The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Baby baguettes

tomdrum's picture
tomdrum

Baby baguettes

Hey guys

I am pretty new around here but I am a bit of a bready and thought I would share last nights baguettes with you all. There were a pretty simple bake but super tastsy and highly recomended, should have made more than four little babies but now I have the formula I can..and so can you :)

Pre ferment

100% Flour (I Used yorkshire Organic 85% extraction)

100% Water (cool)

2.6 % rye sour (mine is 50% hydration and was taken from the fridge)

I fermented this at approximately 22˚c for 30 hours or so, it had risen quite well but not yet fallen back on itself

 

Dough

100% Flour ( I used doves organic strong white)

152% preferment

43.5% Water

3% Salt

1.25% yeast (I used active dry yeast as this is what's in my cupboard, if using fresh I would say that around 2% would be fine and for instant around .6 or .7%)

If the yeast and salt levels seem a little high and the water a little low that is because there is a lot of flour & water in the preferment. I think this works out at about 68% hydration all in.

I mixed the preferment, flour and water (holding around 8g of water back which i used to dissolve the yeast in, had I fresh yeast I would have just added all the water now) roughly mixed and gave a 30min autolyse. I then added the salt and yeast which was dissolved in the remaining water and slapped it about (french style kneading)  for about five minutes until it all came together nicely, formed into a little boule and left it to start fermenting, the dough temp was 21.9C. I checked it after thirty minutes and the dough felt a little slack so I gave it a quick fold and then left it to ferment for one hour. Once the hour was up I scaled it (140g, like i said they are baby baguettes) and round up into four boules and let rest for around 25 minutes. I then shaped them and let them proof on the couche for about 55 more minutes. I then baked then in my horrible oven and the best it can manage, which on an average day is about 190˚ and a good day 205˚c (you don't wanna know about the bad days!) today I got a good 195 out of it. They baked (with steam) for about 25 minutes, if I could get the oven to hit 225 or 230 then I guess that these would be done in about 15-18 minutes and the crust would be much better for it. They did taste great though

linder's picture
linder

Those baguettes are beautiful, and the crumb is just awesome!

lumos's picture
lumos

Very interesting formula using rye sour as the only levain.  Maybe a bit of inspiration from Eric Kayser's famous sourdough baguette?

Would love to try this next time I make baguette. Thank you for sharing .....and welcome to TFL! :)

best wishes,

lumos

ananda's picture
ananda

Hi,

Lovely baguettes indeed, and I've spotted you using flour from Yorkshire in the pre-ferment!

Welcome along to TFL

Best wishes

Andy

tomdrum's picture
tomdrum

Thanks folks for your kind comments and welcomes, I am so happy you like the look of my bread :) To be honest Lumos, I have never heard of Eric Kayser's famous sourdough baguette's but i will be sure to look them up. I just like to chuck a but of rye sour into just about anything as I feel it really adds to the flavour. Basically I looked at these as baguettes with a high percentage of poolish in them, I just decided to use my rye sour in it instead of bakers yeast. I certainly am using Yorkshire flour in them Ananda, I visited Yorkshire Organic Mill a few weeks back and had a great time, and came home with a fairly decent ammount of their wheat and rye flour - highly recomended

ron45's picture
ron45

I came here today  to find out about baguettes. In particular the chewy crust. I'm not a big fan of non whole wheat breads. But there are times when 100% WW s too heavy for inclusion in a meal. The texture of the baguette's crust is a mystery to me. I bake in a home built Canadian down draft oven made of mostly clay soil and straw with tons of vermiculite as well and a fire brick floor. 

As everyone mentions your baguettes are beautiful. Do you or our other readers know what it is that accounts for the chewiness of the crust? It's got me interested in baking again.

I stopped a year ago or so because I couldn't make dough that would rise well without adding unbleached flour. But I had not tired a sour dough version. I used spelt as my whole grain and added several teaspoons of extra gluten and did over night mother techniques as well as plenty of resting and stretch and fold over several hours. Maybe we can get my whole wheat bread "off the ground" this time around. That would be a real treat for me. I can make a meal of whole wheat bread and cheese, or a little hard salami. That's been hard to find lately. The Gallo stuff was very good for my tastes. I haven't found a decent substitute yet. Maybe that's a good thing. Salami and whole wheat bread just about cancel each other out from a healthy eating point of view.

Ron