Txfarmer 36 hour baguettes

I am getting kind of stuck in a sourdough boule sort of rut and given the various possibilities I could be stuck here permanently and yet I'm hankering to be able to make a decent baguette. Hence, I've been wandering about this site and seeing some tasty looking recipes that play into my desire to let the dough do a lot of the work. Thanks to all these fine bakers for sharing their methods! But I was getting confused trying to keep the variations straight, so I put them into a table so I could try and see what was going on. So many routes to tasty bread to try out depending on how the mood strikes:

I changed it to an image so I could post it, this should be the PDF version on Google Docs

I put together some dough according to Bouabsa, but shaped and proofed according to Fromartz. Alas my slashing and shaping need some work in baguette form, but I'm pretty happy with the crumb:

A couple of weeks ago I tried TxFarmer's 36 hour sourdough version but I had some issues transferring the rested baguettes to my oven and the results were less than stellar.  After experimenting with a different formula for a couple of bakes I decided to go back to this recipe and see if I could get some better results.

I think this time I achieved something close to the crust and crumb that TxFarmer creates.  These ended up being the best one's I've made to date and tasted excellent with a nice light and crisp crust and chewy crumb.  The only thing I need to improve is my shaping and transferring from the couche to the peel and baking stone.  I just purchased a new larger couche and flip board so I'm anxious to see how that turns out.

I also want to try this formula with some changes and additions and see if I can still get a nice open crumb.  I also want to try this in a batard and boule when I get a chance, but maybe with a slightly lower hydration.

For the recipe and directions please visit TxFarmer's blog post above.

This post has been submitted to the Yeast Spotting Site here: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/category/yeastspotting/.

Misty wants you to know she prefers mice to bread any day.