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A little baguette fun...

wally's picture
wally

A little baguette fun...

One of the things I love about baguettes is that with just a little manipulation once they are proofed, you can take the "stick" and create an array of dinner rolls that are barely linked: the épi de blé is the obvious example.  But recently, after watching a video series called Formes de pains that a TFL member posted (and I can't recall who, so please shout out if you're reading this), I became fascinated with another forme using a baguette shape as the starting point: la margueritte.

So I decided to have a little fun, and instead of just creating my usual two or three baguettes, to play with them a bit.

The impetus was my attempt to arrive at a dough weight that I am happy with for the home baguette; something, in my case, that is maximum 16 - 17 inches long.  I've always made 10oz (283.5 g) baguettes, but I'm not altogether pleased.  Their girth is more appropriate to a sub roll than a classic baguette.  So I decided to go with 8oz (227.8 g) dough weight to see if that produced a slightly more lithe baguette - a ficelle, actually.

Because I wanted to play with the dough more than anything else, I decided to make a straight baguette, essentially using Hamelman's French Bread recipe, but decreasing the hydration to 69% and doing a hand, rather than machine, mix.  Bulk fermentation was a little over 3 hours, and folding was done in the container though sets of 8 folds at a time.  The initial fold was done 10 minutes after mixing, and then 2 additional folds were made at hour intervals.  The dough was divided and preshaped into 3 pieces with a 25 minute bench rest.

When it came time to roll out the baguettes, it was evident that the amount of folding had really increased the elasticity of the dough, even though I had done nothing more than a quick minute-and-a-half mix of the ingredients by hand.  So it was necessary to roll them out partially, let them stand another 5 minutes and then finish the shaping.

They were couched for 1 1/2 hours while I preheated the oven to 500 F.

I decided to place them on parchment paper on my peel to make loading more easy, and to construct la margueritte right on the parchment.

As you can see from the picture below, it is essentially a baguette with the tips of each end cut off (they are used to make the little dough ball in the middle which acts like a glue for the structure).  It is then cut diagonally into 6 more or less equal pieces, and they are place in a circle with the dough ball in the center.  The video for this can be found here.  It's quite easy to make and once formed the top is lightly dusted with flour and then each 'ear' is lightly slashed.

 

The epi, below, is of course simply the baguette shape cut diagonally with scissors with pieces then turned right and then left (or left and then right) and also dusted with flour.  

                                         

The oven was presteamed using SylviaH's method, and hot water was added to my lava rocks when I loaded the bread and then twice more in the initial 2 minutes.  The bake was at 475 F for 21 minutes, and I rotated the breads after 10 minutes to get even browning (made easier by the parchment paper they baked on).

Both la margueritte and the epi create, in effect, separate dinner rolls that are lightly conjoined.  It just seems such a unique and conversation-generating way to present rolls that otherwise would be placed in a basket and just passed around a table.  The videos present several other interesting ways of manipulating baguettes to create new formes de pains.

The ficelle turned out nicely as well, with its grignes opening up well.  Crumb shots below as well.

    

    

Methinks a tomato-basil bisque would be a wonderful sop for these!

Larry

 

Comments

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Lovely épi and other shapes, Larry.

OldWoodenSpoon's picture
OldWoodenSpoon

But, I am most impressed by the stunning crust and crumb.  Methinks anything tasty will make a wonderful sop for those, if I can only get my hands on them.

OldWoodenSpoon

RonRay's picture
RonRay

Thanks Larry, for those videos as well as your great examples !

Ron

Franko's picture
Franko

Gorgeous shaping Larry, and as usual your baguette crumb is what a baguette crumb should look like IMO. I looked at that same post of the various shapes and wondered if you'd seen it as well. I'm glad you did because you've really done them justice with these beauties. Great work Larry!

Franko

LeeYong's picture
LeeYong

Beautiful job Larry! Amazing pics of your baguettes.

Happy baking!

LeeYong

benjamin's picture
benjamin

These look absolutely great Larry. To be honest I'm mostly impressed with the perfect ears on the baguette. This is something I constantly strive for, and I know how difficult it is to produce a baguette as good looking as yours.

enjoy 

ben 

LindyD's picture
LindyD

That said, I think I need about another 1,000 baguette attempts before even trying those shapes.

Those are really cool looking, Larry.

Sjadad's picture
Sjadad

Larry,

Those are some beautiful baguettes, epis, etc! What flour did you use?

Sjadad

wally's picture
wally

It was a fun experiment.

@Franko - I'm most happy with the crumb and it's convinced me that I need to rethink my machine mixes at home.  I barely incorporated the ingredients by hand, and time and some S&Fs did all the rest.  I may try autolyse when practical, and in any event, just barely machine mix and rely on a series of stretch & folds.

@Lindy - Actually, what makes them enjoyable is that the epi and la margueritte are easier to construct than successfully scoring baguettes.  Give it a whirl!

Larry

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hello Larry,
I so enjoy seeing the pictures of your baguettes, and these are a joy to behold.
I really like la margueritte (Daisy_A, are you out there? I hope you see this!).   
Thanks for sharing your method and the beautiful shapes and crumb that resulted.
from breadsong

wally's picture
wally

Was it Daisy_A who posted the videos?  They should be made a part of TFLs video library.

Larry

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hi Larry, You're welcome!

I saved that video post in my favorites:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21685/boulangerie-videos

I think Sharon (fishers) was the user who kindly posted the videos.

from breadsong

Syd's picture
Syd

Lovely shaping, crust and crumb, Larry.  I agree with Franko:  I think your crumb is perfect.

Syd

wally's picture
wally

Thanks Syd!

mdunham21's picture
mdunham21

You've inspired me to make another round of baguettes tomorrow, since I'll be snowed in I'm going to bake.  I think i'll employ the mixing by hand and stretching and folding the dough.

wally's picture
wally

Thanks so much!

louie brown's picture
louie brown

And as usual, your crumb is among the very best here. You really set the bar.

wally's picture
wally

The crumb pleased me very much.

Larry

hansjoakim's picture
hansjoakim

Aww...looks so nice. Perfect inside and out!

I bet anything will taste spectacular with your baguettes, Larry!

wally's picture
wally

Thanks Hans!

Larry

GSnyde's picture
GSnyde

Nice shapes, Larry.  

When you assemble the margueritte, do you just place the pieces touching or do you pinch them together to solidify the joints?

Thanks.

Glenn

wally's picture
wally

It's a bit of both: you lightly pinch them where they meet and then the little dough ball in the center glues everything together.

I think it's such an easy and elegant presentation at a table.

Larry

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

A true craftsman at work!  I've been craving baguette sandwiches and your crumb is perfect!  

Sylvia

wally's picture
wally

I'm sure you would come up with an interesting sandwich with them: perhaps something open-faced that could be heated quickly in your wfo!

Larry

Ruralidle's picture
Ruralidle

Larry

You are a master!  Wonderful shaping and crusts, all with lovely crumb - perfection?

wally's picture
wally

Thanks Ruralidle!  Perfection is a long way off with my baguettes, but at least they're headed in the right direction I think.

Larry

teketeke's picture
teketeke

Absolutely beautiful, Larry!

I admire your skill!  I use Sylvia's steaming method, too :) 

Best wishes,

Akiko 

 

wally's picture
wally

is unbeatable!  I've never gotten grignes this good before at home.

Thanks Akiko!

Larry

jackie9999's picture
jackie9999

Thanks for this! It looked like such fun I made one ..I couldn't get the video to load properly, but I got the gist of the idea. Apparently my petals are upside down..so my 'flower' is a little pudgy :)

wally's picture
wally

Looks lovely to me.  Such an easy alternative to scoring a baguette and such a nice presentation.

Nice bake!

Larry

fishers's picture
fishers

Larry,

Those are gorgeous and makes me drool! Amazing how once you begin to bake your own bread you can smell it, and feel it, and taste it, just from seeing pictures of great looking loaves. I agree, the videos should be available so that they're easily accessible for everyone. Please feel free to post the information - after all, they were produced to be shared!

Sharon

highmtnpam's picture
highmtnpam

just mature. I do love this shape. Larry has really filled my head with ideas. It will be my first "first" project when I get back to baking!

Pam

hanseata's picture
hanseata

I make Epis, but I've never seen those Marguerittes before. How pretty, without being ornate and tacky (and inedible) like some elaborate bread "artworks".

Thanks for sharing, Larry,

Karin