The Fresh Loaf

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WHICH FACTORS EFFECT A BAGUETTE'S CRUST??

EKMEK's picture
EKMEK

WHICH FACTORS EFFECT A BAGUETTE'S CRUST??

Hello there,

I know how to get a crunchy crust, by controlling the steam.  However, what other factors effect the crust?

I have seen crusts of all types: reddish, yellowish, smooth, rough, with or without bubbles, clean edges of the cuts, rough edges, etc, etc.   Yet I have no idea how to achieve such variations.

Any suggestions?

Happy Thanksgiving,

 

David

 

 

 

 

 

dobie's picture
dobie

Hi David

From my own experience (not expertise) I can say that the doughs I've built where the flour has been longer in water and longer fermented produce the redder brown crusts. I understand that to be because of the sugars developed from the starch by enzymes in the process. I hope I'm right, but regardless, that's what works for me.

Blonde crusts come from shorter processes to my experience.

Good luck

dobie

EKMEK's picture
EKMEK

Thanks Dobie,

this is interesting.  I wonder though how do you achieve longer fermentation for the same recipe? do you reduce the yeast amount, or what?

 

David

 

dobie's picture
dobie

David

The short answer is Yes. I don't know the recipe or techniques you're currently using so it's hard to advise exactly.

There are many different methods of lengthening fermentation but here is what I do when making 'baguette/pizza' dough.

I make a poolish the night before in which I add (and mix together) all of the water in the recipe and a equal weight of flour, 1/2 the yeast in the recipe and none of the salt. I also usually add about 15% whole wheat, white whole wheat or some other whole grain flour (as part of the flour total) which not only boosts the flavor but leads to a redder crust as well. I make sure all of the whole grain flour gets in the poolish.

Be sure to make the poolish in a container that is oversized by at least three times the volume of the poolish as it will rise, potentially by quite a bit.

In the morning, I add the remaining yeast, flour and the salt and mix it up and knead smooth. Let it relax 30-45 minutes and then stretch and fold every 20-30 minutes until the gluten seems well developed. It is then ready enough to use. Actual 'hands on' time is probably about 15 minutes to this point (spread out over 10-12 hours).

A day or two (or more) in the fridge, only makes it better.

As a guide line, I use 1/2 ts (about 1.5g) total Active Dry yeast for 5 lbs of dough. Sometimes a little more or less, depending on the room temperature. There are many recipes that call for a 'packet' of yeast (which I believe is 2.25 ts or 7g) for about 2 lbs of dough. If your recipe is anything like that, I would suggest you cut back on the yeast dramatically.

Good luck

dobie

Trevor J Wilson's picture
Trevor J Wilson

Reddish crusts -- I've gotten reddish crusts from longer/colder ferments and also from high extraction flours. At one of the bakeries I use to work at I could get a reddish crust on baguettes from mixing a cold straight dough with just a small pinch of yeast that I would then let proof overnight (at room temp) for 14-16 hours. Also got great open crumb and wonderful flavor from that method -- better than from our regular poolish method. I believe higher enzymatic activity can lead to redder crusts. High extraction flours and long ferments can lead to more enzymatic activity.

Yellowish crusts -- Usually short fermentation and light baking.

Smooth/Rough crusts -- Can often be attributed to proper/improper shaping. Torn surfaces can lead to rough crust. Also, understeaming can lead to tearing and rough crusts.

Bubbles -- Small surface bubbles are usually a result of retardation, and are far more likely to occur in baguettes that include some sourdough starter. In general, the colder the fermentation the more likely for surface bubbles to occur. And the chances increase even more when the dough includes sourdough -- even if the baguettes are primarily leavened by commercial yeast.

Clean/Rough cuts -- Clean cuts come from nice dough and skilled scoring. Rough edged cuts are most often the result of poor technique. If the blade catches on the dough when you score it will make for a ragged and torn edge that leads to rough cuts. Dull blades are also a factor here. And wet/soft dough will only exacerbate any cutting errors. A slightly dried skin can help make for a smooth clean cut. Lightly flouring the surface before scoring can help if the dough is too wet for clean cuts. Wetter dough makes for rougher cuts, and vice versa. Edit: Also, surface tension of the loaf is VERY important when it comes to clean scoring. The greater the surface tension, the smoother and cleaner the blade will slice through dough leading to smooth grigne. This starts with well made dough, properly prerounded, and nicely shaped. The more tension built into the dough, the better the cuts will bloom as well.

Those are the variables that come to mind. There are many more variables involved and I'm sure others will point some of them out.

Cheers!

Trevor J. Wilson

EKMEK's picture
EKMEK

Trevor and Dobie,

you are very kind, and I learnt a lot from your detailed answers.

The baguettes that I am making are per the Bouabsa method of cold fermentation. I use a french flour, either the T55, or T65 from L'Epicerie in NY. The dough is cold fermented in the fridge for 21 hours, and then shaped, proofed, and baked in a 480 degree oven with 7 minutes of extensive steaming. 

I'd like the baguette to be more reddish, with less tiny bubbles and less smooth and shiny ( cake like ) in appearance. What would you suggest?

 

David

Trevor J Wilson's picture
Trevor J Wilson

Hi David, 

Regarding the color, are those flours malted? If not, a small amount of barley malt could go a long way towards getting you closer to that reddish color you want. If they are malted, does your dough go straight into the fridge after mixing, or is it left to proof for a while before being refrigerated? If it goes straight into the fridge then it's possible that your dough has reduced enzymatic activity resulting in lighter coloration.

As for the crust blisters, avoiding refrigeration entirely will likely take care of that problem. 

The reason your baguettes are so smooth and shiny is likely because of over steaming. Baguettes only require a light steaming in order to help with oven spring and blooming of the cuts. Too much steam will result in a shiny crust with cuts that open poorly. 

It now occurs to me that when you mentioned rough vs. smooth cuts that you probably meant cuts that opened with that nice tear vs. cuts that left little more than a smooth slash on the surface. The answer I gave you before was in reference to the actual cut edge of the grigne (rough or smooth). But if I'm understanding you better now, you want the "rough" cut. Correct? If so, that comes from proper scoring (correct depth/angle) and, just as important, proper steaming (not too much).

It sounds to me like a big part of your problem arises from too much steam in the oven. Too much steam will give you smooth cuts and a shiny crust. High amounts of steam also contribute to crust blistering. 

If you try any of my suggestions, just try changing one variable at a time to help you isolate which techniques are the ones that give you the most bang for your buck. Good luck.

Edit: Pictures would go a long way towards helping us diagnose your problems. Without them, we're just guessing at what's going on.

Cheers!

Trevor J. Wilson

dobie's picture
dobie

David

There are three things very clear to me.

One, you are obviously baking at a sophisticated level.

Two, that I am somewhat embarassed for answering your question as if your recipe came from the 'back of the bag'.

Third, that Trevor is a very experienced baker (much more so than I) and I am glad to have become aware of him by your question.

I am not familiar with the 'Bouabsa method' but I would love to hear more, if you care to expound.

If I remember correctly, T55 and T65 flours are somewhere around 11-13% protein? Similar to All Purpose flour here in the US? BTW, where are you geographically?

If you are cold fermenting 21 hrs and not getting 'red'; first, that surprises me; second, I would be thinking flour, not process; and third, maybe the substitution of 15% to whole grain flour, might have an effect.

A few years ago, I did some fairly extensive tests (for me, anyway) regarding how much whole grain flour I could introduce to an otherwise lean 'white bread' recipe, and still have the dough respond fairly close to the original recipe.

I was trying to balance increased flavor with the behavior of the dough/bread (health be damned) and I settled on 15%. Not 12, not 18, but 15%.

Now, that was a while ago and I think differently now, but, as far as a 'keeping the recipe the same' approach, I think it's valid. Hopefully, we'll see what Trev has to say.

I would imagine, considering that you are already doing long ferments, that that might give you the 'red'. Maybe you could do a small experiment that increases whole grain flour in your normal process, and see what happens.

As I understand it, the 'red' comes from sugars. I will assume you are building lean doughs, so adding sugar would not be an option.

But I think Trevor might be on to something when he suggests adding a bit of diastatic malt, as the enzymes within would accelerate the conversion of starches in the dough to sugars (and it is still, after all, just another form of flour).

Diastatic malt is very easy to make, and if you would like, I'd be glad to share the process with you.

Also, whole grain flours are more enzymically active than whites, so again, that might be the simpler answer.

Are you baking professionally or privately?

Anyway, thanks. Hope I didn't offend you.

dobie

alfanso's picture
alfanso

While I will not disagree with Trevor's notes above, for one because his knowledge and skills seem to be far superior to mine and my experience, I will add this: One can also achieve good oven spring from a lot of steam, and blisters from non-SD dough.

I spent a lot of time with the Bouabsa's when I first started and first started dedicating myself to doing baguettes well - a year-plus project. As these are IDY's and not SDs, they can, and do, display some blistering from the long fermentation.  I also heavily steam my doughs for anywhere from 10-13 minutes, but still get some really decent oven spring too.  So it can be done.  I subscribe to a dark baked crust, and there is also some significant red in the crust, although the camera tends to over state how much by a little.

My scoring skills have developed nicely and along with a nice taut skin on the dough, these also contribute to the oven spring.  But as much as anything else, there's nothing like practice, practice, practice.  Here is an example what can be done with the Bouabsa baguettes, from my latest bake of them at the end of July.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

braed straight from the fridge if I remember correctly.  I to get much better blisters when baking straight from the fridge no matter if SD, yeast or yeast water.  Cold dough makes great blisters but you also get even better ones with Mega steam or a DO

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Yes, dbm, you remember correctly.  I've been at this baking thing, particularly baking directly from retard of shaped cold fermentation, for such a relatively short time.  Until very recently I'd never heard that before.  (I think it was) Gordon a few short weeks ago, if that, who mentioned blisters on bread via this method, and I had never known that.  There's so much to learn about this craft, and I'm still a relative new person to home baking.

Live & learn (and bake).

alan

dobie's picture
dobie

Trevor

Some great posts. Please don't disappear.

I love (in posts) when things I've found true are confirmed and then things I am questioning have answers suggested. It gives me faith.

When you say you add a pinch of yeast to 'cold straight dough' what do you mean? What is the state of the 'cold straight dough'? Does it already have yeast in it (and then add a pinch more), or otherwise?

Thank you very much,

dobie

Trevor J Wilson's picture
Trevor J Wilson

What I meant was that I would mix up a batch of baguettes using the "straight dough" method (no poolish/pre-ferments). I would only use a small pinch of yeast (scaled for batch size) since I intended to let the dough sit overnight for so long. I never weighed the yeast, just eyeballed it. Not something I would recommend, but I'd been doing it long enough that it was never a problem.

And I would make sure to mix the dough very cold (usually with a water temp in the mid 30's -- as cold as our water chiller would get) to delay the fermentation.

I would make the dough around 1-3pm in the afternoon and then come in the next morning and shape it at 5am. I would just mix it until everything was evenly incorporated, but I wouldn't develop any gluten -- it would form that on its own as it sat overnight. Because I used so little yeast, and mixed the dough so cold, it was never overproofed when I came in the next morning.  The dough had slowly come to room temp and was perfectly proofed and ready to go.

This method made baguettes that were better in flavor and crumb than our regular poolish-based baguettes. The long overnight soaking of the flour helped to increase enzymatic activity in the flour, thereby releasing more sugars. This is probably what gave the baguettes a reddish tint compared to our regular baguettes. Though there was no poolish, the long fermentation time (even longer than the usual 12 hour poolish we were using) brought tons of flavor to the dough. 

Additionally, the crumb was much more open. I would actually make the dough a bit stiffer than our regular dough, but by morning the flour was so fully hydrated and relaxed that the dough felt softer than our regular dough. And it was so much more extensible which made for better shaping, oven spring, and crumb texture.

I guess you can consider that a form of the no-knead method.

I hope that helps.

Cheers!

bboop's picture
bboop

Ooooh, those are beautiful. a year you say? ;(

 

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Hi bboop,

No it didn't take a year at 2-3 bakes/week to get there.  The skill was acquired in less than that and just honed over time.  Plenty of good shaping and scoring was already in place within that time frame.  But always room to improve.  However, I did virtually nothing but baguettes over that long stretch figuring that I'd get it down before the next millennium hits ;-)  Once I was sufficiently satisfied, I moved on to batards!   Everyone has their own pace of progress, so it all depends on the individual.

alan

BTW My wife's life long friend Betty has Betty Boop paraphernalia al over her house. 

bboop's picture
bboop

Good for you, Alfanso. My baguettes are not yet 'crusty and beautiful' but I consider it a challenge. Yes, betty boop stuff is so cute. I don't have 'stuff' but nicknames.

EKMEK's picture
EKMEK

Gentlemen,

I am humbled by the depth of your knowledge, and grateful  for your advice.  If I may, let me respond to some of your comments.

Trevor:

- I add 2 tsp Non Diastetic Malt powder per 2 lb flour.

- the dough sits one hour at room temperature before refrigerating.

-Over steaming - I suspected that.  What do you recommend as far as steaming, method and duration.

- Oven temp - I start at 500 degrees, and reduce it right away to 480.  But the steam causes it to drop to around 430, and it hardly rises.  Is this right?

- Scoring - what is the proper depth/angle?

Dobie:

- I am a home baker, stumbling in the dark, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

- The Boubasa method:  see for example Alfanso's excellent video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYvORu_oLYc

- the T55 & T65 flours that I use have 10% protein.

- Whole Grain Flour - I was afraid it will cause the dough to be dense.  I'll try it again

-  No, of course you don't  offend me.  On the contrary.

Alfonso:

I have been admiring your baguettes for a long time.   In your opinion, what gives them this lovely color?

 

 thank you  all so much.

 

David

 

 

 

 

alfanso's picture
alfanso

David,

I'll defer to Trevor on some of his wording about color: Reddish crusts -- I've gotten reddish crusts from longer/colder ferments (this is a very long cold fermentation dough) and also from high extraction flours. At one of the bakeries I use to work at I could get a reddish crust on baguettes from mixing a cold straight dough with just a small pinch of yeast (the Bouabsa dough uses very little yeast) ...

I take pics very shortly after the bread has emerged from the oven, still quite hot, and prior to it having a chance to oxidize and lessen in coloration or sheen from the steaming portion of the bake.  I'd also mentioned that my phone's camera tends to enhance the reddish tone of the baguettes a little.  Perhaps due to being on a black background with an incandescent light immediately above.

(thanks for the video plug.  I made it to fulfill a promise to an acquaintance on my return after a summer away from home.)

alan

EKMEK's picture
EKMEK

Alan,

1.  What do you consider "long fermentation"

2. you said you achieved a reddish crust by mixing a cold straight dough with just a small pinch of yeast - can you explain? when do you mixe what?

3. Phone camera distortion or not, your breads are fabulous.

 

David

 

alfanso's picture
alfanso

David,

1.  What do you consider "long fermentation".  

Anything that retards for, let's say, 10-12 hours or more.  The Bouabsas, have a 21-24 hour cold fermentation period, therefore they can thrive on very little yeast.

2. you said you achieved a reddish crust by mixing a cold straight dough with just a small pinch of yeast - can you explain? when do you mixe what?  

Actually that is what Trevor J Wilson stated, which I just copied from his reply to you.  But, for example, the Bouabsa baguettes use less than a gram of IDY for the standard formula as laid out by David Snyder and Jane years ago.  I think that might qualify as a pinch.  Here is the posting by David with the "original" formula: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/8242/anis-boabsa039s-baguettes

3. Phone camera distortion or not, your breads are fabulous.  

Thank you.  I worked pretty diligently to get there, but it is still a pleasure to know that someone else also appreciates it.

dobie's picture
dobie

David

It seems like you are stumbling rather well (tho, pics would be nice).

Thank you for the youtube link to Alan's video showing his (and dmsnyder, janedo's) method for 'Bouabsa' baguettes. I hadn't seen that before.

I was going to start a batch of my normal 'baguette/pizza' dough tonight, but you have altered my course. I am going to attempt to follow Alan's video as exactly as I can (other than substituting in 15% whole grain flour). Then, I will try Trevor's 'cold straight dough' method using the same ingredients.

I am not married to 'poolish' and both of their methods seem simpler than mine (which, all things being equal or better, I'm in favor of).

Basically, I make my 5 lb batch once a week or so. I divide it into seven 11-12 oz (around 326g) portions that I put into appropriate containers and stack in the fridge to use throughout the week. Good portions for the baguettes and 10 inch pizzas I make.

Everything is better with a two day ferment (tho a pie can be made day one, if necessary). But I have learned not to attempt a baguette untill after at least two days fermentation.

This is a link to an image of one I did last week with 6 day old dough (BTW - when in PhotoBucket, if you click the 'magnifying +' icon first and then right click/view image and magnify/click again, you can see all the gory detail).

http://s1037.photobucket.com/user/baguette/media/20151125SeededBaguetteCrumb_zpsug4evmf8.jpg.html?filters[user]=144323157&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0

Just to be clear, this was one of the few times I did not include 15% whole grain flour (it was a mix of AP and Bread flour, just to clean my bins out).

Girl has a habit of bringing home various (over-priced) 'artisan' breads, that, tho they look beautiful and are well crafted, don't taste like much.

I try to emulate the ones she likes, but in my own style. The bread she brought home (that this bread mimicks) was one of the few times that we actually agreed upon in opinion. The bread was 'blah' but the seeds were great. So, thus this experiment. Poppy, flax and sesame. It went fast.

I'm going to watch Alan's video again and proceed from there tomorrow morning.

Thanks again

dobie

tom scott's picture
tom scott

I too greatly appreciate the video.  It was very well done and highly instructional.  When I get up the nerve to try a baguette I will certainly refer to this video.  Thanks.

dobie's picture
dobie

tom

I highly recommend that you give it a try. It truly is as easy as Alan shows in the video.

A little finesse comes with time, but even the failures are better than most of what you can buy.

dobie

EKMEK's picture
EKMEK

Thank you all.  Now it is time to try the wealth of all these ideas.

 

David

dobie's picture
dobie

Yes David, it is.

I did as I threatened and built a batch of dough yesterday pretty much in accordance with Alan's video. It will be out the fridge in about three hours.

I did some further reading of janedo and dmsnyder's original threads and discovered a few things.

Apparently, in the original attempts of 'Bouabsa' baguettes, kneading of any kind was kept to a bare minimum. Also, the double hydration technique was not initially involved. I'm sure these were refinements made later, but interesting.

The notion was presented that T65 flour in France is approximately the same as All Purpose flour here in the States with the addition of 15% Whole Wheat flour. Since that is my habit anyway, that is what I did.

So, having deviated from Alan's recipe, now there is a price to pay. When I did my initial mix, it looked a little stiffer than Alan's video. I realized, of course, WW flour absorbs more moisture. So, just intuiting a guess, I added 10g of water for the second hydration. This worked out pretty well as my dough then seemed very much like Alan's in the video.

So, I was all ready to do my 300 french folds, but found that after about 10 or so, my dough looked like Alan's did after 300. Hmm, what to do. I just went about the 3 stretch & folds in the next hour.

However, I checked it again at another 20 minutes, and it clearly needed more S&Fs. I ended up doing another 3 over that next hour and then set it to rise for an hour before putting it into the fridge.

After that hour, it had again collapsed significantly, so I gave it one more S&F and let it proof another hour. At that point it looked pretty good, so I put it in the fridge. Soon, we will see.

dobie

EKMEK's picture
EKMEK

Dobie,

Your enthusiasm is catching.   My baking is all trial and error, and it is always an adventure.

You wrote that you prepare 5 lb of dough, and use it over a week.  could you describe what changes take place as the dough gets older.  Is there an optimal fermentation time?

In regards to french t65.  AP plus some whole wheat is a good approximation.  However the french flours are softer, and milled finer.  You should try it once.  L'epicerie of NY sells them online.

As far as the kneading goes, there are all kind of approaches.  I suspect that if the dough is wet enough, not a large amount of kneading is necessary.

Keep us informed. 

Isn't it fun?

 

David

dobie's picture
dobie

I agree David

About what changes take place over the week; to my experience, once in the fridge, the gluten structure as well as what 'bubbles' that existed at day one, only develop further. After (about 48 hrs later), it is just so bubbley and ripe, that even when 'punched (meaning gently flattened) down', even a pizza dough has great volume. If formed to a baguette (or otherwise) it can also create a wide open crumb.

Extended to a thin base, the pizza crust can be puffy and crisp (properly baked) and the base, crisp and almost cracker like. That's how I prefer it, but there are many styles.

By day four, you might notice a slightly 'sour', fermented aroma (which only gets better by days 5-7). My habit is to bake it up one way or another by that time, so afterwards, I don't know.

Thank you for confirming the T65/WW flour equivalent. I am not going to try true French t65 flour because I am afraid of what might happen should I love it. I am way too frugal and locally sourced at heart. Well, ok, maybe once (just for the experience, and thanks for the link), but no more. See my problem? I'm trying to get simpler and more local, which is difficult and expensive enough (if you know what I mean).

Interesting on dough hydration, I've usually found that the more hydrated, the more time or kneading (by whatever means) is required to develop the gluten, but what do I know? My mind is always open to new thoughts and procedures.

And I couldn't agree with you more, it is all truely great fun.

Thanks for that.

dobie

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Hi dobie,

Ensuring that credit is due in all the right places: I copied David's formula verbatim from his blog post.  And also basically followed the timings as well.  He (and janedo) are those that did the heavy lifting and thus should receive the credit.  I did what I usually do, which is to find some things to modify that suit me, and if they work, then I stick with them, else change a something or other around (or go back to square one).

Where I do deviate is in the number of FFs so that I can feel as though I get that really smooth consistency and ensure good gluten development up front.  And then of course, my recent change to pulling the bulk from retard for divide & shape somewhere along the line, and then the bake directly from retard.  

But as far as timings, go, I do abide by David's posted guidelines.  I find that my way of doing the divide and shape, pretty much anywhere along the line, give me a lot of scheduling freedom.  As I've mentioned elsewhere, I control the schedule, more or less, instead of the schedule controlling me.  This method works if one has sufficient room in their refrigerator (i.e. a half shelf that can be cleared) to load a couched tray of shaped dough.

Wow!  I came to TFL looking for fortune, but so far all I'm receiving is a smidgen of fame, according to this thread!  Maybe I have to rethink the fortune part and find a quilting or goat herding website instead ;-)  "Not that there's anything wrong with that!"

Good luck with the bake.  And do as dbm says (me too).  Give that dough a healthy dose of steam up front.

alan

dobie's picture
dobie

Alan

First, to Msr. Bouabsa for being so generous as to share his recipe and technique. Then to janedo for her tenacity to experience it first hand, and then documenting and sharing that. Then dmsnyder for developing a workable home-baker recipe (and last, but not least), to you Alan, for bringing all of that together into a wonderfully informative video.

As I was researching thru the earlier posts of janedo and dmsyder yesterday, it was a bit of a whirlwind, so if I missed (or misappropriated) a detail or more, I apologize. I did not get to read thru everything, but I will try to shortly.

It is time for me to bring the dough out and preform, so I must go, but I will get back.

dobie

Barbara G's picture
Barbara G

I just got back to bread-making after a hiatus caused by moving, etc. Baguettes are my bag... Anyway, I found Alfanso's video for making the Anis Bouabsa recipe and it is great. I learned a lot just watching.

One problem I'm having with the 300 French folds: while it started to come together after about 10 folds or so as seen in the video, it shortly thereafter started to 'fall apart'. It turned into a sticky mass that stuck to my gloves (which I subsequently got rid of), and stuck to the bench so much there was no 'slapping' involved. Then, possibly it was my imagination, it seemed to go back and forth between starting to come together, and then get sticky again. I finally resorted to using the dough scraper and doing a combination fold/slap depending on how the dough was acting. It did eventually move in the right direction, but I'm not sure it has as much strength as Alfanso's seemed to. Also, I don't know if I got to 300, being completely incapable of counting and dealing with misbehaving dough at the same time.

I just did the first fold after 20-minutes and it seems okay, but still a bit tackier than I expected.

Anybody have any thoughts one what was going on?

Thanks for any thoughts on this. Oh, I'm using T55 and H2O, yeast, and salt in the amounts shown in the video.

Barbara

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Boy, haven't seen a comment on this post for quite a while.

I think that I may have mentioned that it is pretty common for a lot of doughs mixed this way to act exactly as you describe.  One of my first forays into this dough, when it fell apart at around fold 80-100, I thought that I had mis-measured and dumped it in the trash!  It's an oddity how these come together, then fall apart, then rinse and repeat.

As far as sticky, that seems surprising to me since a T55 is similar to American AP flour.  If you find it uncomfortably sticky, and want to do this again, then drop the hydration down a few percent.  It won't bite, I promise ;-)

A remedy is to moisten your hands or even use a scant amount of oil on them to keep the dough from sticking.  At such minute amounts of water or oil it will not alter anything.

There's nothing magical about 300 FFs.  I just decided that 200 wasn't enough, but I'm certain that it works just as well.  You might want to divide your FFs in two, and allow the dough to rest for ~5 minutes in between.  I've since found that this helps to tighten up the dough and make it more manageable.

Remember to moisten the workbench during the Letter Folds.

Good luck and don't give up the ship!  This is a great introductory IDY baguette to get your baking skills back in order!

alan

 

Barbara G's picture
Barbara G

Yes, you know I thought about walking away from it for 5 minutes. I might try that next time. Will also try keeping my hands wetter.

By the way, I just completed the three series of letter folds and the dough looks and feels pretty good. It's in the frig now for a good night's rest. 

Your advice about water for the folds helped.

I've been having poor success with scoring, oven spring, and crust color, though using the basic Bouabsa recipe the flavor has been quite good. I'm going to take your scoring hints and use your streaming approach to see how that helps. 

Thanks so much for the encouragement.

Barbara