A fun experiment that satisfied my yearning for a bagel or two. I riffed on a stiff dough recipe, introducing plenty of whole-wheat and rye flour for dark malt and honey flavors. These turned out with a slightly bready crumb, but I think they are a good starting point for future bakes. Delicious with fresh chive and onion schmear!
Another step on the baguette trail---or perhaps highway, given how many other people also seem to be working on these!
Process
Followed the process in alfanso's comments here:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/63699/baguette-practice
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/51572/vermont-sd-baguettes-course
but scaled down to make three 11 inch baguettes at 240g each.
This was proofed from about 6pm the previous evening for baking in the morning at 9 am.
This is a loaf I made yesterday. Proofed overnight then let rest on the counter for about a half hour shaped folded and let final proof in the garage for about four hours . Preheated Dutch oven in a 460 degree oven. I use a medium sized bowl lined with cloth liberally coated with flour as final proof basket.
Hi, I am making French loafs. My second proof, the loafs spread and lost their shape. Can I punch down and reshape into loafs pans?
This bake was 50% freshly milled redeemer wheat (the other half being high gluten flour) with the addition of 25% toasted millet seeds.
A mild toasty flavor that is not overpowering, and the millet adds textural diversity to the loaf.
One of my favorite flavor combinations for add-ins.
Been playing around with cold shaping (after retard) and while I want to work out some of the caverns, overall I'm pretty pleased with the loaf. This one proofed for 2:45 after shaping and I'm thinking it could have gone longer. Any thoughts on that?
I've been wanting to play with making a miche again, now that my confidence is back and Susan's high-extraction miche didn't disappoint! I used my NMNF starter straight out of the fridge and got some great results! I wish I had baked it a bit bolder, but this a damn tasty loaf!
I've made this one a few times and generally been happy with it but had been mixing up too much dough to fit a batard loaf in my dutch oven and the boules (filling the base) are just not user friendly to cut. I've also switched to adding a cold retard instead a same day bake, which has greatly improved the final product. I've reduced the total flour weight to under 500g which yields a very practical sized loaf.
Levain:
74g rye flour, 60g water, 30g white stiff starter
