The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Back from Paris: Hungry for baguette de tradition!

hansjoakim's picture
hansjoakim

Back from Paris: Hungry for baguette de tradition!

Hi all,

I'm just back from some amazing days in the French capitol. It was perfect: Glorious sunshine, mild weather, the most inspiring autumn colours on trees along the Seine, and the baguettes, my god! the baguettes!

For some reason or other, I'm mostly a whole wheat loaf kind of person, but now I'm really up for trying my hands at some baguettes. In Paris, I often had baguettes de tradition. I don't speak French, but I sort of figured that the baguettes were made from a "fixed" or prescribed recipe. Does anyone actually know the French baguette de tradition recipe? Metric or bakers % would be amazing :)  Are there any autolyse or kneading "instructions" to go with the "traditional" recipe?

Also, Hamelman give baguette recipes made from poolish, biga and pate fermentees. From your experience, which preferment gives the best result? I initially thought that baguettes and poolish go hand in hand.

Thanks in advance :)

redcatgoddess's picture
redcatgoddess

I had posted a receipe of P.O. at http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/9104/baguette-baguette-and-more-baguette in matric & you can conver it to baker % easily if you know how.

Give it a try.  Baguette de tradition is baguette made by the tradition way, bind by the French bread law, at least 22 in long & 5 or 7 slaches on the face, handmade, no machine, no chemical, no fat.

LindyD's picture
LindyD

Glad your trip was so enjoyable. For an authentic baguette formula, check out this thread including the links it contains.

 

 

 

ehanner's picture
ehanner

Hello Hansjoakim,

I suggest you start with reading Janedo's blog here at TFL. Jane lives in France and keeps a very high end blog written in French and sometimes English where she describes her baking.

This topic is one of the reasons I found this most wonderful site. Depending on what country you live in, your available flour will have an impact on how you proceed. A simple All Purpose flour will do in most places. The link above will take you to the formula and method of the shop in Paris that won the "Best Baguette in Paris" award this year. Jane has made trips to the shop and found the owner to be very helpful and open with his methods, which she has shared here. That's a pretty good place to start.

There are many ways to arrive at the end. Anis Bouabsa has one sort of non traditional method of arriving at a classic product. Other methods which do not require 21 hours of retardation also produce wonderful breads. This is another place to start looking. If you search using the word Baguette on the search tool here you will find many authors writing about this simple yet elusive bread.

Welcome to the Fresh Loaf. I hope to see your breads and posts soon.

Eric