm going to work with my doughs.
I'm going to be trying this on my outdoor gas grill so any extra suggestions regarding this would be appreciated as well. My plan is to pick up some saltillo tiles to cover the grill grates and then place these ficelles on a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Hoping I love this recipe, can use it as my everyday practice recipe to learn how to work with stretchy rye dough without the expense of wasting so much rye.
Do you have a comprable whole grain recipe you could point me towards with the no-knead method?
Tracy
Hi, Tracy.
You can get plastic scrapers through breadtopia.com, just for one place. But, if you already have a rubber or silicon spatula, that works fine.
I have no experience baking on a grill and no experience with the no-knead method with whole grains.
David
Hi, Marie.
The baguettes look very good. Lovely crumb!
The problem with your scoring is not that it's too shallow. For classic baguette scoring, the cuts need to be almost parallel to the long axis of the loaf and overlapping about 1/4 of their length. Like this:
I hope this helps.
David
I will keep this in mind. I definitely was not scoring right. I can't wait to try--I know there's only so much you can do in a home oven but every little bit helps, eh?
Hi David
I'm having a bash at your baguette and was interested re the amount of fast acting yeast as the one I use in the UK (Doves Farm) suggests 1tsp per 500g of flour. Is just 1/4 tsp enough per 500g? or does the long retard make up for this......
Cheers
Steve
Hi, Steve.
I don't know if your "fast acting yeast" is the same as the SAF instant yeast I use, but 1/4 tsp. is the correct amount, and it does the job. I'm sure the long fermentation contributes.
BTW, since writing up this method, I've added two stretch and folds on the board at 45 minute intervals after the S&F in the bowl and before retardation. This has been a substantial improvement.
David
Thanks David, will try that next time as it is now retarding in the fridge, I did use 'bout 1/4 tsp for half the recipe, and will let you know how that turns out, it is quite a wet dough to work with and I did give it little stretch n fold before popping it into to the fridge. I did also add a splodge of sourdough starter (rye) for more of a pain campagne taste and as ever a little of my friends greek olive oil!, i'm also baking the Pierre Nury rustic rye tomorrow as well so hopefully plenty of good bread for the weekend cheese board and breakfasts
Cheers, Steve
Nick
Hi, Nick.
I use anywhere between 360 and 375 gms of water to make these. How the dough turns out depends on the flour and the weather. It also depends on how well you develop the gluten. For wetter doughs, a couple additional stretch and folds on the board can make a big difference.
I'd recommend you try making these a few more times using different hydration levels in the above range and see what pleases you the most.
BTW, many like the more rustic look you got. How was the crumb and flavor?
David
Thanks David!
I did an additional 2 S&Fs at 45 minute intervals as per your comment a couple posts ago and I could see a very big improvement in the gluten development when I was S&Fing the dough the last 2 times.
I used KA French Style flour and I don't think I am liking it. I want to try with AP flour and see what the difference would be. The crumb and flavor were great, better than any Pain a l'ancienne I have made in the past with the same flour. I have no problem working with slack dough and I am really great at getting the rustic look but some day I would like to make some pretty baguettes, haha.
Is this the same formula you use for making regular French baguettes?
Nick
Hi, Nick.
KAF French-style flour is relatively low gluten and makes an exceedingly extensible dough. This is desirable for shaping baguettes, but it works best at about 65% hydration. It doesn't absorb as much water as KAF AP, not to mention Bread Flour. You might like the flour better at lower hydration.
I've made baguettes using 6 or 8 different formulas. The ones I like best are Bouabsa's, Gosselin's and proth5's. All are good. Each is different. I have descriptions and formula's for all of these on my TFL blog. If you really like making baguettes, and If you want the most traditional baguettes, try proth5's. They are made with levain (no added yeast) and are wonderful, if you have all the techniques. For me, they had the best flavor second to the Gosselin's which are quite slack and challenging to mix but have amazing flavor.
David
Nick
Can you recommend a recipe with 50g of ww flour?
Currently I have a bag of Pills BfB that's, I'd guess, a little lower in the protein level then is desired. Should I substitute some KAB?
metropical,
If you have BBA the Poolish Baguettes recipe is a WW French bread. I have not made it but I have heard good things about it. Or, you can make Reinhart's Pain de Campagne. It's 15.8% whole wheat flour, and is awesome. I make it all the time and you can shape it any way you want.
Also, I don't see why you can't use any of these baguette recipes and substitute 50g of WW in for some of the regular flour. I know a lot of people substitute some Rye or WW for some added flavor in their baguettes with great results.
I believe BFB is a bread flour and it is higher protein than AP flour.
Tell me how it goes and post some pictures.
Nick
David, Your bread is always so sweeet (in teenage vernacular that means fantastic, wonderful, beautiful,etc) I aim for that beautiful color but don't always achieve it. What is your best suggestion for consistent color ??
Thanks, Pam
How to get crust color like mine consistently? I dunno. Follow my formula and procedures?
I could give you a general overview of factors influencing crust color, but it might be more helpful if you tell me what problem you are having with your crust.
Meanwhile, think about this: Assuming you haven't done anything bizarre with your dough like radically over-proofing it, you can control crust coloration by manipulating time and temperature.
Let's say you are baking baguettes of 250 g for 25 minutes at 440ºF. You want a darker crust. You might raise the temperature to 460º and bake for 22 minutes.
Fiddle with it. You should be able to get your bread just as you like it.
David
David, Frankly, it new occurred to me to raise the temperature. Thanks for a great idea. Pam
My ficelles are fresh out of the oven. When I opened the oven to pull out the steam pan, I saw that the tips of the ears were already getting very dark (this happens to me too on very sunny days with no hat, but I decided that sunscreen would not help the bread in any way). So I turned the oven to 430 on convection for the rest of the bake and baked a few extra minutes. My only other problems were shaping, proofing, scoring and transferring the loaves to the oven. This is the slackest dough I've worked with, and four 13 inch ficelles did not go easily onto my improvised (parchment over towel) couche, not did they want to be slashed prettily, not did they fit well on my baking stone.
Other than that, it was a marvelous bake and they look great (if a bit dark in places). I'll report on taste (the thing that matters most) and post pix on my blog tomorrow.
Glenn
are you letting the dough come to room temp after 21 hours or are you going right into preliminary shaping?
thanks for the help.
Hi David,
Your bread has really been working out well, but I would like to make a larger loaf as my family really likes sandwiches. I'm assuming (usually a big mistake) that I will need to lower the temp and time a bit. I would appreciate your input on this.
I will be taking a few classes with Mr. Hamelman over the next few months and will share my experience when I return. Thanks for the help
Tad
Hi, Tad.
If you want to make a larger loaf using Boabsa's method, I suggest you look at this:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20036/san-joaquin-sourdough-updated
Baking at 460 degrees for 28-30 minutes results in the crust color I prefer. If you want a lighter crust, you could bake at 440-450 degrees for 30-32 minutes. (Assumes loaf weight of about 450-475 g.)
The San Joaquin Sourdough does not use added yeast. I assume you have an active starter. If not, you could use the Boabsa formula and just shape as boules or batards.
David
Thanks David1
Wow....it looks nice, thanks
Hi, mccvi.
I'm glad you are enjoying this bread.
The dough is sticky. If you added flour during the final shaping, it would be un-fermented. You would just end up with streaks of raw flour in the loaves. Not recommended.
Handling slack dough is an acquired skill. Frequently dusting your hands with flour or wetting them may help. In my opinion, the real key is to use a light, fast touch. The dough will stick to your hands less if they are in contact with it for an instant at a time. If the dough sticks to the board a little, just loosen it with your bench knife. If it sticks a lot, you can dust flour on the bench lightly.
Again, a light (but firm), fast touch is the key to handling this dough. You can lightly dust your hands and the bench as needed, but try to avoid incorporating raw flour in the dough during shaping.
Hope this helps.
David
Reading the recipe, that I needed unbleached flour at 11.5%; I only had unbleached whole grain flour, so I sifted out most the bran. There was still some bran in the flour. Knowing that I should have added another 6.4% extra water into the recipe. But I didn't. hence the firm result
to hold the shape during baking, I made a 'pan' from chicken wire. lined with baking paper so the bread is not touching the wire, my 'stone' is a ceremic floor tile. And that all worked really well
the dough sat pretty much still, it relaxed and was easy to roll after 21 hrs in the fridge, even after 1 hr on the bench and 45 minutes proof not much changed, only in the oven with all the steam it started to move
i used the tray to slide the wire onto the stone
This is a 3/4 oven, bit more hot than a full oven
need to cut deeper, and hold the razor blade a little more on an angle while cutting, as you can see, not enough leviation, but cooked after 12 + 10 minutes
But, I learned from the process and going to try again, this time with bleached bakers flour at 11% protein so I add 0.5gr of gluten flour per 100gr flour. I'll made the recipe with 1kg of flour, so that works out to 5gr of glutenflour xtra.
The dough was a lot softer and stickier, than my whole grain try. Which is good. Still not the results shown in the starter blog. I've taken the dough out of the fridge 2 hr before pre-shape. pre-shape 1 hr on the bench, finall shape 45 min before baking. Hot oven 260degree C. steam/ water bath for 2 minutes, spray the oven inside, stone bake a bit lower than the middle of the oven. turn the oven down to 225degree C bake 10 minutes, take out of the wire tray and place directly on the stone, bake another 12 minutes directly on the stone.
result, nice crust, nice colour, good flavour. But no where near the airy structure of the first photo. 1 I think you used more yeast than you have descibed in your recipe. 2 or you have a proofer where you under controlled temperature and humidity rise the bread before baking.
I'm going to try a sourdough next, with more leviation than in this recipe. and I will leave it on the bench for even longer.
I'll keep you posted
SD
Hi David!
I think it is here in this thread that you say something like you do two additional S&F 45 min apart on the bench? Or instead of the three S&F 20 mins apart in the bowl? And that was a big improvement for gluten development. If you have a moment would you clarify for me if I am doing
A) 3 S&F in the bowl plus 20 mins apart PLUS 2 S&F 45 mins apart on the bench or
B) only 2 S&F on the bench 45 mins apart or
C) ?
Do you find S&F on the bench to be stronger, i.e. more effective, for developing gluten?
I think it is also here that it is commented to add maybe a little, in the range of 5% rye or whole wheat flour or a combination, to approximate the flavor or texture of French flours? I dont mean trying to have a pain de champagne effect. Is this correct?
I have been reading so many threads so fast I am becoming confused where a piece of information came from...
Going to try this bread now!
Thank you!
These days, I handle the dough according to my assessment of what it needs. I think 4 episodes of S&F in the bowl at 30 minute intervals is fairly equivalent to two episodes of S&F on the bench at 50 minute intervals. But, that's for the way I do them.
With experience, you will get a feeling for dough strength as it develops during bulk fermentation and adjust your dough manipulations accordingly.
I have found that, when I make a "white" bread with American AP flour, adding 5 to 10% rye, whole wheat or a mix enhances the flavor. I have never personally baked with French flour. Very few of the breads I have eaten in France during many trips have been as good as the breads I can bake at home. The exceptions have mostly been because of the ovens they use, not the flours or fermentation, at least that's my impression.
David
Very few of the breads I have eaten in France during many trips have been as good as the breads I can bake at home. :):)!
I will bet my bottom dollar on that!
Thank you for the above guidance, its means a lot to me and it is ver helpful.
I made this recipe with but autolysing flour with 325 gms water at warm RT for 4 hours. Wanted to get the sweetening effect right away. maybe I will try a controlled experiment another time. Then added yeast and salt and remaining water and proceeded as written.
hands down, this recipe was preferred over the Gosselin one.
My baguette rustique look more like ciabatta. I have to work on that. I followed your tips on steaming ( about 10 -12mins) and got a less shiny and crisper crust (which is what I wanted). The crumb is more moist, tender yet chewy, and still very sweet. The crumb is just as open, but in a different way. For me this is a bread worth getting to know and experimenting with. I will try your SD version.
I'm sure they taste as good as they look, too.
David
Hi David,
Having returned from a trip to France a few weeks ago where I seemed to be on a mission to eat every scrap of bread in the country (which of course I failed miserably at but I did manage to stretch the belt out a notch or two) I returned to Ireland hell bent on re-creating the seemingly simplistic idea of making one of the baguettes that their boulangerie's throw out in their thousands every day. I figured it would be quite simple to find a recipe that would give me a passable home baked version but having scoured the internet for hours on end and trying multitudes of different recipes which claimed to be the real deal I was starting to think that it was just something that wasn't possible to do at home, that is until I found this recipe. I mixed up the ingredients yesterday morning using bakers % of your recipe with me reducing the flour down to 360 grams of strong white flour >12% protein (we have very different types of flour available here compared to what you seem to have in the states) and the rest of the recipe matched up at these %'s.
So the 75% hydration gave me surprisingly little trouble to stretch and fold into a very pliable dough having left it to hydrate for 5 minutes before touching it and after the 3 sets of stretch and folds I was really starting to believe that it might just work out. So following the rest of your directions to the letter I put one baguette in first this morning after about 24 hours and within a few minutes it had puffed up to twice the size of the dough I'd put in which I was very surprised to see as it hadn't changed in size at all really since I'd originally mixed it and I was really starting to doubt that the amount of yeast could have been correct.
But anyway long story short the first baguette came out and looked and smelt exactly like I had set out to try and create, the taste is incredible, really crispy crust and deliciously soft centre. I think mine are a bit thicker than the recipe may have intended so I'll probably lower the temperature after the steam pan comes out and increase the cooking time up a small bit. I really liked your idea of scoring the dough in one continuous line and as always it was the part that I've struggled with most in trying to get the lahm to actually score the dough instead of just getting stuck in it and dragging it with it.
Anyway thank you so much for sharing this recipe, it's changed how I will make baguettes forever, I'm used to making sourdough bread so not phased at all by a really long bulk fermentation time but this recipe is honestly very little actual effort. I've only found this site for the first time but I think I'm going to end up spending a lot of time on it now that I have.