Sour Baguettes Made Pretty Simple
Just began attempting to improve my sourdough baguettes, and found a way that works pretty well for me. I don't know about most of you, but making a nice baguette has been a challenge for me. Shaping and rolling them out, then moving them to a proofing area, next transferring them to something which you can cover and retard with, then transferring them to your cooking vehicle for docking and baking, and finally, and most elusive for me, throw them into the oven where you need some kind of system for putting them into contact with steam in order to build that great crust.
This is what I did to produce the loaves above, which have me pretty satisfied at this point.
First, pick up one of those covered aluminum baking pans sized for your oven - Mine was 21" x 13" x 3.5". Then, using your favorite sourdough baguette or white bread recipe, get the loaves shaped and ready for their overnight retarding.
Line the pan with parchment paper (I use butter to hold it in place), and carefully place the loaves (my pan could fit 3) onto the parchment, and finally seal the tops securely, place the pans inside garbage bag, seal the bag tightly, and finally into the fridge.
The next day, remove the pan from the oven, out of the bag remove the aluminum tops and cover with a towell as long as they need before baking, score, replace aluminum tops and seal as securely as you can, then into the oven.
The covered baking time will determine the thickness of the crust - in the pic above the loaves on the right were covered for 15mins and came out nicely, and the ones on the left were left covered for 7mins and came out with a thing shell. Of course, your dough recipe will play a role in crust making, so you'll just have to play with the timing to suit your needs.
If anyone's interested, here's my most-basic-of-all recipe using a 100% starter.
1100 Bread Flour (I use Lancelot from King Arthur)
200 WW Flour
250 Starter
800 Water
30 Salt
This produces a nice not overbearing, sour note - pretty much what one gets from nice restaurants.
Anyway, hope this helps those of you who fear the baguette.
Steve
Thank you for the details on how you got those. They will be very helpful next time I make baguettes.
Nice going with lovely scores. Welcome to the baguette club. I've tried to encourage others as well to try them out. Even failed attempts taste wonderful while on the road to getting them down. In a pinch, my dog was loving my early failures every bit as she loves the more recent bakes.
alan
she would drool over yours!
Looks great - I'll attest to alfanso's comment about the baguette club - I'm a dedicated baguette nutter. How about some pics of the crumb if you havent already eaten them :)
Beautiful Baggies!
I broke the recipe into ratios so I could just take any amount of starter and go with it.
The ratio are 1; 3.2 ; 5.2
1 part starter (weight) 3.2 parts water and 5.2 parts flour (with 15% WW in the flour mix) 2.1% salt on total flour. (To go from any given dough weight, divide desired dough weight by 9.52 to get starter weight.)
The posted recipe has a total weight of 2380g.
A question. How many beautiful baguettes are you getting from the dough recipe? Six pieces at 396g or 9 at 264g ?
Oven temp? :)
Mini
Can you explain the necessity of this step:
"place the pans inside garbage bag, seal the bag tightly"
they look beautiful and that is a large part of a baguette's appeal! right?
Sorry, but let town right after posting the above results.
Answering the questions in sequence:
Unfortunately, the bread let town with us; but, the crumb was less than what I had hoped for. While there were some satisfying holes, it was tighter than I would like; however, the flavor did not suffer in the least. Today, I ran off some more, with the only difference being that I did not sprinkle with flour before sealing the pan lids; and the result, a shinier, tastier crust - though still a tight crumb I'll just have to commit to a wetter dough, and flatter end product.
Regarding the final count, I am getting two loads, each consisting of three loaves around 385g each.
And, finally, the sealed garbage bags are probably unnecessary, but I still find a little condensation inside the bags when removed from the fridge the next day; but, indeed very little, so good point made, and I'll probably omit the bags in the future. Good catch, thx.
Hope this help, and I will appreciate any suggestions for improvements, and look forward to any help I may provide beyond that already offered.
Steve
Steve - this is your baguette conscience calling. The garbage bags serve a real true purpose and you were on the right track using them. And here is why. That condensation on the inside of the bag is the dough sweating. If you eliminate the bags you are placing the dough at risk of having even more moisture escape and the dough will eventually suffer from a dry surface. And once that happens - well, the answer is too horrific to put into words on a family oriented website...
There is a reason that professional bakers use these.
Mini- Sorry, forgot to respond to oven temp. I start out at 500deg, then drop to 450deg after removing the tops.
Alfanso, always quick to heed the word of those more esperienced than I - garbage bags reinstituted!!
Thx.
Steve
I was also out of town. I took a trip shopping for jeans. It was hard to find simple, normal jeans without all the fading, stitching, rips, tears and scuffing. The reason I was shopping is that hubby has worn thru his work jeans and got them all faded, torn and scruffy. Big mistake. Next time I take his old jeans with me and trade, pair for pair, for the cheaper brand-new "just blue" regular jeans. Then take the money I saved to buy kitchen toys.
I'm using the cut off legs for my baguette couche.
Mini, I like the way you think!!
Steve