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36 hours+ sourdough baguette - everything I know in one bread

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

36 hours+ sourdough baguette - everything I know in one bread

 

This baguette has many inspirations: the long cold autolyse from Anis, long cold bulkrise from Gosselin, SD instead of instant yeast from David's San Joaqin SD... With 12 hr autolyse, 24 hr cold rise, the process last at least 40 hours from start to finish, however, very little time is spent on real work, most of the time, I just have to wait and let time do its magic.

 

"Little hands-on work" does NOT equal to "easy to make", in fact, with the extra long process, there could be a lot of variations on how much to S&F, when to start and stop fermentation, etc, not to mention shaping and scoring continue to be a challenge at 75%+ hydration. With plenty of tweeking and adjusting, tthe end result is DELICIOUS: thin and crackling crust dark from all the caramalized sugar, airy and moist crumb, sweet and layered flavor - in the past 2 months, this is our weekend dinner of choice. I have made it at least once a week, sometimes twice a week.

 

Right now, this is my favorite bagette to eat - and to make.

 

36hr+ SD baguette

100% hydration starter: 150g

flour: 425g (I usually use KA AP)

ice water: 300g (sometimes a tad more when I feel extra daring)

salt: 10g

1. mix flour and water into a lump of mass, cover and put in fridge for 12 hours. (let's say Thurs morning, takes <5 min)

2. add starter and salt to the dough, use hand to mix until roughly evenly distributed. Note that the 100% starter here has two purpose: it's levaining power to raise the bread, AND it's extra water acts as the "2nd hydration" step in the original Anis formula. To make it even better, the consistency of the starter is much closer to the dough than pure water, so it's easier to mix.

3. bulk rise at room temp (70 to 75F) for 2-3 hours until it grows about 1/3 in volume, S&F every half hour until enough strength has been developed. Put in fridge. (Thurs evening, 3 hours, with 15 min of hands-on work.)

4. 24 hours later, take out dough, if it has not doubled or nearly doubled, give it more time to rise at room temp. I usually have to give it about 1 to 2 hours, depending on temperature, which means the dough can probably be stored in the fridge for even longer than 24 hours.Do make sure it has a sufficient bulk rise, so the dough is strong enough; but don't let it go too long, the dough will be so bubbly that the shaping would be difficult - this is where you need to experiment with timing a lot.

5. divide and rest for 40min.

6. shape and proof for 30 to 50min, score, bake with steam at 460F for 25min. (about 2 to 4hours on Friday night)

 

There is a lot of room here in term of how to arrange the bulk rise timing - more time before fridge, less during/after; OR more in the fridge; OR now that it's cooler at night, put the dough outside instead and skip fridge all together... The goal is to give the dough a long sufficient bulk rise, regardless how it's done. The key for me is to learn how the dough "feels" and "looks" when it's properly fermentated, so I know I've gotten to the finish line, using whatever fermentation schedule. Before I thought the most difficult part of making baguettes is the shaping, now I thihk it's in managing fermentation - even though I am really not doing anything in that step.

 

Since we love to eat it, I will conitnue to make this bread a lot, hopefully I will get better with scoring this wet dough! Right now, I am not even trying to get ears, just aim to have the cuts expand properly in the bake.

 

 

Sending this bread to Wild Yeast's YeastSpotting event.

Comments

Chris23's picture
Chris23

Hi

Thank you so much for your prompt reply... I will check out the link and will let you know how everything turned out = )

Blessings

Chris

sebasto06's picture
sebasto06

beautiful, astounding result IMHO !

As far as i'm concerned, the more i bake, the more i realize how important it is to actually trust the process, once a process has indeed been elaborated.

Working on highly hydrated doughs can be really daunting, when one's never seen the final result.

But, the long and cold autolyse, added to the lengthy retardation and the few S&F sessions in between are actually sufficient to give the dough enough strength to endure the delicate shaping and oven spring phases.

In fact, the deeper i explore this new path, the more i seem to acknowledge that such a dough (between 80 and 100% hydratation), despite its actual absence of kneading (4 S&F spreaded on 4 days, roughly averaged), tends to develop way more once in the oven than heavily worked dough.

Perfect for baguettes, in a word.

The only foreseeable reserve for a beginner stands in two arguments :

- the initial look of the dough, right after the beginning of the autolyse. Let's admit it, it looks more like a soup than like a regular workable dough, doesn' t it ?

- it actually is hard to preshape and shape a highly hydrated dough.

My answer is simple, and can be summed up into one principle and two major rules :

- Time is on your side. I often autolyse on tuesday or wednesday, and bake by midday sunday, except for when my son comes home from college for the w.e. unannouced.

- Have faith in the process, particularly in the autolyse. Autolyse does a great job as far as dough's strength and starter's bubbling capacity (as defined by the initial expression of gluten and sugars) are concerned. The longer the better. 12 hours are better than one. And cold is definitely a must.

- When considering that the cold fermentation process has had enough time to fully develop (i've gone up to 6 full days —144 hours, i guess— with amazing results, both in terms of taste and consistency), don't let your dough stand on the counter too long before preshaping it : divide, preshape while it's cold and doesn't stick too much, and let sit for 10 mns. Then proceed throughout the final shaping stage, let proof for a good half an hour (for baguettes or batards) and score generously before baking.

- One more hint : steam it up, babe, steam it ! One can never have too much steam when time comes to put the loaves in the oven.

This process has given me a steady , reliable and consistent result over the last quarter, ending up into loaves that'd be good and nice enough to sell.

Keep up this great work, and don't forget to boogie with experimentation, you'll get surprised !

Seb

 

frogdog's picture
frogdog

Looks like I have a problem.  Started Wed. night.  Everything was fine.  After the 24 hours in frig (after s&F) there was no rise at all.  It has now been out at room temp.  for an hour and still no rise.  My starter was active.  Just made sourdough the day before.  It was just fed and looked like it always had.  Any suggestions on maybe what I did wrong.  Should I just throw this batch away and start over.  Or leave out for more hours than the 2 suggested?  It just seems there should be a little rise by now........I do have bubbles though

Pablo's picture
Pablo

Let it sit at room temperature for a whlle longer and see whats up.  My dough "usually" (I've only done this process 3 times) takes 4 or 5 hours out of the 'firdge to double.  And what does "room temperture" mean?  I do this phase in the proofing box set to 73F.  If it's colder, it'll take longer.  Try to get a feel for the dough.  Maybe it'll come 'round with some more time.  You've got nothing to lose by waiting and watching.

Good luck!

:-Paul

sebasto06's picture
sebasto06

From my experience, once the autolyse is done and it comes to inseminating, either with dry yeast or with a starter, it's better to mix salt+yeast thoroughly, let it rest for a couple hours over the counter, then give it about 10 S&F and let it begin bubbling before putting it in the fridge. Once the reaction has started, it really keeps on going despite of the low temperature. But you gotta give it a chance to start.

In any case, don't, i repeat : don't throw your dough away, just reinseminate it with a couple teaspoons dry yeast, mix thoroughly, let it gain 25 % in volume and refrigerate it at will. That'll do just fine, believe me, it'll just be a "pain sur levain de levure" instead of a "pain au levain".

Seb

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

Like Paul said above, you won't lose anything by waiting. Some starter just needs more time to recover from cold. What's your room temp? Mine is around 73F. If possible move it to a warm spot, like oven with pilot light on. If your room is indeed much colder than 73, such as 60s, next you need more time to rise after mixing before putting in the fridge.

frogdog's picture
frogdog

Me again....Well I let it rise to double and then followed the remaining steps.  It came out really wierd, but edible.   I am half way to my second batch now - its in the frig for 24 hours until tomorrow a.m.  I must say the most difficult part of this is forming the wet dough.  Any suggestions?   Should I oil my hands to form, or is it best to flour, or???

Pablo's picture
Pablo

I'm a fan of flour.  My whole preshape/shape process is like this:

First I flour a basket that's lined with cloth, I flour it plenty and I dust the counter with flour as well.  I put the basket on the scale and zero it out then I pour/scrape the entire dough mass into the basket and get a weight.  Then I calculate what that means to me, that is, how many lumps of what weight I want to end up with.  For example, 4 baguettes of 220g each if my total dough weight was 880 grams.

I then dump the lump of dough out of the basket onto the floured counter and separate what looks to be the right size and using the counter scraper and my hands I put it back in the basket to check the weight and make additions/subtractions as needed to get to the weight I want for a single piece.  I then pull the sides up and incorporate the pieces into a single ball.  I do this carefully and lightly and pinch the final ends together to encourage it staying one ball.  If my hands start to stick i dust them with more flour.  I don't use a tremendous amount of flour, but I try to keep flour between me and the dough so I don't stick to it.  Then I cover the preshaped pieces and let them rest the prescribed amount of time.

Shaping is similar.  I generally shape batards, but for baguettes especially I would preshape into kind of hot dog bun shapes.  For final shaping I would just do a single lengthwise fold, pulling gently on the dough while I was doing that to lengthen it.  Then I would pinch/seal the fold and then I would roll the dough.  Rolling is touchy - too much flour and it doesn't roll, it slides, too little flour and it doesn't roll, it sticks, so it's hard to find the place between too much and not enough, but it's possible.  Anyway, I roll the baguettes, hopefully just once or twice and they're long enough.  Then proof, etc.

The trick, for me, in the whole process is getting enough flour without too much flour.

Watching lots of videos on handling dough is helpful.

Good luck.

:-Paul

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

First of all, baguette shaping is the trickest shaping procedure in all of bread shapes.

Secondly, baguette shaping with a 75% hydration dough is challenging. No ways around it.

Thirdly, unfortunately there's not really a trick to it. Just do it a lot, know from experience what needs to be done (keep the surface tension taunt yet keeping the gas inside intact, iron hands velvet gloves), and do just those movements, no extra touching at all - because the more you touch it, the more you stick, and the more you man-handle the dough.

Finally, if you have not made baguettes before, may I suggest to 1) watch some shaping videos on youtube (search baguette shaping) 2) practice on some dryer dough (68% hydration is a good start)

 

Some have asked me how much flour I use, the truth is I don't know and it changes. 2 months ago, I probably flour a lot more than now because I have become a bit more familiar with the procedure. Keep at it, practice practice practice. Baguette is one of those breads that really shows how much time you've invested in it, no shortcuts at all. I have made baguettes at thsi hydration for 6 months+, once or twice every week, I still make shaping mistakes every time.

 

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

Even though inexperienced shaping would result in untraditional shapes, but usually it doesn't affect taste that much. If you bread comes out weird "tasting", usually it means something went wrong with fermentation, not shaping. A well fermentated dough can recover from "some" degassing during shaping. In fact the original Gosseline baguette doesn't even shape the dough, just stretch it long and call it "rustic", the fermentation is the key.

frogdog's picture
frogdog

It tasted great. Tomorrows will be better.  Learned a lot in the first one.  But it was really ugly.....

Chris23's picture
Chris23

Hi

 

What's the taste like for the sourdough loaf here ? Is it very sour ?

I see two types of sourdough starter on the tutorial - one that is started with just water and flour and the other one with pineapple juice. What's the difference and which is better ?

I'll be starting my sourdough starter soon and would love to hear from you experts ; )

 

Chris

 

 

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

No, it's not very sour. It has a mild taste.

 

For pineapple juice solution, see here:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10856/pineapple-juice-solution-part-1 , it should tell you the reasons for adding pineapple juice and you can decide for yourself which way to go. I have no tried pineapple juice method, so I don't have first hand opnion on it.

 

The search function on the left is great for getting answer fast (search for pineapple juice, the link above should be among the first ones returned), and you can get a lot of people's input on the topic.

 

Good luck!

SallyBR's picture
SallyBR

Allow me to share with you some photos of my baguettes!  I promise a more detailed description of my adventures, as I tested three different ways to generate steam during baking (you will notice the surface of the baguettes has slightly different color)

 

I also played with the shaping, in one case "stretching" it after shaping, but the crumb suffered - the other ones had more airy texture

 

I think I'm in love..... :-)

 

SallyBR's picture
SallyBR

about the crumb - my good bread knife stayed in LA, so I had to use a horrible knife to cut my bread, and that messed up quite a bit. Amazing the difference a good knife can make, I advise all of you who use a less than great bread knife to invest in a good product

 

Pablo's picture
Pablo

They're gorgeous.  How satisfying!

:-Paul

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

Even with the dull knife I can see a very nice crumb. :)

frogdog's picture
frogdog

I have tried this recipe twice and I cannot get a good rise.  I do very well with the sour dough no knead recipe.  Have been doing that at least once a week for many months.....Could it be that our house is oceanfront on the Oregon coast???? 

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

1. Starter not active enough

2. Too cold -- not enough time to rise, keep dough at room temp for longer to rise, or use warmer water to mix (but not so hot that it will kill the starter)

3. Not enough strength in the dough -- this is NOT a no knead formula, it requires some S&F to develope dough strength, without enough strength, you won't get enough rise both in fermentation and oven.

 

Like I said in the original post, it's a formula that's not "easy", it requires tweaking according to you own temperature and starter condition. However the rule of the thumb is that if your starter is indeed alive, give it enough time to bulk rise, and develop enough strength by S&F during that period, so that it will grow in volume by 50% to 100%(i.e. double or nearly double).

SallyBR's picture
SallyBR

Sorry to bother you again, Txfarmer, but I just wanted to clarify something - when you shape your baguettes, particularly if you are in the "daring mode" and add a little more water, do you go through the pre-shaping plus shaping routine?   (you know, form a little batard shape,  then roll it to form surface tension two or three times?)

 

I am wondering if with the high hydration it would be better to skip the shaping and just "coach" them genly into a baguette-like form?

 

I pretty much decided I will skip the stretching part anyway - I liked the crumb better when I omitted that step.

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

I do preshaping and shaping like regular baguettes. I find that both of those steps are there for a purpose - they provide a taunt surface so that the dough can rise effectively during prooofing and in the oven. I've tried the "rustic" method of just stretching it, the crumb is much less open - which is counter-intuitive since you handle the dough less by skipping preshapping and shapping, until you realize that when done right, those two steps benefit the dough more than hurting it.

SallyBR's picture
SallyBR

Ok, I understand - I will not skip it then.  The shaping was not too hard, actually, I followed a youtube video that was very detailed.  Of course, the guy makes it seem like the easiest thing in the world, but with practice I think I can improve.

 

Too bad I won't be able to try them again until my next trip home in November.  But it's ok, I took a lot of notes, should be easier then

 

 

jackew's picture
jackew

I used this recipe for Pizza today with 70% hydration and baked at 540. Best pizza I have ever made. Crust was soft and full of wholes.

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

It's a great idea to use this dough for pizza!

rossnroller's picture
rossnroller

You beat me to it! As soon as I read txfarmer's post on this dough and saw that amazing crumb, I thought 'pizza'! Maybe I'm subconsciously planning an escape route in advance. I've made a lot of SD bread over the last 2 years, but have never tried baguettes...if the shaping doesn't work out, I can always flatten 'em and change to pizza!

Currently have txfarmer's baguette dough waiting in the fridge, now only a few hours off shaping. The moment of truth approacheth!

Cheers
Ross

SallyBR's picture
SallyBR

things have been pretty hectic lately, but here is the full description of Txfarmer's baguettes experience in my kitchen....

 

I look forward to baking another batch next month

 

http://bewitchingkitchen.com/2010/10/18/36-hour-sourdough-baguettes/

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

Please see my new blog post for more variations on this formula!

chykcha's picture
chykcha

Wow, great looking baguettes! Thanks for the recipe, I will try it this weekend.

Kobali's picture
Kobali

do you worm up the flour and water mixture to come to room temperature before adding starter and salt or you use it straight from the fridge?

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

Straight from the fridge.

Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul's picture
Paul Paul Paul ...

You should consider making a video tutorial on making this bread, or at least on shaping it! The next viral hit it shall be!

breadbythecreek's picture
breadbythecreek

36+ hours is so worth the wait!  I made this recipe using my 100% starter about 2 hours after feeding it, while it was still young.  Baked at 460F with 25 seconds injected steam and lid on for 10 minutes, then another 10 minutes with the lid off.  I didn't get much in the way of ears, but the crumb and the taste... out of this world. Thanks txfarmer for all of your hard work.

crumb shot

-Pamela

oceanicthai's picture
oceanicthai

This post was extremely helpful, thanks for sharing all that you did to acheive your breads.  I am using this method, tweaked of course, for my breads which have quite a bit of whole wheat flour in them and I am getting nice open crumb for WW flour breads. 

 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

had to let it double out of the fridge for about 4 hrs before dividing up the dough.  (kitchen is 23°C)  I used Austrian W700 which is a bread flour/relative high ash and the dough is final proofing right now.  I hope the long retard didn't make them too sour.  That fact that it took so long to double is reassuring that they are not too sour.  We shall see...  The dough has a nice elastic feel to it and no signs of age that I can tell.  Plan on baking them crowded in a two part steel roaster for the first 20 min. then onto the rack to brown and dry out.

Baked.  Not good, got the holy bread but chewy hard crust, going back to AP flour.  Sour is just right!  (innoculated with 10g rye sour) Baked the third baguette after the first two and ...see I could  proofed longer, came out with a rounder shape and singing crust.  :)

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

Yeah, even thought the name says 36 hours, but in reality, the timing is rather flexible. I have also retarded 2 days instead of one, which worked out ok.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

thinking about yellow baguettes...   :)

chefscook's picture
chefscook

beautiful looking breads nice crumb

grind's picture
grind

gave it a try -

 

 

 

Thank you for the excellent recipe.  I could eat this bread all day long (and wide).

DarkNova's picture
DarkNova

Hello txfarmer,

I have been reading a lot about sourdough, and have been experimenting with different starters, trying to achieve good results. It seems like the "nature" of the sourdough starter changes a lot based on the procedure one uses to feed it. I am amazed by your results, and I'm wondering if you could share your approach to feeding your starter? Do you feed it once a day, twice a day, and do you feed 1:2:2, 1:3:3, etc? I couldn't find anywhere where you discussed this. Thanks!

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

Twice a day, 1:1.5:1.5. However it's in fridge most of the week, only fed at room temp over the weekend when I have time to make breads.

DarkNova's picture
DarkNova

Thanks for the response! Seeing as you keep it in the fridge during the week, how many times do you feed it after taking it out of the fridge before you use it to build your bread's levain? Do you feed with bread flour or whole wheat? Thanks!

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

Once or twice (it's doubling/tripling reliably after the first time anyway). I feed bread flour to the white starter and rye to the rye starter.

passionne's picture
passionne

Beautiful bread.. would like to try out someday!!! looks really yummy!! btw u mentioned the 100% hydration starter. is that like sourdough starter? I am very new to baking thus do not know what is tt!! 

passionne's picture
passionne

ans u mentioned tt u feel your starter twice a day.. what is 1:1.5:1.5??? can i prepare the 100% starter one day before i bake the bread?

heidet's picture
heidet

I am almost at the end of the final stage,the scoring and baking. One question. before putting into the fridge for its 24hour rise, I did not stretch and fold. Was I meant to ? 

PetraR's picture
PetraR

I do like an open crumb, but yours are just holes and i wonder how can you ever spread anything on this one?

I bet the taste is wonderful though.

Librarian's picture
Librarian

I like what you achieved, but isnt it a bit impractical to eat ? btw i adopted one of your yeast recipes into a straight sourdough baguette one and thats my standard now :) so thx for directing me there

MJ Sourdough's picture
MJ Sourdough

I am going to try and incorporate some of your techniques into my sourdough baguette! thanks!

cessnabmw's picture
cessnabmw

Am going to try this over the weekend!!

How many baguettes does this make and how long? Want to know so that IO can figure out how many to divide into.

greenbriel's picture
greenbriel

About 18"-19" each. Good luck, post the results! 

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