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Many years ago, we lived for a while in a small town in France.  Every day I would walk to the bakery around the corner to buy our daily baguettes.  Could life be any better?   When it was my turn to order, I would conjure up my finest French: “Bonjour, Madam, je voudrais deux baguettes, s’il vous plait.”  To which Madam would reply “Combien”?  How many?  I would meekly raise two fingers.  As this continued over days and then weeks, I asked my bilingual friend why there seemed to be a failure of communication.  “When you say deux baguettes”, he said, “the French hear ‘de’. De and deux are not pronounced the same.  You need to extend the pronunciation of deux, drawing out the end of the word and lowering your pitch.   The proprietress hears you asking for de baguettes”, a grammatically nonsensical request for some baguettes.   But I knew that Madam was really just having her way with me, a little fun with l’americaine stupide.  And so it went.  Until it was time to return to the United States.  We did not want Madame to think, if we simply disappeared one day, that we had taken our business elsewhere.  So we went to the bakery for the last time and managed to convey to Madame that we were returning home, that we would miss les délicieuses baguettes, and we wished her well.  In return, she wished us bonne santé and told us we should revenez bientot, come back soon.  And then smiled!  Now, these many years later, while I await the magic of flour, water, salt and yeast and its promise of a Proustian feast of deux baguettes fresh from my own oven, I think of Madam.  These baguettes, scaled to deux, from DonD’s baguettes a l’ancienne with cold retardation, transport me back to France like no others. 

Hi Everyone,

This is my first entry and I hope that I can find some help.  I bake mostly sourdough loafs (75% hydration) with organic Bobs Red Mill flower (90% white, 10%wheat, or sometimes 10% sprouted spelt).  Mostly I am very happy with the texture and taste of the bread, however I have one reoccurring problem…sometimes my bread will stick to my benneton during the final resting period.  Is it a matter of not dusting the bowl with enough flower?  

I have tried letting it rest at room temperature for 4 hours, or overnight in the refrigerator (8 hrs), but I have had it stick both ways.  Any advice?

Thanks,

Redge 

This is a 60% hydration dough, for some reason that is , for me, the best hydration to work with.

Recipe:

250g Mature Wheat Sourdough 

450g Bread Flour

  50g Wholemeal * Only small amount as my Daughter does not like to much Wholemeal in the bread *

300g Water

  10g Sea Salt

A good handful of Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds

Mixed it all up, gave it 6 S&F every 30 Minutes for a period of 3 hours.

Bulk fermentation in the Fridge for 18 hours, let the dough come to room temperature , Shaping, final proofing in Banneton for 2 hours.

Baked in a Dutch Oven for 30 Minutes with the Lid on  at 250C and a further 20 Minutes with the Lid off at 200C.

Family agrees that this is the best SD  Bread so far.

Sorry for the missing Slice of bread, the shape was nicer and I should have taken the Images before I had a slice, one has to taste the bread;)