Yorkville-inspired baguettes

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Ilya Flyamer on 14 Feb 2022 at 08:08

We bought some cheese on a market across the border in France on the weekend. So my girlfriend requested some baguettes to go with them, since all my equipment including the baking steel finally arrived from Edinburgh. I wanted to try Benny's Yorkville baguette formula (sans any seeds this time), but I needed a slightly different schedule than in Benny's recipe, so I prepared the levain overnight and increased the % PFF, and shortened the bulk fermentation time. I didn't do a very long cold ferment, but after I observed some growth in the dough I kept it on the balcony outside for a few hours (around 12 degrees C), hoping shorter cool fermentation would still allow some more flavour development.

Here is the formula: https://fgbc.dk/290t

And here are the pics:

[url=https://ibb.co/YBDsnMz][/url]
[url=https://ibb.co/18nL88s][/url]

Very nice oven spring and beautiful look (although just a little wonky shape (but I haven't baked baguettes in a very long time!). I think this is the best crumb structure I have got with baguettes (open and fluffy), although I have a feeling a slightly wetter dough, while more challenging to work with, could improve the texture even further. The crust is nice and crispy. The taste is nice and mild, perhaps a longer cold ferment would improve it further though.

Lovely, did you also pick up some French T65 to make the baguettes with?

Nice holey crumb!

I'd expect scoring/seeds on a "Yorkville" baguette to spell out Gucci... so you could impress everyone as you carry your bread through town ;)

(Yorkville has all the high-end luxury fashion shops that rich tourists visit in TO)

That sounds pretty funny David. So Benny must be inspired by a high roller neighborhood? 

Ver nice baguettes Ilya. Don't you hate it when some supposedly nice-looking ears being broken from the expansion?  

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Isand66 on 14 Feb 2022 at 18:48

Great looking crumb on these.  They must have tasted fantastic with that nice French cheese.

The shaping has a nice taper and the crumb looks nice and open. They should be named for your neighborhood.

Don

It is a good sign if that is the first bake in your new place.

Excellent bake Ilya, I am happy to have inspired you to bake these.  Yes I live in the Yorkville neighbourhood where I created my starter so decided on that name.  You could definitely increase the cold retard to boost the sourdough flavor of these baguettes.  I prefer not to have too much tang for my baguettes so don’t do that much cold retard anymore unless it is just for convenience.  Your shaping looks great and you got the beautiful open crumb we all strive for.  The ears are great and broken straps don’t bother me one bit.  Well done!

Benny

Thank you Benny, glad that you approve! I enjoyed re-watching your videos about handling baguettes to remind myself how it's done before the bake.

Have you ever tried making baguettes with a stiff levain? I'd like to try that at some point. Stiff levains are quite cool: one can have a lot of prefermented flour this way, and I find they add nice flavour.

Glad you enjoyed my videos, nice to know that they are helpful.

I have recently been almost exclusively using stiff levains, typically around 60% hydration. The last baguettes I posted, the Spelt sourdough baguettes utilized a stiff levain.  I haven’t typically gone above 11% prefermented flour if my memory serves me correctly.  How high are you going?

Benny