April 21, 2016 - 7:42am
Baguette Failures
Hi all,
While I feel comfortable with boules and batards, the baguette shape and finish always elude me.
Here is last night's failed attempt.
The dough looked nice while proofing on the cloche, they got really deformed when I transferred them to the baguette baking pan.
I have a large oven and can't seem to steam it enough either. Even with 3 bread pans with towels to create steam and a dump of water on a hot cookie sheet to exaggerate the steam, the crust is just so bland.
I'm determined to figure these out but wanted to see if anyone had any ideas on how to better transfer the baguettes to the baking pans and how to add even MORE steam to the oven. I want to create a rain forest environment in there!
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http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/45495/loading-baguettes-oven
If you have a gas oven venting will likely be an issue. The towels must already be at the steaming level by the time that you load the dough, with enough water to maintain their steam. You also should have a husky and sufficiently heated pan with some/a lot of thermal mass in it that was heating the entire time the oven was pre heating. Dumping very hot water, as much as 2 cups, into that pan and then closing the oven door will create a lot of steam. It doesn't matter all that much what you put into that pan, but get it preheated well. Lava rocks, nuts and bolts, metal plates, old jewelry, your mother-in-law's fine silver, etc. are all fair game.
I do have a gas oven...I had never thought about the venting.
I'll study the post you mentioned and see how to improve.
My towels were indeed steaming the the cookie sheet was preheated and created a lot of steam, just not enough steam I suppose!
Thanks again, I'll keep trying!
This post should solve both problems:
http://www.breadcetera.com/?p=85
Thanks for the link. I used to read that site regularly when it was active! Ahh the days of RSS.
I read Alfanso's post and it had some very helpful tips. I will be cutting up some spare floor boards we have from a home project last year as my flip board and will also go out buy some lava rocks this weekend. I have a roasting pan in the shed that's just sitting there neglected, so might as well put it to good use!