Currently I am on a baguette kick. My wife bought a food processor for me this Christmas.  I often cook for a crowd and this machine is great.  It's the big WS Cuisinart model and it stays on the counter and I'm trying to use it for everything I possibly can.  I happened across the Van Over recipe in an old Cuisinart manual.  I looked at the recipe and thought the hydration seemed kind of low at 63% but made it anyway.  It was the easiest dough to handle - very tasty, but needed more crackle and more holes.   I added an ounce of water bringing the hydration to about 69%.  I then saw van Over's published recipe online  and noticed that he had made the same change.   I guess I learned from you all…  The bread was good but could be better.  

I just finished a batch of baguettes with this formula adjusted to 72% hydration and have a batch of dough in the fridge at 75%.  

I'm attempting to adapt other baguette techniques to the food processor . My goal is to get a food processor dough with higher hydration and minimal active time and minimal kitchen mess.  And of course improve technique along the way.

Here is the 75% hydration Van Over recipe result:

Scoring and shaping are getting better I think...

I then tried the Baguettes a la Bouabsa as described on Breadcetera by SteveB.  Did the autolyse first.  For the 200 slap and folds I processed for 45 seconds.  I left the dough in the processor and turned the machine on every 20 minutes until the ball reformed and spun for 5 seconds where the original recipe called for more folding.  

All went ok.  These were very tasty.  Minimal yeast aroma.  Crust was snappy.  Crumb not as open as I'd have liked.  Dough overworked?  Maybe too much pressure during shaping?  Under proofed?  Not sure...

One of them became these Baguette Crisps.  Perfect for Hummus!!!

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The next batch was a blend of the Mark Bittman recipe from How to Cook Everything, and the Charles Van Over food processor recipes.

KABF             500g

wheat germ   10g

SAF yeast 1/2 tsp

Salt 1 1/2 tsp

Warm Water 364g

Mixed in food processor with metal dough blade for 30 sec.   Dough temp was 95F after the mix and was sticky to the touch.

4 hours Bulk fermentation then divide and preshape to small torpedoes.

Rest 15min then shape 

Proof en couche (parchment paper) 90 min

Bake at  480F for 22 min with steam for the first 10 min

These are my best yet.  All done in one night.  Very tasty and light.  Loaves went from 210g before baking to 170 after...

Next 2 batches are both in the fridge:

-The same as above (Bittman Van-Over) except with 24 hour plus cold retardation after the bulk for baking first thing in the morning.

-DonD's Baguettes a l'Ancienne except I am using  the food processor for the mixing...  Tomorrow this gets yeast, the rest of the water, stretching / folding etc...

Any comments or tips?

tordoc

In my zeal to become an accomplished baker (hopefully of good sourdough bread) I brought home half a dozen books from the library that got me started.  My first decent sourdough (utilizing some of Maggie Glezer's methods) was Susan's Simple Sourdough http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/13771/simple-sourdough-909#comment-87254  and the last book I waded through (because it had the least to do with sourdough) was Charles Van Over's The Best Bread Ever which details his scientific method of mixing bread dough in the food processor.  Well I have to tell you I have become a convert!  I'll still keep working to master sourdough baking of various breads, but I don't have to look any further to find a baguette that's any better than the ones I made on my very first and second attempts.  The first was the best I'd made...until I baked the second baguette from the same batch of dough after retarding overnight.  The second also benefitted from the use of an oven thermometer and the knowledge that my oven temp was about 50 degrees cooler than I thought it was after steaming, and compensating by keeping it higher throughout the entire bake.  Here are a couple pictures:

Here's a look at the crumb:

My wife and I agree this is the best bread I've ever made.  The taste and texture is wonderful.  I'm very pleased.

Chris

I have the Electrolux Magic Mill and am in need of a food processor.  Has anyone tried the food processor attachments for it? I've been looking through the attachment list and can't for the life of me figure out what is used for what both in terms of what the individual shredding disks are used for but also how one would go about making something that needs to be more puréed than shredded: hummus or nut butter, for instance.  With a traditional food processor, I'd use the blade attachment, but with this I'm not sure.

Does anyone have these? Can you comment on how useful they are?

Thanks,

Jonathan