I've been baking with my sourdough starter for a couple of months, with ever improving results, but this weekend I wanted to try something different. I stumbled upon the Anis baguette recipe on here and decided to give it a try for a barbeque on saturday.

It was amazing! My shaping technique needs quite a bit of work, but the bread tasted great--both light and crusty. It got eaten up so fast that when we got home, I decided to make another batch right away, so we could eat the loaves all ourselves. And, amazingly enough, that second batch was even better. Crispier crust, a bit of a nutty flavor--I had sandwiches every meal and was happy about it! I can't wait to try making it again.

Thanks everyone that posted all their advice and (of course) the recipe!

the first round:

second round:

Hi, all
This is a recipe I've been working on, based on some reading here at the Fresh Loaf on the Anis baguettes, and the idea of the cold oven. I'm encouraged with the results so far- it is tasty and I'm starting to get the nice open crumb. Not only do I save a bit of energy with the cold oven, but the cold/wet oven actually makes for a lot of steam in the first five minutes of baking; it doesn't all vaporize instantly. Anyway- I'd appreciate some feedback and comments. Also, can anyone help me convert this recipe into a formula w/ weights and percentages? (Grams, please- I don't know from ounces). Thanks all- this is a very inspiring site and I appreciate everyone's expertise.

Poolish: 
about 2 tbs active sourdough starter
1 cup all-purpose white flour (I use Robin Hood)
1 cup water
Leave overnight

Morning:

Add 1/8 tsp baker's quick-rise yeast
1 slightly-heaping tsp salt
1 1/4 cup flour 

Stir until it holds together, dump it onto a floured surface, combine further, stretch it a few times, leave for 20 minutes. 
Again, stretch and fold, leave for 20 minutes
Again...
After the fourth stretch, place in a covered bowl and refrigerate a few (up to 20) hours. (I usually leave it five or six.)

Remove from refrigerator, divide in two, pre-form loafish shapes, leave covered for an hour.

Gently form into baguettes, let rise 45 minutes or so.

Mist with water, score and place on top rack in a cold oven. (I pour a cup of water on the cold oven floor- not everyone can/should do this, I realize).

Set oven to 450. 

Loaves are done in about 25 minutes.

Fresh Loafians,
I just made a short video on pre shaping and shaping baguettes using the Anis 75% hydration dough.  If you'd like to check out the entry in my blog it's this entry: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/9959/more-anis-baguettes

If you'd like to just see the video, here it is.
I never quite got the 'classical technique' of shaping them, so this is the 'only way I can do it' style.
-Mark
http://thebackhomebakery.com

Sometimes when you find a recipe, it takes a little adjusting to make it turn out how you would like.  Sometimes after lots of adjusting, you come back to the original recipe and find out it was great how it was.  This is the latter.  If you'd like to find the recipe, and method, both Jane (janedo) and David (dmsnyder), among others, have written about it quite a bit here, and have both had much success with this recipe and variations of it.  Anyway, using that as a baseline, I'll mention the adjustments I made to the method, and/or explain the pics.  Oh, and just as a reference, i made (4) 16 oz baguettes in 24" wide pans.
-pic 1 during the first 60 minutes when it is mixed/folded 3 times, I left it in the mixing bowl for the entire period.  After the initial mix, I scraped the hook and bowl and covered them to rest for 20 minutes.  At 20 minutes, I put the hook back on and let it 'mix' for 5 seconds to allow the machine to do the folding.  I repeated this process for all 3 folds.  I was trying this in an effort to avoid adding any extra flour late 'into the game'.
-pic 2 shows the 4 baguettes after scaling and 23 hours in the fridge
-pic 3 directly after preshaping, they were placed on a canvas, seams up,  for 45 minutes and into the proofer (78 degrees, low humidity)
-pic 4 final shaping them 45 minutes later.  I shape them the same way I shape my loaves with the seam away from me.
-pic 5, 6  To experiment, I final proofed two on a canvas and two directly in the pans.  All 4 were placed in the proofer together and all 4 baked on the baguette pans at 415 for 23 minutes (convection).

-pic 7 The top two rose in the canvas, the bottom two in the pan.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but the bottom two are slightly wider with flatter bottoms, the top two look a little more 'uncontrolled'.  Probably could've used a longer final proof to mellow them out a little more.

Anyways, the flavor is great with these baguettes and they have replaced my previous recipe as 'The Back Home Bakery' baguette.  Thanks to Anis, Jane, and David for making this possible.

-Mark

http://thebackhomebakery.com

Pre Shaping and Final Shaping