My Second Attempt at Making French Baguette
Hey guys,
I am pretty new to this forum but oh my does it have a great amount of information! I have a pretty good professional cooking background (even though I am an engineer lol) but I recently became interested in bread making. I tried making a baguette for the first time and the result was ok... it had a nice outer look and a nice oven spring but the crumb was a little off. I read a lot about what makes a good open crumb and, despite what I read, I came to the conclusion that the main reasons for an open crumb result are: a couple of very gentle stretch and folds, long cold fermentation, and very little kneading (I'm sure a lot of you bread professionals know that). Once, I even shaped my loaves aggressively just to see if it affects the final result (because I read that you are supposed to shape the dough very loosely to obtain an open crumb) but it had no affect on whether I achieved an open crumb or not!
oh I also wanted to mention how I steamed my oven. Well, I kind've made a little steamed oven inside my oven. I used a big turkey roasting pan, preheated it with the lid on at 500F, and placed a small turkish coffee pot (google it) filled with boiling water at the corner of the inside of the roasting pan. Then I put my loaf on nonstick aluminum foil and placed it inside the roasting pan, put the lid on, and reduced the heat to 460F. After baking/steaming it for 10 mins, then I took the roasting pan lid off and removed the turkish coffee pot before baking the loaf for another 13 more minutes or so.
See pictures of my results! Questions and comments are welcomed :D