Baguette Shaping...Suggestions Welcome!
Hello, Friends...
I'm practicing making French bread and seem to have the texture, flavor, and crust okay, but the problem that I have is in the shaping. I've been following Peter Reinhart's instructions as to preparing the pate fermentee, mixing, fermenting, and proofing, but when it comes to shaping the final dough, I end up with something between a baguette and an oval. It looks okay, kinda rustic. From what I can see in the video that came with Ciril Hitz's 'Baking Artisan Bread', he uses a wetter dough that takes the shapes like magic. I'm using a dough that is stiffer. From my final dough, I can get a batard or boule, but I need some help on getting a more tubular shape and those wonderfully crafted ends. Here's what I baked up today...how firm or slack should my final dough be so that I can get a better shape? Thanks!
Russ