Sticky baguette situation....

I could save the crumb somehow but this was a tricky bake...literally the dough stuck on the couche and I had to peel it off..you can see how the optimist inside me even tried to score.....ha. ha. ha......one baguette I ate out of frustration straight away to destroy evidence while it was warm and Pat was my partner in crime! Barney needs to loose weight and was not allowed a crumb and Jacob was at school!

Two remained...

It all started so well...nice looking dough from over night cold bulk....

but it was sticky like...and just about managed it on the floured kitchen towel...and yes I did have to use flour Alan!

Well....the towel was so well floured and maybe an indication how sticky this dough was at 73% hydration. It was ok last time so who knows what happened...my hunch is that I let the warm bulk go too far...

Oh, I was so flustered by the whole thing that I steamed the oven too early and because the sticks ended up too long I almost botched up the loading too and dropped the dough. If anyone would have filmed me it would have been a good laugh....

Well...I have to try that again....another day!

not.a.crumb.left's Blog
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Your crumb looks fantastic. As good as it gets. Some solace there for sure.

If you plan on moving away from a D.O. some of the time, invest in a real couche. They can be a tad on the pricey side of things, but are designed for the job, and one will last "a lifetime". Kitchen towels are merely insufficient substitutes. "Season" the couche with a lot of flour for a while and use your metal scraper to both scape it off the couche (for round two etc. of seasoning) as well as to get the flour to start embedding itself into the linen. The couche should be scraped after every use regardless of how much or how little flour you use. It may/will take multiple uses to get it fully seasoned. And don't ever wash the dang thang. Ever - unless it becomes infested or sumpin' like that.
Your shaping on the couche looks pretty good. How do you transfer the dough to the oven peel?
Keep in mind that Maurizio uses North American flour, typically stronger than your Marriages, Tesco, Dove, etc. from everything that I read on TFL. So you'll likely either drop the hydration a few percent (don't be shy) or do something like add Vital Wheat Gluten, which may not be an ideal solution.
73% is pretty rich, which is why I had to drop down to 70% to get a feel for the dough before scaling back up again.
Rework the formula for 68% and see where that gets you. Frustration is not a valuable sedative, but patting oneself on the back in private for a job well done is a soothing emollient.
If needed, re-steam the oven before you load the dough, they don't seem to complain much. Unless you are under a time constraint, what's the hurry?
Keep your cool, it's only a bunch of effin' dough we're dealing with here, not heart surgery.
Even bad experiences are test tubes for learning something new about yourself, your skill and your dough. Sometimes they're the best teacher.
Early mistakes in the process are amplified downstream, so care at every step is a consideration. The best of us can probably do this thing in their sleep, the other 99.999% of us have to pay attention. Even airline pilots with thousands of hours of flying time still run down their checklist before every takeoff. We wee folk ain't no bettuh!

Even "ugly" bread tastes good! And if all else fails, you can employ it as a boomerang. ;-)

for all this great advice...

Buying a proper couche is on my 'baking goodies' list including one of those simple tall wooden 'flippers'....as baguettes I think will be more on the menu, I shall 'treat' myself to both of those...I have been using a make do wooden board but that is too big and probably not thin enough..

I was very brave and used the equivalent of UK AP flour and just a percentage of the high protein flour as per Maurizio's formula so my guess is that the dough was probably a bit wetter than the US version....I was quite proud of myself that with the coil folds, I had a reasonably good handle on the dough...I think it is the shaping and having enough tension that links to the tricky scoring. I shall try a lower hydration next...

The bread did taste well and all gone already! I am such a bread chicken and really must keep my nerve more...ha, ha.....Kat

As regards the difficulty in scoring, put the baggies in the fridge for 10-15 mins before you are going to bake them. The dough will then be much easier to score. It's what artisan bakeries do.

and this will be another interesting baking phase when I try to get them from that 'couche' into the wine cooler.....I probably will specialise in 'demi-baguettes'..... :D Kat

considering your mishaps! In any case, you got a wonderful crumb and I am sure they tasted fantastic!

and they did taste great indeed! I really must keep my nerve better...my son laughs his head off when he sees me....Kat

that crumb is lovely !! Just goes to show how forgiving the dough can be. Make sure you store your couche , if you get one in the fridge, to prevent mold or other problems.....I had to wash mine after it succumbed to warm damp weather. Luckily it looks wonderful again but prevention is the key. c

and good tip with the couche...I was wondering about that as I need to also watch out for mould in the cane bannetons unless I use and brush them often...However, moving towards autumn here now..... Kat

Now that I got your attention with that dumb intro...

I've had my couche for a little more than 4 years. And never had an issue with mold or off smells or anything else. I live in S. Florida where it is known to be a tad humid ;-) , but we run, out of near necessity, the A/C most of the time starting in March until sometime in November.

And here's how I treat the linen - It remains loosely rolled up and inside of a plastic sleeve. The open-end sleeve is employed only to protect other things nearby from getting any remaining errant flour on them. I picked up one of those umbrella (brolly to you Kat!) sleeves that are at the entry doors of museums and stores and cut it down to size. And that resides in my flour cabinet.

After every bake the linen is scraped twice with a metal dough scraper. Once just after loading the dough and steaming the oven. Then it sits on the side. When I vent the oven by cracking the door for the final few minutes of the bake I drape the couche over the oven door. You can get a glimpse of it here for a few seconds. After two or three minutes, I switch it around and drape the other side over the oven door. The couche will NOT burn or scorch and the heat from the oven on the obverse side as well as the oven door against the reverse side is sufficient to completely dry the couche. Then I will scrape it again to remove any obstinate flour. Rolled up into the sleeve and stored again.

I can't speak for anyone else's experience, but in the four years of baking with this couche, usually at least once a week and more, I've never had any problem.

is very well looked after indeed! I had a similar thought on drying and as my Rofco B20 gets nice and warm I actually put my bannetons and in the future the 'couche' on top of the oven and it will be nice and warm...I think some bakers also use the warmth for proofing but I am not baking to that volume at the moment...

I think also using it regularly is key....which I shall!!!

Oh...looking at your video you made me look at all those gorgeous baguettes again!

Just a thought....Shall I go for 60Cm and 1m if I can buy by the metre...I love the ones with the double red line........should really not matter but looks very pretty! Kat

I'm fairly certain that professional bakers buy the material by the roll/meter/bolt and then cut it down to size for their needs, else it is too expensive for the dozens of them that they need. I bought a plastic pack of 1 online. Still too big for a home oven it was cut down to size for my needs and asked the good woman to machine stitch a hem on the unfinished long side. I occasionally need a smaller second linen and will employ a very heavy square kitchen towel (never use a terry) that has also been "seasoned", but only for a batard with can be easily lifted off this towel.