Obtaining large holes in French bread
I am so very close to getting a great loaf of French bread. Taste: fantastic. Crust: deep golden and brittle (though it could be a bit thinner. Crumb: ever so slightly moist and faintly sweet. The over-all taste is slightly nutty flavor. Great, so far. Problem I get a semi-open crumb but I can´t seem to get that last step and get a wildly open crumb that I see so often in various post photos-
I use a Poolish which is 100 % hydration 12 hr and it has doubled and is covered with bubbles. and smells of alcohol. The entire dough is at 74 % hydration.
Poolish 20 gram w.w. flour; 80 gm unbleached A.P. flour ; ( 1/4 C. water with 1/8 tsp instant yeast, mix until disolved;) Use ONLY 2 tsp of yeasted water and add 90 gm of plain water. Stir just until moist ,cover and set on counter for 12 hrs..
Dough: 104 gram A.P. flour, 3/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp instant yeast , mix well with hands. Add 52 gm of plain water and all of the Poolish. Stir with a heavy wooden spoon for about 2-3- minutes until it comes together into a shaggy ball that clears the side of the bowl, Rest 10 minutes. Knead well for 7 minutes (since it is so very, very sticky I use just the tips of my fingers of my right hand only, to lift up and over, push down and away. Turn bowl a few inches repeat over and over ) . Rest 20 minutes do a stretch and fold, repeat 2 more time with a 20 rest in between. Place develped dough in a lightly greased bowl and ferment 1 hr. Punch down and a few seconds of kneading. Ferment another 1 and 1/2 hour. (at about 72 F room ). Dump onto a heavily floured counter and gentle pat down. shape into a Batard shape. Reset 10 min, gently shape into a stubby log by lifting up the front and pinching the seam half way up the dough. Lift up the back of the dough and bring it forward the the front of the loaf and using thumbs to press down and push away to get some surface tension. Rest 10 minutes. Gentle pat down and with side of the hand create a seam down the center of the loaf , Lift bach of loaf to the front seal again with thumbs while pushing away again to get more surface tension. Rest 10 minutes. Gently grabbing the ends of loaf stretch out to 15" and place into a baguette pan. Bag and proof for 45- min to 75 minutes depending upon how rapidly proof is progresssing. Meanwhile preheat oven to 475 F with a cast iron pan on oven floor and a stone on the middle rack. When I´m sure the stone is up rto temp I slash the loaf heavily mist it and put it into oven. IMMEDIATELY I pour 1/2 cup of boiling water into cast iron pan. At 11 min into bake I rotate loaf to get an even bake, Continue to bake 11 minutes more. Turn off oven and open it a few inches to dry crust. Cool on wire rack.. I can see thousands of tiny, tiny hole in crumb and a few the size of a grn pea but no holes the size of a cherry which is what I want. A wildly open crumb. So, very close but no cigar. I tried kneading way less but that was worse, heavy flat loaf. Ant ides ? Thank you.
The change that had the biggest effect for me in getting larger holes was steam. I use a handheld steam cleaner (basically a kettle that shoots steam) and cover the bread with an upturned aluminium tray like the kind you see in hotels for serving buffet foods (steam tray I believe they are called).
Handling of the dough, especially at the shaping stage, makes a huge difference in how the crumb turns out. You just have to be patient and practice a lot. It will come eventually with experience.
Also you should never 'punch down' dough If you want light airy crumb with large randam-sized holes. That's the technique more commonly used for bread that wants more even, finer crumb.
I'm with lumos. Punching down destroys the cell structure you're trying to create. For example, when you tip out the dough, you have to do it ever so gently, using you dough scraper to clear it from the bowl before it rips apart.
It might also be worth re-working your shaping technique. The widely used Hamelman Fold and sealing technique gives you great surface tension without disrupting the internal structure too much. You can see Jeffrey Hamelman himself demonstrating all this on King Arthur Flour's videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuQ5K9eLfJ0&index=4&list=PLE2D447C3F9AAD68F&spfreload=10).
Finally, most bakers prove their baguettes seam-side up, then roll them over to bake. This gives you an nice even distribution of those beautiful big cells in your crumb.
There are also some excellent videos on these techniques posted by TFL members. A quick search should turn them up.
I don't bake baguettes using the same sequence you do, nor do I bake as small a quantity of dough as you do. Consequently, these suggestions are reasoned from your posted process and time-line.
1. I'm not certain you're using enough yeast. You're essentially using only 1/64 of a tsp. of yeast in your poolish. Furthermore, after fermenting for 12 hours, and your posted description (bubbles and alcohol smell) I suspect your poolish has passed its peak insofar as the yeast is concerned. Many of the yeast cells will have died due lack of free sugars in the mix. I suggest you reduce your poolish fermentation time to 8 hours.
Additionally, if cutting back on the poolish fermentation time doesn't help--or not enough--consider using 3/8 to 1/2 tsp. of yeast in your final dough.
2. This may be self-serving, but here's a link to a post I made about 3+ years ago, regarding my approach to baguettes. Like many other bakers, I firmly believe open crumb is aided by retarded fermentation. (Also firm, but gentle hands as Lumos suggests.) Note: the final results with a 65% hydrated dough shown in the link.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24931/baguettes-and-kiss-principle
Happy baking,
David G
Thank you all for the posts. 1st, I only make a very small amount of dough so I can experiment and not waste product. I was making larger batches but it got to be a waste when things failed. Which they often did.
As per steam, yes I´m with Sirrith on this. I´ve tried numerous different methods including the inverted steam table tray. Does anyone know how long steam should be used . TIME ? Currently I´m steaming for 11 minutes but I could cut that down eaisly enough just by reducing the amount of boiling water I dump into the hot pan.
Lumos, I only punch down after the 1st bulk ferment but not the 2nd bulk ferment. Believe me when I say I´ve got bubbles , bubbles and more bubbles after the 2nd ferment. Perhaps too many bubbles ´cause some of them are real monsters, say the size of a huge grape. I will definately check out Hammelman´s method on shaping. Part of my confusion comes from reading Peterson, DiMuzio, Beranbaum and others and sometimes they say exactly the opposite thing.but i agree I, no doubt have much to learn about shaping.
As per yeast amounts, I don´t think I over fermenting the Poolish because it has not even started to collapse. I use lg. Pyrex measuring cup and I mark how far up the side the new Poolish is when I first make it. And I mark where doubling would be. Alcohol ? Hmm ? All my reading tells me that I want very much alcohol to get that great taste. I´m delighted with my French bread taste As per amount of yeast in the final dough, I have used every tiny different measurement: 1/16 tsp, 1/8 tsp 1/4 tsp, 3/8 tsp 1/2 tsp all the way up to 1 tsp. . Obviously 1 tsp is WAY too much but I tried it anyway. Yuck,, bad tasting bread.
One note. To me firm is the opposite of gentle. I am gentle with a baby. and firm when I train a dog. Yes, yes, I know all the books talk about firm but gentle or an iron hand in a velvet glove but it does not resonate with me. Some times i can be as dense as bad bread. <<<Haha