The Fresh Loaf

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Finally, after 20 years, I made Batards I can like and live with

dough dog's picture
dough dog

Finally, after 20 years, I made Batards I can like and live with

Happy New Year, Fresh Loaf readers and contributors! This site has brought me quite a ways since I discovered it 30 days ago.

I started trying to bake french bread in 1996, using the recipe in FROM JULIA CHILD'S KITCHEN. The three loaves (batards) came out pretty good the first time, seeing that I had never baked bread before (I was incredulous that I had baked bread at all)

After that initial success, I moved from a place with a hot electric oven to an old 1940's gas oven, and I never again got anything close to what I wanted. I would always try to make a Boule and it would flatten out like a pancake on my baking sheet and bake pale and dense and damp and TOO chewy; it was really too much work to eat it. People would say, "Oh, you made that bread again..." with fake smiling. Looking back I realize I was doing practically everything wrong. That Christmas (after my initial baking success) someone had given me a new Kenwood mixer and I could not resist the RPM's at my fingertips ... I'd develop my dough to the MAX --because I could. I'd open the oven all the time to see what it was doing in there; the temp probably never even reached 350F.  I had no baking stone. So after many disappointments  I sort of shelved Pain Francais and would bake Pain de Mie aux Raisins instead and suddenly everyone perked up: "NOW THIS is the thing, this is what you should always bake... why didn't you bake this before??? We cannot believe it! WOW! blah blah..." --so I took the hint.


So anyways I decided in Early December 2016 to try French Bread (Batards) again, because I now have a baking stone and wanted to try it out. I have made many batches this past 30 days and only a few came out the way I wanted. About three DID come out the way I wanted --but I did not know why. The rest were good to eat bread but not crackling and light and delicious and good-looking, like what I coveted watching THE FRENCH CHEF "French Bread" episode with Raymond Calvel (c. 1971). So I started reading here quite a bit, and at BREADCETERA.COM, and other places...


Today finally it all clicked and I got bread I really liked. I know that it is not ARTISAN perfect, but it's certainly the best I have ever made. I am not really an aspiring artisan bread baker  -- I merely desired a bread that would be recognizable as French Bread, something that people would think was delicious with a quiche and a salad. And I wanted to WIN this, because it always kind of niggled at me that I failed at it before when I was in my 20's. And I wanted to be able to make something delicious with only three ingredients. I liked that idea.

Gold Medal All-Purpose Unbleached Flour. "Mastering The Art of French Cooking II" dough formulae, mixed not too slack. Used 1/4 tsp yeast, instead of prescribed 2 1/4 tsp (for 3 1/2 cups of flour).
-did preliminary beating of liquid (with enough of the dry ingreds to make pancake batter consistency) for 5 mins in K5A (flat beater) to add some controlled oxidation... (after seeing something like this on BREADCETERA.COM --great site, thanks, Steve)
-mixed in the rest of the flour and salt, let shaggy mass sit for 15 mins
-mixed in K5A only about one or two minutes... dough was not too slack and formed ball on hook. No real kneading. (thanks, MiniOven!)
-bench rise/ferment: 14 hours 'til doubled (overnight at cool room temp.)
-several stretch and folds first two hours
-after overnight doubling: 1 stretch and fold and rise again for about 1.5 hours. Divide in three, waited a few minutes and shaped one batard, put the rest of the dough back in bowl.
-dial set to 490F.... (in actuality only reaches about 450F) Steaming method: cast iron pan in bottom of oven to throw 1/4 c. water in
-30 minute bake (for fatter batard)

barryvabeach's picture
barryvabeach

Great looking loaves.  the scoring is especially nice.  

dough dog's picture
dough dog

Thank you, barryvabeach. I tried a slow, definite, and steady approach today. It is easier (today) with this 75% hydration dough.

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Very nice.  Crumb looks excellent.

dough dog's picture
dough dog

Thanks, Island66 --now I must duplicate it.

PalwithnoovenP's picture
PalwithnoovenP

Excellent crust and crumb!

dough dog's picture
dough dog

Thank you, Palwithnooven

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

There are ways to work around a crappy gas oven, but having a good electric oven sure makes it easier to bake pretty bread. Yours looks wonderful - crust, crumb, scoring. 

What's next?

David

dough dog's picture
dough dog

Thanks, David. Actually I'd do anything to have that 40's range back. It was an O'Keefe and Merrit. It had a built in griddle, and a vertical broiler side compartment with a rotisserie. Yes, it was gigantic. Had a lot of fun with that old stove. The oven probably would have worked better if I had cleaned it... poor thing

NEXT ON BATARD AGENDA I want to see if I can do it again. I am changing two variables only:

--Omitting BREADCETERA's "two step flour addition" theory/method to see if it makes much difference:
http://www.breadcetera.com/?p=157
--I am going to mix the dough by hand and not knead it at all in the regular sense, only fold and stretch it.

I like the thought of mixing the dough completely by hand, and I like the thought of a non-mixer-dependent recipe

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Really handsome loaves, inside and out!

And proving again that great loaves can be made with simple ordinary supermarket flour.

alan

dough dog's picture
dough dog

Thanks, Alfanso. Yea, good ol' GOLD MEDAL flour! Also, it chirks me up to know that I can get a respectable loaf at 75% hydration, because I have struggled with 80% formulas this past month and have not 100% enjoyed the experience. I was willing to work with 80% hydration if I had to, but I am glad I don't have to.

kendalm's picture
kendalm

'Nuff said - wow !

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Very well done indeed!

dough dog's picture
dough dog

thanks kendalm, dabrownman. shoot! neglected to mention I moved again (several times) and am back with an electric oven

kendalm's picture
kendalm

Ya know - if I made these loaves I would probably call them baguards - sort of a hybrid between the two. One thing I am most impressed with is the beautiful,creamy color of the crumb. That takes some real skill and especially without using fancy flour. How's the flavor ? I imagine its quite divine ;)

dough dog's picture
dough dog

Thanks for the compliment; it is skill in development (and I'm GLAD it IS developing because last week I was consistently bombing out with fair/mediocre loaves --close-grained crumb and flat, one-dimensional scores)

let me try to describe flavor, Kendalm. These BAGuards were nutty and creamy. I could sense something on my tongue that I had not achieved before. Eating the crumb alone: tasted, in a sense, sweet, like whole milk. It had a richness. It's amazing what can be coaxed out of flour with a 14 hour fermentation!

I was real careful during all three ferments to not let things go too far into even a hint of over-fermentation (sounds basic, but was a first for me). On the final proof (can't remember proper terminology) I made a decision to err on the side of under-proofing. The leftover dough did get a touch over-fermented and when I baked it it had lost the delicacy of flavor I described above.

kendalm's picture
kendalm

Well the flavor sounds spot on so congrats. Reading closer sounds like you revisited French bread. I can say with out doubt that bread purchased from just about any artisan bakery in France has a distinct flavor which so far I have only been able to somewhat reproduce with French flours. As for spring in my opinion the hotter the better. I bring my oven to 550 which is probably more like 500 once they hit the deck and then lower as I check and turn the loaves. Whatever the case the hotter the better for oven spring. A couple of other points for flavor. Adding about 1% favs bean flour and a pinch of soy flour really enhances the flavor. Its also pretty common addition in French bakeries and not to mention part of the bread laws in France. They allow up to 2% fava bean and 0.3% soy flour and so far i almost always add it for that extra nuttiness - that might help you get more immersed in French style bread :)

dough dog's picture
dough dog

Nice mini-primer of flavor tweaking secrets, Kendalm --thanks

I'm in full agreement on oven spring; I'd crank my oven up to 550F in a minute, if it would allow me to. However, if I set it at anything above 500F the broiler comes on :/

kendalm's picture
kendalm

Btw another fun thing to do is mist your loaves with a bit of malt added to the sprayer. I always liked the way malt improves the crust however it can destroy the crumb very easily. One way to add malt (at least flavor) is to dissolve some powdered non diastatic malt into a sprayer. Beer brew supply houses sell powdered malt of all different varieties- just a thought although nothing really needs to change on these beautiful loaves !

dough dog's picture
dough dog

That's interesting about the malt, Kendalm. I have seen it in the older King Arthur Flour catalog I have: "Diastatic Malt Powder."

Can't afford too many fancy ingredients and additives at this junction of my life... I get a kick out of coaxing every atom of goodness I can from 'ol GOLD MEDAL Flour