I've been baking sourdough for about nine months, and totally have the bug, thanks in part to all the help I've found on here. Would love some feedback on my first baguettes.
The thin ones were made from the san joaquin sourdough, and the larger ones from the tartine recipe in book one. I prefer the flavour of the san joaquin, although the crust on the tartine one was lovely. I followed both recipes precisely with no tweaks. San Joaquin was in the fridge for precisely 21 hours.
Crumb shots!
I can see that they don't have the massive holes I thought baguettes would have. Potential issues I can see:
- My shaping. I followed a video I found on youtube on the slow cooking channel. I found the san joaquin pretty hard to handle after it had rested on the bench for an hour after an initial shaping into rounds after taking it out of the fridge. Next time I might just leave it 30 minutes, it's warm here at the moment.
- Rise time. Because I made more than I thought I had, I had to pick up the kids inthe middle of the experience, and my oven's capacity, there were very different rise times, from 30 minutes for the first batch, to 3 hours for the last batch of the tartine recipe. (book says 2-3 hrs but I know that depends on temperature).
- Slashing. I probably should have done three rather than four, and spaced them out more.
They proofed on linen couches, dusted with cornmeal. I rolled them gently onto a baking sheet which I put into the oven. I used a makeshift steam apparatus at the bottom of the oven, think it worked pretty well for how it felt on my face when I put the bread in and out! Steam for 15 mins and then another 12 mins to crisp up. Oven gets pretty hot, probably around 280-300 d c (thermometer is broken!).
WOuld love any other feedback, I want to make them for a family party this weekend so want them to be good!
