Baguette proofing with a chilly twist – take 2
A continuation of my journey into the world of cold proofing the shaped, and sometimes shapely, baguettes. This reporting of the trip again required no passport or Global Entry/Trusted Traveler documentation. Just a curiosity of what happens when I retard the baguette dough in its final phase prior to its own voyage from couche to oven. My interest in investigating this method is nothing more than an experiment in learning about ways to control the time/temp elements of fermentation, baby steps at a time.
In continuing, I made 4 new batches, one in error. And the results that I’ve so far concluded is that the final retarded proofing seems to not play much of a role in the time element. Certainly not as much as I had thought it would. It also plays little role in the baking equation either, time-wise.
On the bright side, the dough is cooler than room temp proofing, therefore stiffer and easier to transfer to peel and also to score. It also helps me reorganize my refrigerator to accommodate the baking sheet that the couche resides on, while rediscovering greenish items tucked in the back that either qualify as very new cheese or very old meat. (Thank you Oscar Madison for that memory). And now for this week’s line-up:
Bouabsa olive-rosemary with 21% Kalamata olives and chopped rosemary added at the first letter fold. Two observations here, neither of which may be legitimate. I wonder if the rosemary leaves, as small as they are, affected any of the gluten development since they can still act as “micro-razors”, interrupting and perhaps cutting the strands during fermentation and subsequent letter folds. And secondly, whether the weight of the olives suppressed the oven spring. From the top down the baguettes have a bit of the look of overproofing, although the cross section of the bread does not.
Gosselin SJSD. These are just such happy, tasty, lovely beasts. I dropped the hydration of these from 75% down to 72% a number of months ago, as the dough remained a bit too sticky for my liking. However, next time around, if I’m still playing with the cold proof, maybe I’ll kick the hydration back up again.
36 Error SJSD. Okay so it was supposed to be 36 hour, but I made a rookie error along the way, officially disqualifying them as the real deal. Instead of retarding my autolyse overnight, I added the levain build to the freshly mixed F&W, autolysing at room temp for a mere 30 minutes. Therefore I changed some critical parameters and turned the 36 hour formula into a ~30 hour Frankenstein. No issues with the outcome, but it wasn’t what I was shooting for.
36 Hour SJSD. I decided this time to pay attention to the methodology – why the heck not?, although I have a few variations of my own applied here. These baguettes are a bit of a bear to get a good score on, but from what else I see on TFL, I think that I get the job done. In the past I’ve questioned the level of open crumb that TxFarmer achieves, somewhere in the stratosphere, and something that I don’t think I’ll ever approach. A significant artistic skill to be sure, but too much open crumb seems to be a bit too much, for me anyway.
In summary, between the 36 Hour SJSD and the Gosselin SJSD, I think that I like the latter better. They both take about the same time to produce, clock-wise, with the Gosselins requiring the heavy lifting at the tail end, and the 36 Hour work load on the day prior to the bake. A more consistent scoring and, to my palate, a slightly better flavor makes the Gosselin version a bit more my cup of tea.
Of minor note, one of the variations to the original formulation of the SJSD levain has been to use more or all whole grain flour vs. AP flour during the build. A 50/50 mix of WW and rye. I don’t use any fancy flours, just Pillsbury Best AP, KA WW and Arrowhead Mills or Bob’s rye, because that is what my local market carries, not by specific choice. My salt is the standard Diamond Kosher flake salt.
I think that I’ll continue this journey with a few more formulae that I haven’t yet used, so beware, there may be a “take 3” occupying space on TFL down the road...
alan
Comments
from the inside? sense some crumb discrimination hanging about :-) This post is twice the amount of baguettes we make in a year, Hope you have a bunch of hungry friends! They all look well crafted as usual. I think getting the hard bits of the whole grains in the levain and then retarding it , makes for a more open crumb and less gluten strand cutting.
Happy Baking Alan
needs to do a research paper on my crumb, I'm not killing a whole baguette for the critter. Tell Lucy that she'll have to make do with this tidbit. And also tell her no snacking on it before turning it over to the Prof.
Now that I've cut into a sizable chunk, it seems as though the crumb is way too moist for having been baked 15 hours ago. At 470, 10 degrees over E. Ming's recommended temp, on a tile deck heated for an hour, and a 26-27 minute bake, the interior should have been drier, and perhaps more open. Now I'll have to get a drawing board to get back to. Maybe not so much crumb discrimination as crumb shame...Hmm.
crumb because her breads are out of this world since she is Ming the Mercilessness's daughter and from the planet Mongo :-). Her 100% whole wheat baguettes, her best by far, have a more open crumb than my best SFSD White boule! I think your crumb is very nice anyway and Lucy thanks you for cutting one open for her.
You better get to cutting and eating before all these fine bagueytes go hard
Happy Baking Alan
I decided to peruse a few more of TxFarmer's experiments with the 36 hour thang. Although I had a clear idea of her ability to grow holes in the crumb where no person had gone before, I was disappointed to see that she had never made it to the point of eliminating the crumb altogether and having only a crust. That woman still has a ways to go!
The crumb on one of those baguettes was handily sacrificed in the service of providing the breadcrumbs used as a buttermilk soaked base for some extraordinary meatballs. Now my baking assistant will have more crust strips than she knows what to do with (although I think that she will know what to do with them!).
"I only regret that I have but one baguette to give for my dinner" attrbuted to Mrs. Nathan Hale
"Give me tasty meatballs or give me death" - Patricia Henry
Looking forward to more. Would also like to see the crumb. Do you prefer any over the others vis a vis taste?
prefer the taste of some over others. The sparkly clear sweetness of taste (and smell) of the pure Bouabsa and Gosselin Bouabsa (prior post on that one), and the Gosselin SJSD. But they all have something to like.
Although I'm a baguette addict (still seeing my shrink about this), I did make the Forkish Field Blend #2 as a boule - a momentary diversion for which I suffer neither shame nor lasting psychological scars, and the hearty depth of flavor on that bread is really hard to beat. As the case may be, I made that boule side by side with giant baguettes from the same dough, and the boule just beat the pants off the baguette version. Taste-wise that is, no baguettes were harmed in the making of the bread ;-)
And those olives. I love an olive bread. Looks absolutely delicious!
I always love your posts, because they make my obsession (I know, you aren't obsessed, just focussed; I am admittedly obsessed :) seem tame by comparison.
These are amazing bakes, Alan. The olive rosemary loaves are amazing, I can almost smell them. The Gosselin look picture perfect. Thanks for all the experimentation and documentation that aids us all enjoying the pursuit of baguette mastery (looks like we picked up a couple more this week).
How are these scheduled, do you start a new bake each day? And where does all the bread go?!
Inspiring stuff, as always.
Best,
-Gabe
How does he do it? Actually for a long time I was pretty good at getting in three bakes a week: Tue. &, Thu. eves and Sat AM. My schedule was easily dictated by three of the many times that my very busy wife is offsite doing her things. Of course, as we all know, the prep work had to come first, so earlier days/evenings would be employed. No secret there. As of late though, our calendars have been in a bit of a disarray, so anywhere from two to maybe three erratic bakes a week.
I keep a stiff levain culture tucked into the back of my fridge, which will last, as I've found out, for three months maybe more before refreshing, starting with ~350 grams post-refresh and winnowing down by scant grams or more per bake. As I mix 'em up between IDY and live culture, those grams go pretty far.
This whole home baking shebang is still relatively recent for me, starting with my first loaves in 09/2013 - nicely shaped baguettes, but look as though they were scored with the business end of a pin. And with intermittent lots of time off for vacations, including this whole past summer (don't retire - you won't like it ;-) ).
As far as where does all of the bread go. I am a firm believer in morning toast, sometimes too much. Amongst my favorite foods on earth, along with beer and ales. Apparently my carb load is not yet sending me anyplace besides to the gym most mornings.
Beyond my personal consumption, I have the occasional neighbors who get the benefits of my output, as well as a few relatives nearby. One cousin who will benefit this very afternoon by getting two of my Formartz "test" bake baguettes. And then there are those lonely baguettes that age off and are sacrificed to the trash bin. All in the name of experimentation, you understand.
But all is not so near-perfect in alfanso's Baking Kingdom. I am fairly frustrated in that I cannot get a consistently good open crumb, at times head-scratching. As I've mentioned earlier and elsewhere, I sometimes can't even diagnose my own issues, no less try to advise someone else over the internet. I'll leave that to the folks who are longer in the tooth than I am as of now.
A never ending pursuit of truth, justice and a well made baguette!
BTW, here is that first attempt that I mentioned above:
I too enjoy seeing your experimentations, keep them coming. Great inspiration!
I also wanted to thank you for your input on Gabe's second-last post on blocking the steam vent, very much appreciated (I just didn't get around to writing sooner). I have always been hesitant on this and I had read before that it might damage the oven. Mine, however, is not gas, and seems to tolerate this well for a few minutes. Your explanation has shown me though that I don't need to do that, necessarily. No extra points for extra steam - point taken! :) However, so far I also didn't have to deal with and keep two trays, towels, lava rocks, etc. (limited space in my kitchen and all of this stuff is kept in the basement on my baking rack) and seem to be getting nice oven spring. I just put an old cast iron pan into the oven while I preheat and pour a cup of hot water into it after loading the bread. So now it's my turn to experiment!