November 18, 2016 - 3:54pm
rolled french breads??
So I've been making french breads/baguettes for years. Just turn out the dough and squeeze and roll it to lengthen. Easy. Now I see people who INSIST that the RIGHT way to make these is to laboriously roll out the dough into a large rectangle, and then roll up the rectangle into a long loaf. Huh? Why would I want to take the trouble to do that? I'd need my rolling pin, and a big floured board. Seriously, is french bread better when you roll the dough up from a thin sheet? Sorry. I can't see it.
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I guess it all depends on what you expect from your baguette. Here are a couple of shots of my first baguettes of which I was very, very proud:
Here are a couple of shots of more recent bakes:
Personally I like the more recent examples better than the first ones and the formula is just about the same. Shaping has played a big part in the development of an open crumb structure and more uniformly shaped baguettes. It has taken me months of practice to get things right and I am still learning every time I place my hands on the dough.
Folks who do this for a living will mostly agree that shaping skills are what takes the longest to develop in a good baker. I am a long way from being a good baker still. Consistency and uniformity are very important. Most of us can knock-out the occasional good baguette but can we do it 200 times a day, or at our level 5 on a weekend?
There are standards for the classic french baguette that critique several factors, and not seeing an example of your work it is hard to say if your baguettes would favor well. Last week, after shaping a few hundred baguettes, I had the opportunity to submit an example to two highly-respected baguette authorities and judges whose names you might recognize - Jeffrey Hamelman and James MacGuire. Let's just say they were more than kind and leave it at that!
With that said, there are about as many shaping techniques as there are bakers. Right now, if the bread is just for you, your family and friends, then your shaping skills are just fine. If you were going to try and provide a uniform product that competes with other vendors then your baguettes might require some different shaping skills.
My shaping skills are fine for me and it isn't about who else would favor my loaves or not favor them. My favor is all that counts. That wasn't the question. The question was what advantage is there, if any, of a loaf getting formed by rolling up a flat sheet of dough, as opposed to just cylinderizing a ball of dough. How does that kind of shaping by rolling bear on crumb structure or shape? Basically, why should I bother doing it that way, since it involves a lot of extra effort?
I've never heard of such a thing. Rolling would completely degas the dough. Most bread doughs aren't dry enough to roll with a pin. I'd roll out a ball of dough with my hands.
I have never heard of rolling any artisan bread dough. Too much handling and compression will degas the dough and my experience shows that the crumb will be dense and the loaves will be flatter. More incorporation of leavening, like levain or yeast, may build some of that gas back but you run the chance of depleting all the elasticity in the process - thus flat and dense bread.
I might suggest that you run this experiment yourself, record the results and provide some photos. What do you have to lose except 40 cents worth of ingredients and a little time? I think we'd all be interested in the results.
Yes. That's what I would think. Though I guess the dough could reinflate eventually. But there are many people that advise this method. See for example "Steve the Bread Guy" ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ6zPRvP8Lo
I'm tempted to call it bizarre.
I would have like to see inside that bread. He sure used a lot of flour and with all of that flattening, I am not sure that it would be a nice open crumb but who knows?
The only time I have seen that is when making challah. Even dough going into a loaf pan isn't rolled out. I guess he is trying to eliminate any possibility of holes in the final crumb. I can understand that. But all the flour used during the rolling process is the main problem.
Eliminate holes in the final crumb? Uh, is he trying to make Wonder Bread? I find this strategy hugely puzzling, especially since there is no explanation for it.
i have recycled all my very old cookbooks However when I made my first bread loaves (long before the internet) rolling was the instruction for bread pan loaves. I'm guessing it was Betty Crocker since that was my go to. I think the basic philosophy was to fit the loaf to the pan - not really sure. . Anyway you rolled the dough to a rectangle; rolled it up on the short side and then used the side of your hand to seal the ends. You then plopped it in your loaf pan seam side down. No need to handle carefully. By then it was anything but fragile.
I'm guessing the idea came from something somebody handed down from years ago. We've honed our skills over the years.
Thank you. Yes, I think this is some recycled strategy from some largely naive but worshiped cookbook. I've seen this technique recommended in other places as well. Of course, the word "rolling" can mean many things. This video (I just watched the first 30 seconds of it) does the kind of "rolling" I do. Just with fingers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc0p0CYiYy4
But a rolling pin for french bread? Holy moley!
Crazy ideas sometimes tend to go viral and, as such, are accepted a basic truth, because many people are saying them. I can see that this strategy could result in a perfectly cylindrical loaf, which might be someones idea of ideal french bread. Makes no sense to me.
FWIW, Joy of Cooking gives a recipe for french bread that calls for "rolling", but where the rolling is done with fingers. The picture shown, however, is fingers rolling what appears to be a flat sheet.
OK, let's just take that idea and throw it on the trash heap. Rolling pins and french breads don't belong together. Now then again, there was that guy who made french breads with a sledge hammer and pick axe. Ya think ...?