glossy, open crumb in baguettes
I've been trying to get a glossy, open crumb in my baguettes but have been unsucessful so far. Today I made them at 70% hydration, and the crumb was still rather uniform and fluffy. Could oven spring have to do with this? I think the expansion of the loaves during oven spring has been somewhat inhibited by a handful of possible culprits. First, I'm wondering if my couche is too tight, as they don't spread out much at all, only upwards during final proof. Second, I feel like my surface tension should be tighter. I've watched the shaping videos by Mitch Stamm and Ciril Hitz, and theirs look completely smooth and taut, whereas my mine are slightly wrinkly, and have some surface bubbling going on. Third is the my scoring, which I have a bit of a hard time with, probably because my surface tension is not where it should be. Does the desired glossy and open crumb depend upon the surface tension and oven spring, or is it mainly a hydration thing? The doughs on those videos don't seem any more wet that what I've used. Also, as far as the bubbliness goes, when I read Peter Reinhart formulas, he usually says to try to degas as little as possible. In the baguette videos, they do a considerable degassing. Once their baguettes are formed, there is almost no trace of gas pockets. Anyone have anything?