Rustic Baguettes made with Nury Light Rye dough
Rustic Baguettes Crumb made with Nury Light Rye dough
As promised, I made some baguettes using Nury's Light Rye dough from Daniel Leader's "Local Breads." I followed Leader's recipe except for using a couple tablespoons less water, thinking it might work better for baguettes. In hindsight, I don't think this improved the product.
For those not familiar with the recipe, it is documented in Zolablue's original posting of her baking of this bread.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/5500/pierre-nury’s-rustic-light-rye-leader
This was an excellent thread. It led me to make this bread myself for the first time, and it remains one of my very favorites.
Leader's recipe calls for patting out the mass of fermented dough into a 10 x 10 inch rectangle, cutting it in half with a bench knife and gently transferring the cut pieces to floured parchment, then immediately baking it on a stone with steam. For these "baguettes," I simply sliced off 3 portions, about 2.5 cm wide each, and stretched them gently to 12 inches as I laid them on the parchment. I baked with steam at 500F for 10 minutes, then removed the skillet and loaf pan with the water and turned down the oven to 440F. The bake time was 17-20 minutes, total.
The baguettes are beautiful, in a very rustic way. The crust was very nicely crunchy, and the crumb was chewy. The taste was wonderful, as it always is with this recipe. The main difference between these baguettes and the "proper" Nury Light Rye is that the baguettes have proportionally much more crust, and the crust stays crisp rather than softening.
My efforts to make traditional baguettes will continue, but this version is one I'll be making again.
David
