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Baguette turns too crusty

CUISINED's picture
CUISINED

Baguette turns too crusty

Hi,

I have a baking stone that I preheat to precisely 230c. then I load my baguettes and throw ice cubes. close the oven door and let oven spring occur. after 7-10 minutes I release steam and cook until golden.

the problem is they do not turn golden so I keep baking until they are and then I get a really crusty baguette and I am not aiming for. 

I do use sourdough.

I've tried entering the baguettes to a hotter oven (when the spirals are working toward maintaining 275c, spirals always on) did color they baguettes faster but still turns with hard crust.

I have added olive oil to autolyse still hard. also non-diastatic malt. non  get the crust off.

my recipe is (dough hydration 66%)

350 APF

220 water

8 salt

100 starter (100%)

I have a short video of making them , they look fine but too crusty..

help will be greatly appreciated!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZS9vsUvmas (those are on the hotter oven. I've made ones today and had it on 230c and they basically turned yellowish, but again too crusty, tooth breaker!!)

- cuisined

David R's picture
David R

Too much steam maybe?

CUISINED's picture
CUISINED

-Thanks!

FueledByCoffee's picture
FueledByCoffee

Well, baguettes are a natually crusty breads...but if it's really too much a small amount of dextrose can accelerate crust coloration without affecting the flavor too much.  I've never had this issue but that is one way you could deal with it.  I would think the hotter oven would help so it's strange that it didn't seem to help you.

CUISINED's picture
CUISINED

I think I figured out my problem. I was looking at food Nutritional Facts to see how those big bakeries construct their baguettes and turns out that in many baguettes the salt and gluten per 100g dough is very, very minimal. So then it clicked in , Salt strengthen gluten, and i've been adding too much salt to my baguettes.

 

Recommended amount is known to be about 2%. I reduced it to 1/3 after seeing those Nutritional Facts. Let's see how it turns out!

 

 

#1

Calories:231

Protein (grams) 7

Carbohydrates (grams) 47.9

Fats (grams) 0.7

Of which saturated fat (grams) 0.1

Cholesterol (mg) 0

Sodium (mg) 472

Nutritional fiber (grams) 0.4

 

#2

Calories (energy) 229

Proteins (grams) 6.971

Carbohydrates (grams) 47.5

Fats (gram) 0.665

Of which saturated fat (GR) 0.1

Cholesterol (mg) 0

Sodium (mg) 475

Dietary Fiber (GR) 0.349

 

 

David R's picture
David R

... other things the big factories do, that you don't do. Some of them are advantages (especially when it comes to the effectiveness of big powerful machinery), others maybe not advantages (for example, adding "trick" ingredients to save time).

 

So don't assume this has to be it, but if reducing your salt is all it takes, then that's easy - and therefore a nice problem to have. ?

CUISINED's picture
CUISINED

It has made a HUGE difference, from what I can tell in so many ways.-

firstly the crust is more crusty and much less chewy. It puffed up in oven like no other, really big ears and size. the taste is great and natural. the color could be more dark but I guess some non-diastatic malt will do good next time i'll bake em`. the baguettes were made with 1 gram per 100g diastatic malt and this time the bread itself does not feel like sponge but like real bread taste and feel. proofing time was shorter....+++much less salt intake! looks like the way to go. plus no added vital gluten to mixture, factory numbers are standing on 10.5g protein per 100g APF.

overall I am extremely satisfied with this result.

350g all purpose flour (10.5 protein)

100g 100% starter

230g filtered water

3.5g diastatic malt (optional)

4-5g olive oil (optional)

SUPER SATISFIED.

David R's picture
David R

... and you (and others around you) are eating good bread, ...

... then I'd say you've succeeded with this. ?

 

Glad it worked.