The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

First try at Ficelles

scottfsmith's picture
scottfsmith

First try at Ficelles

The wonderful pictures in dmsnyders recent bog post -- http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/9839/ficelles-made-anis-bouabsa039s-baguette-formula -- inspired me to try it out.  I did a room-temperature ferment with less yeast (100 grains of active dry yeast) for 24 hrs but otherwise did pretty much the same.   I got everything to work except the scoring which I still can't figure out how to do on such wet dough.

Scott

 

Eli's picture
Eli

those look great and the crumb is awesome!! Did you proof on a couche?

Eli

 

www.elisfoods.wordpress.com

scottfsmith's picture
scottfsmith

Thanks Eli.  Yes I proofed on a couche for 45 minutes as per the recipe.  It was very easy to do it that way even though I had never tried it before.  My peel is not long enough for these loaves so I transferred them from the couche to parchment after rising and cooked them on the parchment.

The family loved these, I now have only have half a loaf left of four I had three hours ago.  I have been doing whole grains only up to now but I can see the seductive power of white flour in how these guys got inhaled!  I am going to try some part white/part whole wheat next.

Scott

 

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

If the proof is in the eating, your ficelles are proven. ;-)

My dough was not as slack as I expected it to be, presumably because of the flour I used. If you want your dough drier, use less water next time. Of course, there is a trade off with the wonderful open crumb you got.

Did you look at the photos of Bouabsa's own baguettes that Flo Makanai took at his bakery? Look here:

http://aulevain.canalblog.com/archives/2008/08/13/index.html

David.

scottfsmith's picture
scottfsmith

Thanks for the link.  The lower pictures on that page have more wet dough like I had but the Bouabsa baguettes at the top appear to be drier like yours (based on what is visible of the scoring).  I was low on white flour so I used a mix of flours including 1/4th Italian pizza flour which needs much less water.  Now that I know the dough texture I will aim for a touch drier next time.

Scott

 

holds99's picture
holds99

They look very nice...and lovely crumb.

Howard

ericb's picture
ericb

Just curious, what is a ficelle? I tried doing an image search on Google, but I had to quickly abort. The first image to show up had nothing to do with French Bread, and has no place on a work or family computer (you have been warned)!

Anyway, is a ficelle simply a very tiny baguette? I'm having trouble judging scale in the picture this post.

Thanks.

Eric

 

holds99's picture
holds99

"A very thin version of the baguette. Ficelle means string in French."

Howard

LindyD's picture
LindyD

Not sure why you are using Sir Lancelot flour for ficelles, as it is a very strong flour.  Makes fantastic bagels, though.

You might like the results better with KAF all purpose.

BTW, welcome to TFL.