Once again, even after swearing them off after multiple failed attempts, I am baking baguettes. For the last few hours, I have coddled and babied the dough, and I have to say, I was feeling pretty good about things. Following Hamelman's recipe for Baguette with poolish and his detailed shaping instructions, I have managed to form the best looking baguettes to date (for me at least).
Almost.
Like fortune's wheel or a jealous deity, Mise en place has struck again: I'm out of parchment paper. With an hour left to proof, I don't have time to run up to the store and buy a roll, which means I have to get this dough into the oven with only my skills and, perhaps, divine assistance.
I am thoroughly confident that, instead of long, golden, baguettes, I will instead pull from the oven four, wonky, wobbly, misshapen worms.
Wish me luck! I'm off to search the forums for tips on how to get these into the oven!
Eric
If you don't have a peel (I don't.), turn a baking sheet over and sprinkle it heavily with cornmeal or rice flour. Then your baguettes should slide nicely into the oven.
Would love to use rice flour to dust the "peel" (I just use a baking sheet, but guess that doesn't matter) but I've always read that something on the coarse side was better for this - like wheat bran or coarse cornmeal. Rice flour, on the other hand, is very fine and powdery.
So, does rice flour really work? Does it burn easily? Do you use it yourself?
I mill my own rice flour since I usually have some kind of inexpensive white rice in the cupboard but I mill it fine, like what you'd buy in a market. It would be really convenient to be able to use the same flour to dust the peel and dust the banneton.
Looking forward to your reply. Thanks - sf
I am just curious.