Baguettes - at last a reasonable bake
This is not my first baguette, but definitely the best effort. Used Hamelman’s Baguette with poolish. I have upped the hydration a bit to 72% and replaced a bit of flour with some soya flour 2% (after reading Abel’s comment I thought why not!) so here we go..
Last night mixed poolish and left overnight.
156 g flour + 156 g water + 0.3 g instant yeast
Today: Mid morning poolish looking good, mixed final dough ingredients together and added poolish.
301 g flour + 7 g gluten flour + 9 g soya flour + 9.5 g salt + 1.5g instant yeast.
100 SLAFs, rest for 5 minutes then another 110 SAFs. Dough was very soft and didn’t feel really smooth until second batch of SLAFs. Final dough temperature 25°C, room temperature about 22 - 23°c.
Although Hamelman says do 1 fold after an hour, I decided to do 3 x coil folds 30 minutes apart. I kept to the 2 hour BF though. Dough was definitely poofy and risen.
So I tipped dough out and divided into 3, supposedly each 275 g - don’t know where it went but 3 dough balls were only 260 g each! Did a sort of preshape and rested only about 10 minutes. Final shaping was a bit hit and miss. I wanted to have a quick look at SFBI video but wouldn’t you know it, the internet went down!!! Anyway tried to remember. I think I should have rested dough longer but got there in the end. Used my couche, covered with wet towel and left to proof. At the 1 hour mark, I popped the dough in the fridge as I wanted it a bit cooler for scoring. After about 20 minutes I checked with finger poke which indicated the dough was ready. Baked 20 minutes with steam at about 430°F.
I know they aren’t perfect but I am reasonably happy with them. The scores didn’t open properly and as you can see, the middle one had a blowout instead. It’s funny, since doing SLAFs (200 approx) I find I am having much much less trouble with shaping - dough is definitely easier to handle and less sticky.
Next time - same formula I think (baguettes are light as anything), tighter preshape and definitely longer and retard dough longer so scoring is easier.
Will post crumb shot once I cut one, maybe tomorrow.
Leslie
Comments
Reasonable? Your baguettes look very good! I can not even imagine how difficult it is to shape baguettes.
Good bake!
:)
they should all be the same length!! as they all weighed the same. I think a longer bench rest would have made them easier to roll as they resisted a bit. Maybe type of flour played a part too.
still, I stressed less over these so that is good. Thanks Solano
Les.ie
For a first time or two, these look fine and should provide an impetus to want to repeat a few more time (or a few dozen more times!). Just getting past he "fear" factor of making baguettes is a really good first step to getting it down.
Consistent length - what I recently mentioned to Kat was that with not too much time invested, muscle memory starts to kick in, and you will be rolling these out at a consistent length, give or take a few milimeters. The two outside breads have a good consistent shape, and quite soon all three will too.
Weight vs. total dough weight - I experience the disappearance of several grams all the time. I've looked in my sock drawer and under the pantry cabinet, but to no avail. What it comes down to is several grams getting lost to each surface that the dough touches, particularly my hands constantly having bits of dough washed away at each stage. So I stopped worrying about that eons ago.
If you give the dough about a 5 minute rest about halfway between your initial and final French Folds, you'll see a clear difference in the dough's behavior immediately.
" a longer bench rest would have made them easier to roll as they resisted a bit". Indeed. Let's give the dough time to relax and "organize" itself and get use to its new shape away from the bulk. Quite recently I started to give a 30 minute rest between pre-shape and shape and have noticed a difference at the final shaping stage, so I changed my M.O. Your pre-shape doesn't have to be tight, and if you watch enough videos (of the good guys and not the hacks) you'll see that they by and large opt for a "soft" and minimal reshape in terms of tightness. However, a good pre-shape will reward you handsomely with a better opportunity at the final shaping phase. Try it, you'll like it. I did and I do!
Baking at 430dF is too low. kendalm bakes his at as close to 500dF as he can get, and you see what he produces with fabulous regularity. I opt for the 470-480 range with approx. 13 minutes of steam coming from two sources. It does make a difference in the delay of the gelatinization of the crust. Hence, a great oven spring.
Your blowout on the middle baguette, is relatively minor, and I'm wondering if it is on a seam that isn't down and facing the baking deck. I've had a few of those. However minor it takes some oomph away from the scored areas.
And referring to scores, they look quite good. Maintaining a narrow band across the top of the baguette, and overlapping nicely if not a bit too much overlap. A lot of folks have issues gettin that problem solved, but you are already there.
Overall, a bake worthy of being happy about!
alan
The middle loaf ended up with seam on top and I tried to flip it again, so I reckon you are spot on as to where the seam ended up.
I have found I need to ru. my oven on convection to keep the temperature up, but normally use a DO. Obviously I can’t with baggies and it did drop to 350°F. I have two fan settings, one uses an element at the back around the fan and this is my preferred one, but I used the other which just uses the normal bake element but blows the air around. it did bring the temperature up a bit. I was afraid of drying the crust out too much even though I used lava rocks and Sylvia’s steaming towel method. So ok next time I will bake as hot as I can, just not sure how I will go re the fan.
thank you the scoring comments, very helpful. blade angle was probably a factor too. I dislike scoring warm really soft dough so will retard longer next time.
many many thanks Alan, most encouraging and helpful.
Leslie
They look awesome! I agree with you that after doing slaps and folds, the dough seems to handle so much better. It definitely isn’t as sticky!
almost a light bulb moment when I realised what difference it makes. thanks Danni
Leslie
I've baked this recipe quite a few times and getting some really satisfying results from it.
The pull and fold takes a little practice but I'm doing it now without even thinking about it and glad that I learned how to do it.
I haven't gone for their 80% yet but will do so soon, wanted to get this down pretty good before an attempt.
It's working!
http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/our-easy-french-baguette-recipe/
I might give that formula try.
happy baking
Leslie
looking good ! Just a quick point re soy flour - 2% is kinda high - I don't know what it is about soy but it can really slacken the dough especially with long bulk methods - 0.5% is more common and you will notice a change - what i have found is that it can really help crumb at times and also kill it - weird stuff for sure !
but now I am intrigued to see the crumb. A really good tip to know. thanks Kendalm, I will post crumb as soon as one is cut.
Leslie
A little disappointed. Tastes good but not as open a crumb as I had hoped. oh well will have to try again soon!
Leslie