algebread's blog

One more step....

Process

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/51572/vermont-sd-baguettes-course

Scaled to around 240g each.

First four below were made with the baking set up described in Baguettes II

Baking process

Last one was made with a newly acquired baking stone, covered by a disposable foil roasting pan. The foil pan comes off half way through baking. An unheated cast iron pan was stacked on top of the foil roasting pan during baking to make sure that the edges of the roasting pan were flush with the stone to maximize trapped steam (could also fit an ice cube under, but haven't tried it yet).

I was unsure whether the baking stone would be better than the cast iron pans with a heated baking sheet on top that I was using. While I've only used the stone for one bake so far, my impression is that the stone is better: unlike the pans, the stone does not scorch the bottoms of the loaves and oven spring seemed more even. More bakes will be needed to validate these impressions.

Results

I. Random grocery store flour. I did not create enough surface tension when shaping these, and humidity on the bake day meant that they got a bit moist after being rested under plastic while the oven was heating. Together with overly horizontal scoring, this resulted in messy loaves with a flat cross-section.

II. Random grocery store flour. Switched from resting on a sheet covered with plastic to resting on a large, smooth cotton cloth. Even without flour, they did not stick to the cloth, and it dried the surface of the loaves, making them noticably easier to score.

III. First batch with newly available KA AP flour. Crumb much lacier and more open than on previous attempts. Dough was oddly sticky, making shaping and scoring difficult (hence the lumps).

IV. Another KA batch. My scoring angle was bad, but the crumb was similar to III and the loaves were not lumpy. Unclear why dough was sticky in III. Maybe a measuring error? Maybe some other small thing that I didn't notice?

V. Random grocery store flour; first stone bake. Did about 100 french folds to develop. Scoring was easier and worked better on these. Shaping went realtively smoothly, although (as in many of these bakes) it's clear that I need to work on making the girth of the loaves more even. Best ears that I've gotten so far, but crumb seemed a little bit underproofed. This is probably because I put the dough on a different (slightly colder) shelf of my fridge than usual. Should have given them a longer final proof to compensate for this.

General lessons

In Baguettes II, kendalm and MTloaf pointed out that some of my problems were essentially arising from handling the dough too gently. This has been a very good tip for both baguettes and for bread in general: I was always afraid to hurt the dough, but it's more resilient than I thought.

Relatedly, baguettes have also improved my understanding of the role of tension in bread. Lack of tension in baguettes is much more obvious than in boules.

Questions 

Obviously, there's still a long way to go. I have a nebulous swarm of questions, but I think that doing more bakes will help winnow and refine them, so I'll keep them in my brain for now.

Thanks to everyone who has generously given me advice so far.

Another step on the baguette trail---or perhaps highway, given how many other people also seem to be working on these!

Process

Followed the process in alfanso's comments here: 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/63699/baguette-practice

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/51572/vermont-sd-baguettes-course

but scaled down to make three 11 inch baguettes at 240g each.

I used random grocery store AP flour.

At the moment, my baking setup is: put two large cast iron pans on a low rack in the oven and heat them until very hot. Place loaves on a thin aluminum baking sheet. Place a disposable foil roasting pan upside-down on top of the baking sheet over the loaves. When the pans in the oven are hot, place the baking sheet on top of them. After the steaming time has elapsed, remove the roasting pan and move the loaves to a bare rack in the middle of the oven to stop the bottoms from scorching and finish the bake.

Results

I. Bulk fermentation went fine; nice bubbly dough. Did 300 French folds per the instructions and gluten development seemed alright. Had difficulty shaping: the folds went fine, but the dough resisted when I rolled to elongate it. The crust was somewhat thick; the bread was similar to the second batch in appearance.

II. Bulk fermentation went a little long---dough was quite bubbly! To avoid the thick crust from the previous loaf, I developed the gluten more heavily. This seemed to work---the crust was noticably thinner than on the first batch. The dough again resisted when I rolled it. The first one I just rolled, but the second two I let rest for about a minute after doing the lengthwise folds, which made things easier. There was not a noticable difference between the loaves after baking.

Crumb from both bakes was fairly close. Not dense or gummy, but more like the crumb of grocery store Italian bread than a baguette. Scores opened better than on the first run of baguette practice, but not there yet---I may also have removed the pan that I'm using to steam them a little early.

Questions

1. Some loaves exhibit strange crumb artifacts such as the one circled in red above. As far as I can tell, they are caused by the way that I fold the loaf. They aren't denser than the other portions of the bread, but they do have a sort of smooth wall that separates them from the rest of the crumb. How do I prevent these?

2. Why does the dough resist elongation? I'm happy to give them a minute's rest, but nobody else seems to need to do this.

3. How do people keep track of the seam when shaping? After I roll the loaves, it becomes very faint and I need to carefully examine the loaves in order to find it.

Very slowly trying to make progress on baguettes.

Besides the excellent advice of alfanso, I have found Hamelman's video on baguette shaping helpful. Practicing these has made me a lot more aware of the benefits of a good preshape.

II. Made these with random grocery store flour to save the KA flour, which has been unavailable lately. This was a bad choice: the dough never developed properly and was sticky and hard to handle. The poor results are below. Problems include split seam (circled in red), dense interior, and poor scoring. 

III. Another attempt with mostly KA flour didn't come out much better, although it was easier to handle. Ragged edges in the preshape led to the split seam towards the end visible below. The scoring was too horizontal for proper expansion, and the interior had large dense areas that seemed to correspond to where I had done the first fold when shaping. Used hot granite rocks in a cast iron pan to make steam for this batch. This worked much better than just a pan alone, but also led me to discover some new vents in my oven that rapidly let out much of the steam.

IV.  These were around 50% whole wheat with sunflower seeds and came out a bit better than the previous two iterations. Shaping went much better this time around, evident from the fact that there are no split seams. I tried placing the loaves between two baking sheets, with the one on top inverted, rather than steaming the oven. This worked somewhat better and was also easier than steaming the oven. The baking sheets were set on top of some large cast iron pans as usual. Perhaps in part due to better steam, the scores opened better than on the previous batch. The crumb of both loaves exhibited a vein of densness along one edge (circled in red on one of the loaves in the image). I believe (?) this to be an artifact of shaping that will hopefully disappear with practice. The bottom of the loaf in the images below got too dark on the bottom because I didn't remove the loaves from the baking sheet halfway through.

For my first attempt at baguette-making, I tried dmsnyder's San Joaquin baguettes.

Proccess

I followed the process detailed on the San Joaquin page as written,. Starter was being a bit slow, so bulk took 7-8 hours at ~72F, but got there eventually.

Only half of the formula was made for this first run-through. I don't have a baking stone or other large-area heat source (I usually use a dutch oven), so I baked these by placing them atop a large cast-iron frying pan. They drooped off the sides a bit and the fit was fairly tight, so this isn't a great long-term solution. For steam, I placed a baking sheet with a cast-iron pan on it in the lowest rack of the oven, then poured boiling water over it when the loaves were placed in the oven.

Getting the loaves into the oven was also a little difficult. I rested them on top of parchment, to which they stuck, so I ended up just putting the parchment paper into the oven with them.

Results

Only one loaf photographed because the other one got cut up and frozen before I remembered.

Less oven spring than I might have liked, probably due to a combination of the strange baking set-up and my lack of shaping practice. There are some strange features: why is the crust blotchy? Why did it burst at each end (circled in red below)?

2020_04_san_joaquin_i_exterior_annotated.jpg

Crumb was better than I expected given the brutality of my baguette first-timer's shaping technique.

Strange browning patterns on the bottom crust. What is up with this?

The long bulk (cool temperatures + a slightly sluggish starter) meant that flavor was a bit on the sour side for a baguette, but not unpleasant as a flavor for bread. The crust was thin and crisp on top, but a little soft in the pale areas shown in the image above.

Questions & future work

The slogan here is "more practice needed" to improve my shaping and handling of such long bread. I will also experiment with some other baking setups, as the frying pan approach wasn't great from a results or ease-of-use perspective. I will try to get some lava rocks for improved steam when it is convenient to do so.

Some questions:

Q1: Why did the loaf split?

My current guess is that this is just an artifact of the ends drooping over the frying pan's edges, but perhaps there is another reason?

Q2: What is causing the strange coloration of the crust? The bottom has  a dark stripe and pale edges, while the upper surface is all splotchy.

Thanks to alfanso, txfarmer, and dmsnyder for their many helpful baguette-related posts. They've been good reading.

A version of Trevor Wilson's Champlain bread.

Thank you to the community bake thread for this bread for a lot of good advice.

Process

Ambient temperature was 80--82F throughout.

Two days before:take starter from fridge, leave out on counter, feed at 1:3:3 around midnight

One day before: feed 1:3:3 around noon, then 1:3:3 at midnight with 5g start, half whole wheat, half AP

945 Mix dough: 315g water at 90F, 200g KA AP (11.7% gluten), 189g KA bread flour (12.7% gluten), 38g spelt, 19g rye, 315g water. Rubaud to develop. Took 100g of dough and mixed with 50g leaven.

1115 Add leaven to dough

1145 Add 9g salt and 10g water

1215 Fold

1300 Fold

1330 Fold

1400 Fold

1515 Preshape. Care was taken to avoid deflation, and the ball was a little bit looser than usual.

1550 Shape. The round had mostly flattened, but there was noticably tension left in it. Used careful letter folds, then tightened on the counter, then let stand for 5 minutes to seal the seam. It seemed a little bit soft when in the proofing basket, so some light stitching was done to fix it.

1845 Bake. Dutch oven preheated to 475F and lower temperature to 450F. Bake for 20 minutes, then uncover, then bake for 20 more minutes.

Results

I normally bake at 500F, but in an effort to avoid scorched crust, a lower temperature was used. The bottom crust is golden but not burnt. The crumb of this loaf is light and had a noticable chew due to the bread flour. The flavor was mild, with only a hint of sourness.

Future work

While the crumb was fairly light in this loaf, it would be nice to make it lacier. To this end, it might be worth lengthening the bulk a little and perhaps pushing the folds back, since in this schedule, only the final hour of bulk is fold-free.  More generally, my preshaping and shaping skills need work. I think that being more careful than usual on both of those steps was very helpful for this loaf.

I am also unsure of about the impact of the "pseudo-preferment" that was allowed to ferment for just 1.5 hours during the autolyse. The goal was to kick-start the bulk fermentation a bit without having to add more leaven. At the very least, the impact does not seem to have been negative, although further testing is needed to see if it is actually beneficial.

A pair of loaves from a couple of weeks ago. One was made with poolish and the other with pure sourdough.

Sourdough Loaf

Followed Maurizio, except as noted.

Process

Make leaven at a 1:2:2 starter:flour:water ratio with half whole wheat and half white flour; ready after 4 hours

Mix 249g bread flour (KA 12.5% gluten), 99g WW (KA), 100g levain, 241g water

Rest 45 minutes, then add 9g salt and 9g water

Rest 45 minutes, then pinch in porridge

5 folds at half-hour intervals, then bulk 3.5--4 hours at 79F (estimated 50% volume increase)

Preshape, rest for 20 minutes, shape, allow to proof until ready, then bake

Results

It was hoped that increasing the amount of leaven would lead to a faster bulk and hence a milder acidity in the final product. The bulk ws faster, but acidity reduction was very small. The crumb is depicted in the header.

Poolish Loaf

Process

Make leaven at a 1:2:2 starter:flour:water ratio with half whole wheat and half white flour; ready after 4 hours

Make poolish with 1g active dry yeast, 25g WW, 25g water; ready after 2.5 hours

Mix 262g bread flour (KA 12.5% gluten), 87g WW (KA), 50g poolish, 50g levain, 241g water

Rest 45 minutes, then add 9g salt and 9g water

Rest 45 minutes, then pinch in porridge

2 folds at half-hour intervals, then allow to bulk around 75 more minutes at 79F (estimated 80% volume increase)

Preshape, rest for 20 minutes, shape, allow to proof until ready (about 1 hour), then bake

Results

The yeast seemed to make the crumb slightly stiff, which was unfortunate. However, the flavor was pleasantly mild, allowing the oats to come through clearly. An image of the crumb is below.

Failed yeast water

An attempt at yeast water was made by cutting up an apple, adding it to some water in a jar, and then allowing it to sit covered on the counter. After a few days, there were a few bubbles, but then everything got moldy and began smelling bad. It will be tried again sometime; any further tips are appreciated.

Process

This was made using King Arthur bread flour (12.5% gluten) and King Arthur whole wheat, and Marizio's process was followed modulo any discrepancies recorded in the notes below.

The porridge was much easier to incorporate than the first time because it was cooked more carefully and was therefore less stiff. The oats were cooked in a sealed pot, and were moist and surrounded by gelatinized starch, but any free water had been absorbed.

The porridge was incorporated at the same time as the salt.

In an effort to reduce the sourness, this loaf was proofed at the high temperature of 87F for 3.5 hours (about 40% volume increase? it is hard to tell). Coil folds were performed at half-hour intervals for the first 2.5 hours. The loaf was then preshaped, rested for 15 minutes, and shaped. Shaping was difficult because the dough was on the wet, sticky, and loose side. The loaf was then proofed for an additional 3 hours at an ambient temperature of 80F in an 8-inch brotform. By the end of the final proof, the loaf's edge was about 1 cm below the edge of the brotform.

The loaf was placed in a dutch oven preheated to 475F to bake. The oven temperature was immediately reduced to 450. The loaf was baked for 20 minutes covered, then 25--30 minutes uncovered.

Results

The flavor of the loaf ws less sour than last time, but still more sour than might be desirable. With careful management of starter and fermentation, it seems possible to get it even less sour. The texture of the crumb was lighter than last time and just as tender.

Questions & future work

DanAyo has recommended trying yeast water to reduce sourness, which will likely be done in the future. It also seems possible that sourness could be reduced with more careful management of starter and fermentation.

Last time, the dry oatmeal made the dough easier to handle. This time, the oats released moisture and made the dough harder to handle. For moister oatmeal, such as was used in this loaf, decreasing the hydration slightly might be prudent.

Questions will be posted in the CB thread.

Made last weekend for the current community bake.

Maurizio's recipe was mostly followed as written using KA bread flour (12.5% gluten) and KA whole wheat; bulk fermentation took about 6.5 hours in total at 78F. One deviation is that the porridge was pinched in with the salt rather than folded in. The porridge was also a bit on the dry side. The loaf was allowed to proof in a basket for about 2 hours before being put into the fridge for 8 hours, then baked. The loaf was not exceptionally sour, but it would have gone better with the oats if it had been less so.

Apologies for the blurriness of some of the photos below.

After mixing in porridge:

After the 6th fold (so about 3 hours into bulk):

Crumb from a couple of slices near the center (I forgot to document this until I was about to freeze the sliced loaf):