Pain a l'ancienne comes out mediocre
I followed PR's pain a'lancienne recipe to the letter, but something obviously didn't go right with my baguettes. The dough did double, though it was slow and still cold after 2.5 hours out of the fridge. The dough was incredibly slack and didn't feel like it had many air bubbles. Even though the oven was at 550 for the first few minutes, I maxed out the baking time, and internal temp was around 207 when I took them out, the color is pale like it wasn't hot enough. Texture is pretty dense with smaller bubbles, and the crust is pale, soft, and thin. The only thing I can think is that the steam creation sucked too much heat from the oven, and it never recovered to really brown up these baguettes. What do you think? Should I try a different baguette recipe?