The Fresh Loaf

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Sjadad's picture
Sjadad

I baked David's version of Pane Pugliese. I didn't have durum flour so I followed Peter Reinhart's suggestion in BBA and used 1/3 as much semolina. Otherwise I followed David to a "T". To be honest, I was a bit concerned about not scoring the loaf. I had visions of a tight, dense crumb.   I worried for nothing, as you can see.

    

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

This bake was similar to the last one with a few additions.  We added some spelt and rye upping the whole grains to 60%.  We upped the water roux another 40% or so because we liked the last bake so much and 40 percent more of fine tasting has to be teeth dropping,.  We added aromatic seeds including coriander, anise, black and brown caraway and fennel.  We also put in some pumpkin and sunflower seeds and some pistachio nuts.

 

Since this bread got larger and more weighty, we decided to make a boule instead of a loaf and hope to be able to turn it out into a round cake pan before putting it into the hot MagnaWare turkey roaster.

  

This bread is even wetter than the last one, in the very high 70’s at least and we didn’t want it to spread out too much so, the cake pan would have been useful to hold the boule together and keep the spread to a minimum but it wouldn't fit.

  

We stuck to the 4 and 40 hour method of the last bake hoping the extra whole grains wouldn’t cause the loaf to ferment too much in the fridge.  After 24 hours it looked fine so we cross our fingers and hope that it will hold up after the last loaf over proofed.

  

This time we will bake this bread cold out of the fridge hoping to catch it before this one can over proof.  Since we had so much add ins to incorporate, we divided them into 3 separate adds – one for each S&F.  The scald went in first followed by the aromatic seeds and then by the rest of the seeds and pistachios all 15 minutes apart.

 

Also trying to keep the bread from over proofing, instead of an hour of ferment on the counter after S&F’s and  after shaping we cut these down to 30 minutes each.  And instead of S&F’s this dough was so wet we did French swlap and folds to incorporate the add ins instead.  It is really weird to have an apprentice speaking French with a German accent.

The bread un-molded easily onto parchment that was lowered after a quick T-Rex slash into a cold aluminum DO.  The DO was placed into a cold oven that was set for 450 F.  When the beeper went off (about 20 minutes later), saying the oven was at temperature, we set the timer for 25 minutes of steaming woth the lid on. 

After 25 minutes we took the lid off and turned the oven down to 425 F convection this time.  5 minutes later we took the bread out of the CO and placed it on the stone where it hit 205 F on the inside in 6 minutes.  Total time in the oven cold and hot was right at 56 minutes. 

We let the boule crisp on the stone in an off oven with the door ajar for 10 minutes.  Can’t wait to cut into this bread because the smell off the aromatic seeds is quite nice and near intoxicating.  I was hoping to wait 24 hours to cut this bread open but ……

Sadly, this bread also had little spring and bloom but it didn’t collapse either – just like the last bake.  It may be that the 40 hour retard is too much when using a YW and SD levain in conjunction with a biga and Tang Zhong.  That is the great thing about bread.  With a baseline established there is no telling what might be possible.

Janet's mash with the whole multi-grains and 3 yeast boosters, seeds nuts and scald really made this bread taste fantastic.  If you were stranded on an island this is the bread you would want to take with you.  I thought the last batch was tasty but this puts it to shame. the aromatic seeds really put it over the top.  The crumb isn't as open as the last bake but this one is more glossy and it has way more whole grains that we love so much.  My apprentice finds it much more difficult to eat holes anyway.... and this bread is plenty airy enough as it is.

Formula

Starter Build

Build 1

Build 2

Total

%

WWW & AP SD Starter

10

 

10

1.83%

White Whole Wheat

62.5

 

62.5

11.42%

Spelt

0

30

30

5.48%

Dark Rye

0

30

30

5.48%

AP

62.5

 

62.5

11.42%

Yeast Water

75

 

75

13.70%

Water

50

 

50

9.13%

Total

185

60

320

20.09%

 

 

 

 

 

SD Starter Totals

 

%

 

 

Flour

172.5

31.51%

 

 

Water

130

23.74%

 

 

Starter Hydration

75.36%

 

 

 

Levain % of Total

24.00%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dough Flour

 

%

 

 

Red Malt

2

0.37%

 

 

Toadies

6

1.10%

 

 

Vital Wheat Gluten

5

0.91%

 

 

White Malt

2

0.37%

 

 

Rye

90

16.44%

 

 

Spelt

90

16.44%

 

 

AP

180

32.88%

 

 

Total Dough Flour

375

68.49%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salt

9

1.64%

 

 

Dough Soaker Water

245

44.75%

 

 

Dough Hydration w/   Starter

65.33%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scald & Soak

 

%

 

 

Spelt

50

9.13%

 

 

Rye

50

9.13%

 

 

Total Scald & Soak

100

18.26%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add - Ins

 

%

 

 

Sunflower, Pumpkin 20   ea

40

7.31%

 

 

Pistachio

30

5.48%

 

 

Barley Malt

17

3.11%

 

 

Coriander, Black &   Brown Caraway

15

2.74%

 

 

Anise 5, Fennel 5

10

1.83%

 

 

Tang Zhong

190

34.70%

 

 

Total

302

55.16%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Flour w/ Starter

547.5

 

 

 

Total Water w/ Starter

375

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hydration w/ Starter   & Adds

70.05%

 

 

 

Total Weight

1,334

 

 

 

% Whole Grain

60.70%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tang Zhong not included   in hydration calculations includes

 

12.5 g each Spelt and Rye and 10 g Oat w/ 175 g of water

 

 

cranbo's picture
cranbo

Inspired by a recent thread, I decided to tackle creation of a copycat recipe for Joe's Squared pizza from Baltimore. Anyone want to try it out?

Update 1/26/2012: when I first developed this formula and made this over the last 2 days, it started with a very liquid starter (~170% hydration), then to a loose sponge (~114% hydration), to a firm final dough (~59% hydration). It was also created for double the quantity, to ensure that the sourdough build would be successful. I've now updated it based on what I've read and learned about Joe Squared's pizza, as documented later in this tread: generally lower hydration, original bulk ferment, and more fridge time.

Cranbo's Cubed Pizza

Makes about 4 personal-sized (200g) pizzas.

STAGE 1: STARTER

Caputo 00 flour,50g
Water,60g
Sourdough starter,25g; OR use a pinch (1/16 tsp.) of yeast

STAGE 2: SPONGE

Stage 1 starter,135g
Water,200g
Caputo 00 flour,200g


STAGE 3: FINAL DOUGH

Stage 2 sponge,535g
Caputo 00 flour,300g
Water,69g
Vegetable oil,12g
Salt,12g

TOTAL WEIGHT (g) 928g

TOTAL FORMULA
Caputo 00 flour, 100.00%
Water, 60.7%
Oil, 2.15%
Salt, 2.15%



PROCESS
Stage 1:
Dissolve starter in water
Mix with flour until well incorporated
Set aside overnight at room temp (75F for 8-12 hours) 

Stage 2:
Dissolve stage 1 starter in water
Mix with flour until well incorporated
Let sit at room temp (75F) for 2 hours
Refrigerate overnight (8-16 hours)


Stage 3:
Next day, let come to room temp for about 30 minutes
Add stage 2 sponge to mixing bowl
Add flour, water and salt

Mixing and Kneading:
Knead for 1-2 min at lowest speed, just until it starts to come together as a ball
Now add oil
Knead for 5 min at medium speed (Kitchen Aid speed #4)
If you're going to use same-day, start preheating oven now to 550F with your pizza stone, sheet steel, or cast iron griddle. You'll need to preheat for at least 1 hour.

Bulk rise:
Let bulk dough rise 2 hours at warm room temp (75F). You can probably go longer if desired; however, you do not want your dough to more than double. 

Shaping:
At this point, shape into balls, grease lightly with oil, and refrigerate for future use; OR divide into desired pieces (200g is probably the right size for small individual servings).

Generously flour your rolling surface, and roll out to 1/8-1/4" thick using a rolling pin. If dough is too elastic and springs back, let it rest for 10 min, and try again.

Place pizza dough on cornmeal (on pizza peel or parchment)
For true "cube" square style, use a pizza wheel or a sharp knife to cut a 10 or 11" square.  
Top pizza as desired, putting ingredients right up to the edge in true copycat style. 

Bake at 550F for 3-7 minutes, until bottom crust is browned and toppings are melted as desired.

UPDATE 2012-01-26: my first bake is in the thread below. 

Maha Jawed's picture
Maha Jawed

Hi Guys, 

I'm new on this blog, infact fairly new at baking bread. The past three weeks have all been about bread. Have tried my hands at baguettes, ciabatta, sandwich bread white and whole wheat. All with varying results. Some were great, others not so much. 

My biggest challenge, and rightly so, has been baking Sourdough. I've been following Richard Bertinets recipe from him book Crust. Followed everything to a tee but had some unsatisfying results by the finished product. 

My Starter:

50g spelt flour- 150g strong white flour- 20g honey- 150g warm water.

I combined everything very well and let it sit for around 48 hours. After which the skin darkened a bit and had lots of bubbles. Everything was going according to the recipe/pictures. I then fed the starter with

30g spelt- 280g strong flour- 150g warm water

Left it for 24 hours after which it smelled sweet and lightly fermented. Again, all was going according to plan. I then used around 200g of starter and added:

400g strong white flour, 200g warm water

Mixed it well and left it for around 15 hours. After which, to slow the fermentation, i transfered the starter to the fridge for around 48 hours. Now Richard says by this point the starter would've expanded a bit. Mine didn't expand too much, in fact i felt the top was quite hard and it didn't have too many bubbles on top. But when i moved the skin around i felt the starter below had many small holes and was quite sticky. I thought it may need more time to ferment so i left it in the fridge for another 12 hours. It still looked the same. I didn't have a great feeling about it but i went ahead anyway. 

A day before baking, the recipe asked to use around 400g of the starter mixed with 700g of strong white flour- 650g warm water- 20g salt- 90g of spelt flour. I mixed all the ingredients except the salt, transfered it to my counter and started kneading the dough (the lift and slap method) for about ten minutes after which i added salt and kneaded it for another 5-6 minutes by which time the dough was quite smooth. I lightly floured the work surface, turned the dough into a ball and left it to rest for an hour. Now the book says to then flour the work surface again and let it reast for another hour before cutting it and putting it in the proving basket, but somehow i managed to miss this step. And after letting the dough rest in the bowl for an hour i proceeded to cut/shape and put in the proving basket for around 20 hours. 

The next day the book/dvd said that the dough would double in size and feel very soft from the inside with a hardish skin on the outside. I felt my dough was definitely sof on the inside with a skin outside but it didn't expand too much. I decided to bake it anyway to see what the result was so i took the dough out of the proving basket transfered it to a thin board (i use as a wood peel) made slashes and baked it in my oven which had been preheating for 1:35 minutes with a terracota tile. I sprayed the oven with water generously and then put the bread in and sprayed a lil more. (just like bertinet does) Cooked at 250 for 5 minutes then put the temp down to 220 for 20 minutes. The bread had risen considerably and looked fantastic but at the end of the 20 minutes i noticed the top was nicely brown but the bottom wasnt, in fact it was quite white. I lowered the temp to 200 and cooked for another 15 minutes. Even then the bottom didnt have much color so i took it out cos the top was getting very dark and put in loaf #2. Followed the same procedure with loaf two, which had the same issue with the bottom. So after the whole cooking time i turned the bread upside down. It definitely got the color i was looking for. 

So now i had 2 loaves on me both looked pretty good from the top and when i tasted it, felt the crust was excellent and the dough had the most amazing tang. the only problem was it felt doughy and quite heavy. So my flatmate and i ended up eating the crusts with butter which seriously tasted excellent and realized the insides werent very nice. 

I'm attaching pictures for you guys to see. Would love feedback on where i went wrong and how i could fix it. I have over 400g of started dried and put in jars in my fridge. Would really want to understand everything before using all of it. 

Would really appreciate some guidance. 

Maha. 

Loaf #1

Loaf #1 Cut up 

Loaf #2 

Isand66's picture
Isand66

      I just returned from a 2 week business trip to China and after refreshing my starters I decided to make a coffee flavored bread that also was rich in multi-grains.  I have had great success using soakers in this style bread in the past so this was no different  I used malted rye berries, spelt kernels, buckwheat groats and soft white wheat berries all soaked in 240 grams of chocolate raspberry truffle flavored coffee.

For the starter I used my white 65% hydration starter and added coffee, pumpernickel flour and white rye.  To continue with the all coffee theme I also used coffee in the main dough along with an assortment of flours plus some dehydrated onions that I mixed in with the coffee before adding to the dough.

The end result was nice dark, rich, moist and coffee flavored bread.  If you don't like coffee you will run away screaming from this one, but if you can't get enough Java in your system, give this one a try.

Soaker

30 grams Buckwheat Groats (bought at Whole Foods)

30 grams Spelt Kernels (Berries...not sure which)

30 grams Malted Rye Berries

20 grams Soft White Wheat Berries

240 grams Hot Coffee (I used Chocolate Raspberry Truffle)

Mix coffee in a bowl with other ingredients and let sit covered at room temperature for 24 hours.

Starter

71 grams Seed (Mine is 65% AP Flour Starter)

142 grams AP Flour

85 grams Pumpernickel Flour

70 grams White Rye Flour

151 grams Coffee (85 - 90 degrees F.)

Mix seed with coffee to break up for a few seconds and then mix in flour until the starter forms a smooth dough consistency.  Put it in a lightly oiled bowl and loosely cover and leave at room temperature for at least 10 hours.  The starter should double in volume.  Put the starter in the refrigerator for up to 1-2 days or use it immediately.

Main Dough

Ingredients

425 grams Starter from above (all of the starter)

300 grams European Style Flour (KAF)  (Sub Bread Flour if you don't have this)

150 grams Spelt Flour

100 grams Whole Wheat

80 grams Graham Flour

20 grams Walnut Oil

370 grams Coffee (90 degrees F.)

14 grams Sea Salt (or table salt)

All of the Soaker from above (make sure to drain the soaker thoroughly)

Procedure

I mixed  the flours together with all the coffee except for 50 grams and let them autolyes for 30 minutes.    I then added the levain, oil and the soaker and the rest of the coffee with the salt and mixed on speed #1 for 1 minute and #2 for 4 minutes.  I then did a stretch and fold, rested the dough uncovered for 10 minutes.  I then did another stretch and fold, covered the dough and let it rest for 10 minutes.  I did one more stretch and fold and put it in a lightly oiled bowl for 2 hours.  I then put it in the fridge overnight.

The next day I let the dough sit out at room temperature for 2 hours.  After 2 hours I formed it into loaves and put them in floured bannetons and let them rise covered for 2 hours.

Score the loaves as desired and prepare your oven for baking with steam.

I then baked on my oven stone with steam at 450 degrees until both loaves were golden brown and reached an internal temperature of 200 - 210 degrees F.

Let it cool on a bakers rack for at least 2 hours or longer before diving in.

hanseata's picture
hanseata

 

Brussels Sprouts Soufflé

My mother is an amazing woman. A retired gynecologist at 93, she is still going strong, grocery shopping with her bike, climbing up the stairs to her third floor apartment, staying on top of the news, and struggling to keep up with the pile of medical magazines on her table (I inherited those qualms to throw out unread newspapers - you never know what you might miss!)

Three years ago she even learned to use a computer in order to join Facebook. She didn't want to be the only family member not able to see my daughter's photos from Bhutan, my sister's from her garden on Mallorca, or pictures of my Maine kitchen ventures.

When I visited my mother last fall in Hamburg I wanted to bake something with her, something light, healthy and, of course, delicious.  No bread, alas - much as she likes it, she suffers from heartburn if she eats fresh bread.

Kitchens resemble owners - Mutti's kitchen is a spacious, cheerful place, a cooking/dining/living room with a no nonsense, no frills, and waste-not-want-not attitude.

  My Mom's no-frills kitchen

The tall cabinet - painted in neon pink, yellow and blue by my 14-year old sister (50 years ago, when my mother was not looking!) - holds an abundance of supplies, kitchen gadgets, odds and ends.

Many of those were left behind whenever my sister and I were moving ("You never know when somebody might need them," Mutti insists,) but the strangest item is an enameled strainer - made from a recycled WWII helmet, with holes for the strap!

Baking there is a bit of a challenge, because the oven also serves as storage space for pots and pans, that have to find another place in a kitchen full of mother flower pots, their numerous offspring, newspaper clippings, and other things my mother likes to have around.

But I am a baker, and where there is a will, there is a way. So one morning we went shopping and purchased Brussels sprouts, limes, graham cookies and sweetened condensed milk (not an easy thing to find in German supermarkets).

Brussels sprouts are the base for a wonderful soufflé that will turn even Brussels sprouts haters into fans. But  it can be also made with broccoli or cauliflower.

 

BRUSSELS SPROUTS SOUFFLÉ     (3-4 servings)
(adapted from Johanna Handschmann: "Aufläufe aus der Vollwertküche")

300 g Brussels sprouts (or broccoli or cauliflower)
 40 g butter
 40 g whole wheat flour
250 ml heavy cream or milk
1/2 cube vegetable broth or tsp. granules
pepper, freshly grated, to taste
nutmeg, freshly grated, to taste
herbal salt, to taste
50 g Emmental cheese, coarsely grated
3 - 4 eggs, separated
butter, for gratin form

Cut large Brussels sprouts in halves, broccoli or cauliflower in florets. Cook in steamer for ca. 5 - 7 minutes until almost done. (Or cook in a pan with tightly fitting lid, with a cup of water and 1 tsp. of lemon juice.) Drain and set aside.

For the Béchamel sauce, cook butter in a large sauce pan until foaming. Add flour and cook over medium heat for 1 - 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until slightly browned. Remove from heat, and whisk in cream or milk in a slow stream. Add herbal salt and spices, then bring to a simmer, stirring constantly, until mixture has thickened. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 400º F/200º C. Adjust rack to middle rung. Place high rimmed gratin form in oven for 5 minutes, to warm up.  

Using a food processor, immersion blender or chef's knife, finely chop Brussels sprouts (or broccoli or cauliflower).

 

Stir purée into butter/cream mixture. Add cheese and egg yolks and mix until well blended. Season with herbal salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.

Remove hot gratin form from oven, and melt a piece of butter, tilting pan to grease bottom.

Whisk egg whites with pinch of salt until stiff. Fold into vegetable mixture. Pour into gratin form, smooth top with rubber spatula, and immediately place into oven.

Bake gratin for 20 - 25 minutes (don't open the oven door during the first 10 minutes, or the soufflé will deflate), or until top is well browned. The middle can be soft, but shouldn't be totally runny. Let cool for 5 minutes in switched-off oven with door slightly ajar, then serve immediately.

 

My mother loves desserts - she often says with conviction: "The dessert is always the best part of a meal!" We both prefer tart fruits, and don't like it overly sweet. Therefore I chose a citrus-y dessert that is as delicious as it is simple:


KEY LIME BARS  (16 servings)  (adapted from "Cook's Illustrated")

Crust
142 g/5 oz animal crackers or other dry cookies
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 pinch salt
57 g/4 tbsp butter, melted

Filling
57 g/2 oz cream cheese
1 tbsp. lime zest (1 lime)
1 pinch salt
1 can sweetened condensed milk (399 g/14 oz)
1 egg yolk
½ cup lime juice ( 1-1/2 limes)
lime zest , for garnish

Preheat oven to 325ºF/160ºC. Line an 8 x 8" (20 x 20 cm) square pan crosswise with aluminum foil strips, allowing extra foil to hang over edges of pan. Mist with oil spray.

For the crust, process crackers in food processor until finely ground (or place cookies in ZipLock bag and crush them with roller pin), add brown sugar and salt, and pulse to combine.

Drizzle with melted butter, and pulse until all crumbs are moistened. Press crumbs evenly into bottom of pan.

Bake crust until deep golden brown, 18 - 20 minutes. Let cool on wire rack (don't turn off the oven!)

For the filling, combine cream cheese, lime zest and salt in mixing bowl. Add sweetened condensed milk, and mix until well blended. Whisk in egg yolk. Add lime juice, and mix gently until incorporated.

Pour filling in cooled crust, and smooth top with spatula. Bake until set, and edges begin to pull away slightly from sides (15 - 20 minutes.)

Transfer pan to wire rack, and let cake cool to room temperature. Decorate with lime zest. Cover pan with foil and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 2 hours.

Remove cake from pan by lifting foil extensions. Cut into 16 squares.

  Key Lime Bars

I could never find fresh Key limes, when I baked these, but you can as well use regular (Persian) limes. But don't substitute with bottled lime juice - the bars will not taste the same!

Since the sweetened condensed milk supplies plenty of sugar, I cut down on the sugar when making the crust (from 3 tablespoons to 1 tablespoon.)

"Cook's Illustrated" suggests toasted shredded coconut as garnish for those who don't like it too tart. Mutti and I, of course, love citrus flavor and used lime zest curls as decoration.

The Key Lime Bars keep fresh for several days if stored in the refrigerator - if they last that long!

My mother Gisela, my older sister Ingrid and me - in the Fifties.

Fagus's picture
Fagus

Bread without kneading, with organic stone milled flours,solid rye sourdough and wheat liquid leaven.

 

 

 

 Cheers!

Fagus

limmitedbaking's picture
limmitedbaking

Hi and welcome to my first blog post. Had always been a long time lurker in TFL, admiring and learning from the many delicious looking creations from all the posters. Finally, decided to start a bread blog to record the process and outcome of each bake. Started bread baking a few years bake but has only been baking about once a week due to other activities - hence limited baking. Being a bread baker in Singapore brings with it quite a different set of challenges such as the higher temperature and humidity which means that normally recipes have to be adapted slightly to suit local conditions. Maybe I will slowly address these various issues in subsequent blog post. Also fascinated by the chemistry being bread baking and am an avid reader of chemistry and cereal publications. Would be interested to find out also how bakers in tropical areas deal with all these issues too. 

But first up, Hamelman's 5 Grain Sourdough Rye. A house favourite and my personal favourite among the other multigrain formulas in the book. The use of a rye sourdough really adds a depth and added complexity that trumps the non-rye variants. For this bake I followed the seed mix as recommended - flaxseeds, cracked rye, sunflower seeds and oats. Though for the oats I substituted half with rye flakes. Made 1360g of dough and bake as 2 loaves. Used 1/2 tsp yeast and 11.5g salt (2% instead of 2.2%). Prepared starter and let it ferment for 10 hours at 30C. Mix 10 minutes. Bulk ferment 1.5 hours. Proof 45minutes. And here are the results (Hope the picture works!):

And the crumb shot, moderately open and full of seeds.

Notes: Rye makes up 25% of the total flour. Reasonably easy to handle, not too sticky. Mild sourness with a nice balance between the lactic and acetic acid. Wheaty taste with the added complexity of rye. Would normally like to bake at a higher temperature to get a browner crust but decided to go for golden brown this time round for a different look. Could still decrease yeast slightly as the final proof was going very fast already. Can't decide which variant is better, the soak sunflower seed (which is easier) or the toasted one. Both bring a different taste to the final product.

-Tim

txfarmer's picture
txfarmer

Sending this to Yeastspotting.

Click here for my blog index.

 

For a lot of bakers, it's an important milestone to learn to make a good baguette. I have been asked many times both at my Chinese blog and TFL what the "trick" is for those big holes in the crumb. The truth is that, there's no trick. It's everything: appropriate flour, S&F rather than intensive kneading, appropriate fermentation, precise shaping, clean scoring, good steam and high temperature baking. I have yet to make a baguette that I am totally happy with, probably it's the chase that keeps me making it again and again. For that reason, I hesitate to call this post a tutorial - how can a student in bread baking offer a tutorial at all. However, I did write it up for some of my blog friends who are new to bread/baguette baking, and in need of a simple recipe to get started. This recipe contains lessons and notes learned from many many many baguettes I have made over the years, hopefully it will be helpful to others.

Since this recipe is meant for newbies, I intentionally kept it as simple as possible. No sourdogh, just dry yeast. No long cold fermentation, just straight method. No whole grain flour or addins, just white AP flour. By taking out all those variables, hopefully it's easier to follow and repeat. Even with such simplification, as the pictures show, the crumb still can be very hole-y, and the crust still can be very crisp, however, the flavor does suffer. Its taste is not nearly as complex as my favorite 36 hour baguette formula and its many variations (see here). Therefore, once you are comfortable with this straight method, I would definitely encourage you to move on to more complex recipes.

Straight Baguette
Note: makes 4 baguettes, each 220g, 40CM in length

AP flour (I used King Arthur AP flour because most people can get that easily and reproduce the recipe with the same flour), 500g
water, 375g (this means the dough is 75% hydration, yes, it's wet, but trust me, it's managable, especially after a few tries)
salt, 10g
instant yeast, 2g

1. Mix everything together. No need for kneading. Just mix everything into a rough dough.

2. Cover the container, rise at room temp (22C-25C) for 3 hours. At 45, 90, 135min, do Stretch and Fold (S&F). TFL handbook has good explanation on S&F. For a dough this size, I find it's the best to water/oil/flour my hands, lift the dough out and do S&F directly in my hands. That's two quick movements, one in horizontal direction and one in vertical direction . The hand/dough touch time is so brief that sticking is not an issue. By the end of 3rd S&F, the dough magically becomes very smooth. And by the 3rd S&F, you can feel the dough offers resistence when being stretched out, that's a sign of gluten developement. Rember how the dough feels, because you want to remember how "elastic" (i.e. gluten strength)  yet extensible of a "good baguette dough" should be. Oh yeah, keep the container oiled and covered the entire time.

3. Dump the dough out and divide into 4 portions. Try to have less small scrap pieces. I have practiced enough to eyeball and cut 4 equal portions without too much weighing and adjustment. I find each detail in preshaping and shaping affects final crumb, in general the less I touch the dough (yet still get all the tasks done) the better crumb is. Roll each piece into a colum, with tight skin surface . This is my version of preshaping, there are other methods. Again, the key for less sticking is lightly flour/oil/water hands and surface, AND MINIMAL TOUCHING. Cover and rest for 25-30 minutes.

4. Shaping the baguette. Now there are so many good ways to do this, my method below is just what I am used to. As long as you can shape the dough into desired size/shape with minimal handling, your method is good. The key here is 1)keep skin surface tight, AND 2)don't destroy too much of internal bubbles. Be gentle yet effective.If you find it hard to roll the dough long enough, the dough is too strong, S&F less next time or use a weaker flour. If you find the dough to be limpy, extensible but offers zero resistence when being rolled long, can't keep a tight surface, the dough is too weak, use a stronger flour or S&F more next time.
a. Lightly pat the preshaped column into a rectangle, roll the top edge down twice

b. Turn the dough 180 degrees, and fold the now top edge to middle

c.Fold in half again, top edge meeting bottom edge, seal. Roll it to 40cm long. "Light", "firm", and "even" are the key words while rolling out. Start rolling from the middle, move both hands outward until the ends, while applying light force downward and outward. If the skin of the dough is tight enough, it should be enough to just lightly flour the surface for the dough not to stick. Most of the flour should end up on skin, rather than inside of the dough anyway. If you find the dough slipping while rolling, you might be flouring the dough and surface too much. Put them on lightly oiled parchment paper (and the whole thing sits on the back of a baking sheet), with middle part of the parchment paper srunched up to act as dividers. Note that there are people who prefer bakers couche such as this, and I have seen/used it in a class using profession oven with great success, HOWEVER, in a home environment, I much prefer to use parchment paper so that I can slip the dough along with paper together into the small home oven onto the steaming hot stone. I don't want risks associated with moving the dough onto a peel, then moving the dough again from peel onto stone. It's just safer, neater, and quicker.

5. Cover and proof at room temp (22C-25C) for 30-60minutes. The dough should have grown noticably but still have enough bounce left. If you dough does not grow much in oven, you have over-proofed, proof for less time next time. If the dough grew too much in oven, resulting in bursting seams and uneven distribution of holes, proof longer next time. Score. For tips on scoring, please see this great tutorial from David. For baguettes in general, the dough is pretty wet, which means you need to be quicker and firmer with your movement for the blade not to drag and stick. Dipping thd blade in water before each cut sometimes help. Furthurmore, David's tutorial mentions "classic cut", which is done by cutting at a shallow angle to get "ear/grigne/bloom". With a 75% hydrated dough, you might at first have trouble cutting at the shallow angle without sticking, don't worry, just cut perpenticular to the surface for now, once you get all the other components correct, you can then start cutting at an angle and try to get "ear" for your cuts. The dough may seem deflated somewhat when you score it, don't worry, a well executed baguette dough would recover and expand beautifully in the oven.

6. Bake at 460F for 10 min with steam, then 15min without steam. Turn off oven, crack the door open, and keep baguettes inside for about 5 minutes. Take out and cool. Note that I preheated my stone at 500F for an hour to make sure the oven is hot enough, only reduce the temp to 460F when the dough is loaded. There are many ways to steam and load, each oven seems to prefer a different way. I use the most common method for my very ordinary electric home oven: a cast iron pan on a rack below the stone with some rocks inside; it's preheaded along with the stone; once the dough is ready to be loaded, I pour a bit of boiling water onto the cast iron pan (steam comes out, watch out!), close the door and get the baking sheet (with the dough/parchment on top) in hand; open the door again and slide parchment paper along with dough onto the hot stone; pour another cup of boiling water into the cast iron pan (watch out again, more steam comes out); close the door. The whole operation is pretty intense, my husband is still amazed that I haven't lost a finger loading bread doughs ... yet. However, it does get easier with practice.

Comparing to my 36 hour baguette doughs, this dough is much easier to score!

Crumb is decently hole-y, and even. :)

Crust is thin and crispy. If they are baked enough, they should be singing for a long time while cooling, which means a lot of tiny cracks on the crust.

However, I am never completely happy with my baguette. Holes can be bigger, more even, and I can live without the line in the middle of the crumb coming from the seam at the bottom. But hey, like I said at the begining, the fun is in the chase. :)


dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

I had some KA WWW flour that was almost 8 months old hanging around doing nothing.  We like whole grains around here mostly but needed to get rid of the WWW in some kind of bread.  We hate throwing flour away for any reason if possible even if it flour we don’t use much.

 

We also wanted to try out the water roux method by using 25 g of flour mixed with 125 g of water and cooked on the stove top until it sets up like a thick gravy.  It weighed 135 g when done.  The roux was not used in the hydration calculations in the formula.  We also made a scald with wheat berries and saved the soaker water for the liquid in the dough.

  

After reading lumos’s post on adding a pinch of yeast to his last baguette post  we decided to go all in on a 3 way leavening by making a quick 4 hour poolish with50 gof autolyse and a pinch of yeast along with separately prepared YW and SD starters.  This is a first, at least for us if you include my faithful apprentice Lucy, at making a triple threat leavening for one loaf of bread

  

We were into 4’s so after we did the 4 hour scald and 4 hour poolish we did the 4 hour autolyse with the soaker water and the rest of the non leavening and  soaker ingredients.   After all of these 4’s we decided to continue with them a little longer.

 

We thought we would limit ourselves to a 4 hour maximum, after the autolyse met the leavens, before the finished dough hit the fridge, panned up, for a 40 hour retard as has been our norm of late.

 

After mixing them together with a spoon we let the dough sit for 15 minutes before starting 12 minutes of French slap and folds.  By the time you take out the time for scraping up the counter a sew times we figure we had about 10 good minutes of slapping and folding the dough around and it made a beautifully smooth ball when formed.

 

We then let the dough sit for 15 minutes before doing the first of 3 S&F’s that were performed 15 minutes apart.  We incorporated the scalded and soaked wheat berries on the first set and they were fairly distributed after the 3rd.

Red sky in the mnorning , baker take warning. 

We let the dough rest for 1 hour to ferment and develop before panning it up using S&F’s to try to corral this wet dough into something resembling a loaf.   Even though the dough hydration is low at 68% it really is much wetter with the roux and scald contributing extra water. It felt like a high 70’s hydration and the reason we panned it. 

We let it proof for 1 hour on the counter, in a used trash can liner (for bread only), before placing the tin of dough in the fridge for its anticipated slow proofing for 40 hours.

My apprentice gets all excited when we try something new and is always skeptical that her master can pull off these odd bakes we seem to make on the fly.   With a water roux included and an added commercial pinch poolish, her master wasn’t too sure that a 40 hour retard could be met either in all truthfulness.

You don’t know for sure how things will work out till you do and my apprentice thought we, meaning I,  could always keep and eye out for the dough to double and bake it off ahead of time if required, if we weren’t asleep - and my apprentice is asleep nearly 16 hours a day it seems.  But, it looked OK after its long proofing rest and had risen just above the lip of the tin and near ready for the oven.

We decided to bake off the loaf in the big oval Magnalite Turkey Roaster like we do some tinned other breads on occasion.  It can really do steam with the trivet insert and water on the bottom.  It puts the best crust on bread that we have discovered to date.

We took the dough out of the fridge to warm up a little and finish proofing for and hour before Betsy was fired up to heat the roster to 450 F.  The loaf was slashed right before the tin went in the roaster with a half a cup of water.  The lid went on and the roaster went back in the oven.

We steamed the bread for 15 minutes before taking the lid off, removing the bread and let it continue baking at 425 F, convection this time,  another 10 minutes.  We rotated the tin 180 degrees every 5 minutes to ensure even browning.  We also removed the bread  from the tin at the 30 minute mark and finished the baking on the oven rack.

The bread did not spring at all in the roaster or out of it but it or bloom at the cut either.  It did blister and browned up as expected though.  Well. At least it didn’t over-proof so much that it fell when slashed or in the oven.  40 hours with 2 levains  adn poolish working must have been too much for it even though it only rose to the rim of the pan. 

Can’t wait for the bread to cool and slice to see how it compares to our normal boule crumb for this kind of bread after adding in a water roux and a 3rd leaving with the 4 hour poolish. 

It is now sliced and eaten.  Just delicious.  Very wheaty in taste.  The crumb was pretty open for a bread with whole grains and so much soaker.  It had to be the 3 leavens working together.  they couldn't get it to spring and bloom but the crumb was moist as can be, tasty and chewy with the soaker.  This is a really =nice sandwich bread that can be sliced very thin which is great for those of us who need to watch out bread intake.  We like it a lot.  Toasted with butter is a dream come true.

Formula

Combo YW & SD   Starter

Build 1

Total

%

WWW & AP SD Starter

10

10

1.94%

White Whole Wheat

62.5

62.5

12.14%

AP

62.5

62.5

12.14%

Yeast Water

75

75

14.56%

Water

50

50

9.71%

Total

185

260

35.92%

 

 

 

 

SD Starter Totals

 

%

 

Flour

130

25.24%

 

Water

130

25.24%

 

Starter Hydration

100.00%

 

 

Levain % of Total

 

23.34%

 

 

 

 

 

Dough Flour

 

%

 

Red Malt

2

0.39%

 

Toadies

6

1.17%

 

Vital Wheat Gluten

5

0.97%

 

White Malt

2

0.39%

 

White Whole Wheat

185

35.92%

 

AP

185

35.92%

 

Total Dough Flour

385

74.76%

 

 

 

 

 

Salt

9

1.75%

 

 

 

 

 

Soaker Water

225

43.69%

 

 

 

 

 

Dough Hydration

58.44%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add - Ins

 

%

 

Water Roux

135

26.21%

 

Total

135

26.21%

 

 

 

 

 

Total Flour w/ Starter

515

 

 

Total Water w/ Starter

355

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hydration w/ Starter   & Adds

68.93%

 

 

Total Weight

1,114

 

 

% Whole Grain

54.17%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Water Roux is not   included in hydration calculations

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