Calling on all Master Baguette Bakers
Hello Bakers...2 years ago I gave baguettes a try and I was so intimidated that I retired them from my baking list right there after lol. Last week I got the urge to finally give it another try and I went with the Bouabsa version, pretty simple and straight forward but the outcome was eh... pretty lame .
Crust color was dark but yet pale-ish and thick. crumb was very tight for a 75% Hydration formula, one thing I was proud of was my shaping, these were small ficelles so they are difficult to shape. I used KA AP flour and maybe that's part of the issue with the thick crust. I"ll list the formula below for those not familiar with it and I would appreciate some feedback as to how I can correct this.
Some things that might've gone wrong - Underproofed? they looked fully proofed to me after 1 hour on couche on a warm August morning in NYC.
500 Gr. flour
375 Gr. water
10 Gr. salt
1/4 tspn instant yeast,
Mix and hand knead for a few min. Richard Bertinet style followed by S & F in bowl at 20 min. intervals for 1 hr. Left the dough for 48 hrs, instead of the recipe's called 24 ( I don't see anything terrible here but the masters can chime in).
Out of the fridge directly to scaling and preshaping with a 45 min rest, to shaping and 1 hr. proof en couche and baking at 480 deg. with steam for 20-25 min. I thank you all in advance.
Ray