The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Loading Baguettes into the Oven

zachyahoo's picture
zachyahoo

Loading Baguettes into the Oven

I'd love some input from the community on loading proofed baguettes into a home oven.

I've made baguettes twice now, both times proofing them on my linen couche (which works great). It's the next part that gets ridiculously tricky.

Do you guys use a transfer peel to get them from the couche to some other place? Do you use parchment paper? A baker's peel? Baking sheet?

Also, what do you bake on? I've been baking them on my baking steel. Would I be better off going with tiles for any reason (I figure steel gives off FAR more radiant heat than the ceramic would)

 

If I had a SuperPeel, I'd use that! But in the meantime.. lend me your secrets!!

 

Thanks!

 

Here's a shot of the last baguettes. And before you say so, yes, the scoring is awful. Far too lateral. Needs to be way closer to parallel to the loaf. At least the crumb was tasty!

alfanso's picture
alfanso

   

   

alan

zachyahoo's picture
zachyahoo

Just the person I wanted to hear from! So you put them in the oven on your stone with the parchment?

 

I'm curious how do you the seams too. Seam up in the couche? 

alfanso's picture
alfanso

on the couche although a lot of other folks do seam side up.  When I flip the dough onto the hand peel, the seam side is momentarily up, and when it goes from hand peel to oven peel, the seam side is again flipped facing down.  David Snyder has a video on TFL where he demonstrates using the couche itself as the "conveyor belt" to lift the dough off the couche and onto the hand peel.     

In bannetons, if one wants the seam down in the oven, then seam side is up so that when the dough is loaded onto an oven peel or into a Dutch oven, it is flipped over.

Yes, the parchment slides off the oven peel, in my case a baking sheet, and right into the oven.  Incredibly easy.  No need to use a medium like corn meal or rice flour, etc. between the oven peel and dough.  I avoid those for two reasons; the dough may still be a bit reluctant to sliding smoothly from oven peel to baking stone, and I want as little raw flour et. as possible on the dough - even the underside.

The dough is loaded into the oven on the parchment, which itself which stays in the oven until the steaming phase completes - ~12-15 minutes.  At that point, oven door opens, steam is released and I then remove the parchment paper, turn the dough 180 degrees from front to back, and also rotate the positioning of the dough from left to right.  

Additionally, the parchment paper itself is acting as an insulator, however slight, between the baking surface and the dough.  Also by moving the dough around in the oven we're giving equal exposure to hot and "cool" spots across the baking deck.  And we are also separating the dough as far from each other as possible therefore eliminating the dough from itself acting as insulators between the side walls of one another.

Parchment paper has a tendency to be a bit costly when purchased off the supermarket shelves in rolls.  Plus the curled paper from the rolls is a nuisance.  If you have access to a baking or restaurant supply house that allows folks like us (by us, I mean those without professional/business credentials) see if you can find parchment sheets.  Known also as "pan liners", they are incredibly inexpensive compared to the supermarket rolls - and lay flat .  The brand my local supply house (GFS) carries is called (drum roll please) "Pan Liners, Quilon Coated Baking Sheets" by Brown Paper Goods Co. of Waukegan, IL. (UPC 753277010356).  In a pinch they can also be had from places like Amazon, etc. 

The parchment does make a world of difference in the transfer from baking peel to oven deck in the absence of a conveyor belt type of peel.

alan

zachyahoo's picture
zachyahoo

Alan - or is it Alfanso?

Thank you for this reply! I recently watched your 38 min video of you making baguettes and found it really helpful to watch someone do all the steps. Baguettes are tricky! I tried to proof in parchment paper the other day and OOPS. Not a good plan. There's a reason my linen couche works so much better.. 

I think as soon as I have a transfer peel, I should be good to go!

alfanso's picture
alfanso

My first day of classes at the Italian Cultural Center I was re-christened Alfanso by the instructor (incorrect spelling - no extra charge!).  I made that video as a favor to a very distant acquaintance on the other side of the country, and every once in a while it has sprouted legs.  Thanks for watching it.  Some of my methods have changed since then, particularly in the area of retarding the cold shaped baguette dough back in the refrigerator and baking directly from there, no warm up, but otherwise it is still relevant.

As far as a transfer board, I wasn't going to pay USD $15 plus shipping, so my board is from the local home supplies store - a plank of cheap flooring cut down is what I use. The dough doesn't seem to mind.  But as Gordon stated, he doesn't use one, he just transfers the dough by hand.

Yes baguettes can be tricky and I've seen many a statement on TFL that they are "the hardest" shape to get down and score well.  I did nothing but baguettes 3 times a week, therefore ~10-12 baguettes a week, four scores on each for well more than a year, way past when that video was recorded.  Nothing else.  And sometimes I got it (the feel for it, especially the scoring) and then lost it for a week, maybe two.  Inexplicably, couldn't self-analyze why.  But it came back and eventually stuck.  And then onto batards!

What I believe you'll find is that every step is important in getting the dough ready to bake and then the subsequent bake itself.  And then a good baking deck and sufficient steam.  It's good to be (Freudian) anal about it all in the early days, but after a while it's just second nature.  Like shaving a beard - always being aware of what you are doing, but soon becoming rote over time.  

The fortunate few are naturals and get the whole package wrapped up nicely in no time, but for the vast majority of us what it really takes is practice, practice, practice and by the 10,000th I should have it down cold.

alan 

MonkeyDaddy's picture
MonkeyDaddy

I've done a couple braided loaves in the last few months and I had some "interesting" adventures in shaping the ropes before braiding them.  With the first loaf, I tried dividing the dough, then rolling each chunk into a rope the way you would use modeling clay.  The dough had bulk-proofed for a few hours so there was a lot of gas in it, and try as I might I couldn't get the ropes to tighten up as I rolled them.  They kept feeling like I was rolling surgical tubing back and forth.

The second loaf was an Italian Easter bread, using my wife's family recipe.  I divided the dough into 6 pieces to make 2 3-strand loaves, and I tried rolling the first strand as before with the same results.  Since I still had 5 more to go and most of the afternoon to play around with it, I decided to try something else.  I hadn't done a lot of baguette practice lately so I figured what the heck, if it works I've found a new way to make ropes for braiding, if not I at least get some shaping practice.  

I laid the dough out and rolled it into a smooth-ish cylinder, then started doing the baguette shaping.  After each baguette pass, then I did a light roll to smooth the outside then let it rest while I worked on the next rope.  It took about six baguette passes for each rope to get long enough and thin enough to braid, but by the time I got down to the last pass on the last rope, I was feeling pretty good about the shaping.  

I have been toying with doing a baguette one of my bakes in the near future since doing the braid.  I'm sure it'll leave much to be desired when compared with Alan's triumphs, but it will be fun, and I'm feeling a lot more confident about the shaping now.

drogon's picture
drogon

Couche -> transfer board -> loading board -> oven is a fairly traditional way - however...

One of my ovens is wider than it is longer, so I have to load baguettes into that one length ways. The issue there is that they sometimes roll off rather that slide - ending up with the scores on the bottom. Bother..

The other oven is square, so it matters not, but it helps to get the baguette end as close to the loading board as possible, so it catches on the stone base which helps drag it off the (well floured) loading board.

Or you could just proof in those metal (or expensive posh silicone) baguette trays. I used one for a while - worked just fine.

Stick with the baking steel too. It's fine. My wide oven has 10mm steel plates fitted instead of grids.

I often don't bother with the transfer board and just pick them up out of the couche by hand.

And for me; Seam up in the couche, down on the loading board.

-Gordon

Avibabyau's picture
Avibabyau

I bought a baguette baking tin which fits three side by side. I do the final rise in that and then just slash and pop it in the oven. My oven temp is somewhat unreliable so I Mist the inside of my domed Pyrex dish and  place it upside down over the  bread. Works  treat and I don't have to worry about transfers.

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Our back and forth spurred me on to create a short video, with you in mind.  Please take a look...

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/45536/video-baking-hamelman-pain-au-levain-mixed-sd-starters

alan

jcope's picture
jcope

Your scoring looks ok to me.  I've been scoring a cross-hatch on mine, which looks really nice.

After proofing ends, I roll the dough back halfway, lay a narrow piece of parchment paper next to it where it was, then roll it back into place on the paper.  That slides easily onto the peel.  Bread slides into the oven on the baking stone (tiles) on the paper.