Love the crumb on those baguettes and many thanks for the thorough write-up and recipe.

FP 

I am desperately trying to find the time with NO success to do a write up about some sourdough + yeast baguettes using Anis's techniques. The flavour is wonderful!!!! Since you said the flavour wasn't that great with these ones, maybe you are just a die hard sourdough lover like myself. The sourdough added the flavour and the yeast, the lightness (though not as light as a full yeast baguette, but who cares). They were wonderful the next day toasted and it's rare that I like baugettes the next day.

Your baguettes do look lovely. I realized that the incisions do have to be deep to really get nice oven bloom (at least in my oven). And the stone has to be very well heated. They also need longer baking than I would have imagined. Anis made his apprentice put some back on the oven even though I thought they looked great. Then when I made them, I realized quickly that they LOOK finished but aren't!

I'm sure you'd love the flavour better with real T65 organic flour.

Jane 

David,

From where I'm sitting it looks like you've "nailed it"...Big Time.  You should feel very good.  You managed to figure it out via reverse engineering.  Thanks for keeping at it and expecially for sharing your techniques and recipe.  They're beautiful. 

Howard - St. Augustine, FL

Your baguettes look beautiful inside and out. Sorry you're not overly excited about the flavor, I wonder if Jane's SD recipe might please you more. They are gorgeous though and I'm sure would please most anyone who tried them. Thanks for the post.

About the chicken cacciatore...I always make mine the day before we eat it because it's best that way, same as osso bucco. Is that what you do too? Did you ever sizzle up some pancetta to start your cacciatore? Yum. Did you mix the broad beans with the fedelini or were they two separate side dishes? The whole meal sounds sooo good. Your baguettes must have been perfect with this dinner.

I've been getting Rancho Gordo's Giant Lima Beans and other beans and we just love them. Is Rancho Gordo near you? They are a great source of organic dried beans and if you buy as much as you need at one time the cost is not as bad because the postage is always $3.00. I think that's right.                      weavershouse

What else can I say?

I made a batch today (first time). Let me restate that. I made a batch based on the same measurements minus the commercial yeast. I see in your description you state it has a, "chewy mouth" and crust a little thicker than your traditional version. Mine has a that chewy texture and I used all purpose instead of bread flour. I am wondering if the bread flour in the preferment changed the crumb.

I used 215 grams of preferment (made 20 hours earlier and with bread flour).

They have a great taste and the crust is a little thicker than a store baguette. I had some issues with getting them into the oven (well, many issues). The crust kind of shatters like a thin hard candy when you bite, which I really like.

Anyway, you, Eric, Mark? Any thoughts?

Eli

www.elisfoods.wordpress.com

First of all, thank you for providing the cup measure for the recipe.  I have not gotten my scale so the volume measure is really helpful.  I tried to follow the recipe as much as I can.  However I am very eager to put my new wild starter (it was ready to use four days ago.  thank you jane for all the help.) to use that I replaced the instant yeast in the recipe with 1/4 cup of my pet.  I also added 1/3 cup more water.   I am new to sourdough so I am not used to all the shaping, scoring, etc.  Here's the result of my first attempt.

I have not gone through the shaping and scoring tutorials...I will eventually.  I did not use a baking stone.  Is baking stone critical to helping the bread rise?  My bread did not seem to rise like in most of the pictures on this site.  I know there's a lot of other variables that contribute to this, any pointers would be appreciated.

By the way, here's the photo of the crumb:

I loved the taste of the bread.   Hopefully, attempt #2 will be better.  Thanks again.

I set up a Group Bake on Facebook for this week, using Greenstein's French Baguette recipe.  It's a fairly straightforward recipe, and since a lot of the bakers in the group are novices, I thought we'd start with something simple.  That said, for my own baguettes, I decided to try Anis Bouabsa's recipe, as I've wanted to try it since I read about it here.

I was surprised at how slack this dough was.  I knew it would be, from what I've read about it, but handling it was still a shock.  I followed the instructions and David's hints. and was really pleased with the results.

These were easily the best-tasting baguettes I have ever had.  And the crumb, well just see for yourself:

I am going to make the Greenstein baguettes with some friends tomorrow (sort of a mini baking class at my house -- and I'm being compensated with really good wine!).  But I think the Anis baguettes may be the new standard.

Here's my version...  It's sort of a hybrid of Anis Bouabsa's and Reinhart's Pain Ancienne...

Here's the link to my original thread with recipe: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10546/facebook-group-bake-french-baguettes-22-282009

Tim

This actually sat in the fridge for almost 60 hours (something came up)

I am very novice and am having fun

How I envy all of you, eh !!!!!!!!  Thanks for posting.  I've made notes and must get this underway in the near future.

Robert in Anchorage

I have found Anis Boubasa's baguette recipe to be the best pizza dough for me.....When I make pizza dough, I use bread flour instead of AP flour.  I use 1 tsp. instant yeast instead of 1/4 tsp.  ....and I add 3/4 of 1/4 cup (weird measurement) olive oil.  This is a suprising very good pizza dough......

Photo of pizza....the  crust is very  crispy and  light......I really appreciate this Anis  Boubasa recipe.  My  baguettes come out very well using his recipe. 

I would like to thank you for this very inspiring post. This baguette was the best I've tasted so far in this pasrt of the globe. And the great news about it was how easy and straightforward the steps were.

I need to practice the scoring for an appealing look, nevertheless the crust was delicious.

Thanks again

Dione

I made this recipe last week and I must say I didn't get the flavor that everyone is talking about.  It was probably the blandest bread I've made so far (I'm wondering now if I had somehow forgotten to add the salt).  The dough was also so slack that it turned into a ciabatta shape.  I did get the crumb (holes and sheen).  I'll give it a second go.

Thanks for inspiring post! This is my first try, and in the quest for a proper french baguette, I agree with the rest that these have great taste. I do have a little training to undergo in order to get the shaping right (obviously), but I'm very pleased with the holes and the taste. Used 3,5 dl water to 500 grams of flour.

I got no rise at all. Basically a dead lump. Not the ingredients, as they're all fresh and have yield two good loaves today. I went very light on the kneading and wonder if I went too light. 

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

I have avoided baguettes because I could never get a good slash going (I know, I just need to practice on hundreds of baguettes every day, right?  :))

This recipe was so amazingly easy!  The mixing, chucking it in the fridge, the pre-forming, it's all so simple.  The only slightly complicated thing is factoring out what time you actually want to bake them.

Also, I tried a ceramis knife for slashing, dunno if it's the dough is easy to slash or that knife just slashes anything, but those were my best slashes ever.  (yes, I know, I still need practice :))

I used King Arthur Bread Flour, instant yeast, kosher salt and filtered well water.  I am definitely making these again.  I think I'll try it for pizza dough tomorrow night.

sorry, don't have any crumb pics, family attacked the bread before I could get any.  :)