I'm always willing to try a new baguette recipe. So, DonD's “Eric Kayser's Baguettes Monge Hybrid” post caught my eye, and I made them today. I'll add a comment to Don's topic on the ones I made according to his instructions, but I made one of the 3 baguettes using my own technique. I call it “Eric Kayser's Baguettes Monge Mutant.”

Procedure

1. Make baguette dough according to your favorite formula.

2. Proof en couche.

3. Carefully transfer baguette to parchment paper on the back of a sheet pan.

4. Pull out the center oven rack with pre-heated baking stone.

5. Delicately slide the baguette off the back end of the stone so it lies across the bottom oven rack, scored side down.

6. Steam the oven and bake at 460F for 10 minutes.

7. Remove the steaming skillet from the oven. Slide out the bottom rack. Transfer the baguette to the baking stone.

8. Turn down the oven to 440F and continue to bake for another 12 minutes.

9. Leave the baguette in the turned off oven with the door ajar for another 5 minutes.

10. Cool the baguette completely before making bread crumbs for tomorrow night's meatballs.

Happy baking!

David

In 1904, Sir William Osler, one of the greatest physicians of his time, was asked to address the graduating class of The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine on the topic, “What is the most important personal attribute for a physician to cultivate in himself?” Sir William's address was entitled “Aequanimitas,” which roughly translates into modern American English as “Chill, dude!” I have always tried to follow Sir William's wise advice.

This afternoon, I made a batch of baguettes, according to Anis Bouabsa's formula. I thought they were the most perfectly shaped and scored baguettes I've every made. As I was loading the three baguettes into my pre-heated and humidified oven, one fell off the back of the baking stone. As I tried to grab it, the other two baguettes fell off the peel onto the oven door. What a mess!

Uttering a few words which my wife has asked I not speak in the presence of our grandchildren, I scooped up the twisted heaps of formerly gorgeous baguette dough. Should I scrap the bake as a lost cause or attempt a salvage operation? What could I lose by trying?

Aequanimitas, aequanimitas, aequanimitas ... 

I was able to separate the three pitiful pieces from each other. I reshaped them quickly – one folded as one might fold a ciabatta, one coiled and one formed into a figure 8 knotted “roll.” I immediately loaded them onto the stone and baked for 10 minutes with steam at 460F and 8 more minutes dry.

Anis Bouabsa Not Baguettes

Anis Bouabsa Not Baguettes - Crumb

Delicious! 

I hope you all have a great week and that all your "disasters" are really "opportunities," when you look back at them.

David