The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Are these baguettes okay?

trangu's picture
trangu

Are these baguettes okay?

Just came out of the oven. I cant decide whether is under/overproofed because its cooling and can't be cut yet. From the pic, can anyone give me some comments on the size (both weigh 209g), crust color, etc? (I kno my scoring is terrible) thanks.

ghazi's picture
ghazi

They look good to me, I have yet to venture into baguette territory. Experts on here can defiantly give you the right advice. The color on the crust is nice, you can usually tell by slashes opening up .

From the looks of it you've done a good job. Making baguettes is no easy task

 

trangu's picture
trangu

Thanks I'm aware of that. This is my 8th or 9th time already and still it wasn't going anywhere near perfect. Just gotta keep practicing.

Anyway happy baking!

PetraR's picture
PetraR

The look FINE!!!

Very clever with the Aluminium foil!!!

I shall do that for them to keep shape before baking I think. 

 

trangu's picture
trangu

Hehe thanks.

Just don't have the luxurious baguette pan here so i have to go with the foil. Pretty time-consuming but yea, it worked!

Isand66's picture
Isand66

These look very good. Let's see your crumb shot when cooled as that will tell us if the inside looks as good as the outside.

trangu's picture
trangu

 

Here's the crumb shot and unfortunately I'm quite disappointed (where are the big holes?) Maybe I should've let it proof longer. 

 

Anyway here's the problem. I'm still struggling with proofing time whenever i bake baguette. Its like I have this irrational fear of letting it overproofed and becoming acidic, so I always put it right in the oven when it becomes puffy (but again underproofed). I've tried many methods before like eyeballing, poking, measuring in a small tube, etc. but I just can't get it right. Are there any other ways I'm missing, like dough temperature, weigh or anything? Please help me out.

foodslut's picture
foodslut

.... and if it tastes good, mission accomplished!  Thanks for sharing.

ghazi's picture
ghazi

Looks delicious.

Isand66's picture
Isand66

The bigger holes you are after are a result of handling the dough carefully so you don't degas the CO2 built up when the dough ferments as well as the hydration of the dough and the proper fermentation time.  Yours does not look too bad but I am not sure what hydration level you used.  If you want the largest and most amount of holes you need to try TxFarmer's 36 hour method which you can find by doing a search up top.  It is not an easy method to master though and took me several attempts but well worth it.