The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Introduction

rfdeal's picture
rfdeal

Introduction

Rodney Deal - Foothills of western North Carolina - USA

Retired World History Professor - My wife and I have traveled many time to France

I have a BGE and want to bake as in a wood fired oven

An 80 year old beginner  -  I make loaf bread on a regular basis - BUT

my next adventure is to make an old traditional bauegette 

 

Wish me luck - 

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Good luck and welcome to TFL!

This site has a ton of good information and a very helpful community. 

Are you planning to try sourdough or yeasted pre-ferments?

rfdeal's picture
rfdeal

I will not use the sourdough - i will use the pre-ferment

I am wanting to bake the old bageutte - crusty outsida and whispy inside

Benito's picture
Benito

Hi Rodney welcome to TFL. This is an international site, so it can be super helpful if members complete their profiles that way if you have questions we will know where are you located for example which will affect the flours you use.

A very good yeasted baguette recipe that is popular around here is the Anis Bouabsa baguette.  He was winner of the best baguette in Paris a while back and his recipe has been well regarded on TFL.  I posted my version of it with sesame seed crust a while back Sesame seed Bouabsa baguettes.

Benny

mlayne's picture
mlayne

My sister spends some time at the old family cabin outside Burnsville, NC which sounds like is in your neck of the Smokey's. That's a beautiful part of the world, and a long way from Oregon so I don't get back there very often.

Your first baguette will be fun.  I traveled that road myself not that long ago and for my first efforts I make up a poolish with all the water and an equal weight of flour plus 1/4 teaspoon of IDY (instant dry yeast). basically a 100% hydration poolish using all the water in the recipe.  Active dry yeast works fine as well.  Next day I added the balance of the flour to my KA mixer and mixed it together, 2-3 minutes with a scrape down or two.  Rest/Autolyse for 20-30 minutes then add the salt and machine knead for 7 - 8 minutes.  Adjust flour or water a tablespoon at a time to achieve a tacky but not sticky dough.   Finish the kneading by hand to make sure the dough feels right. 

For a dough that is easier to work with than Anis Bouaksa baguette which is about 73% hydration, I started bout with a 63% hydration dough.  I currently start with 67% hydration which is a little sticky but the bench flour tends to bring it back a bit.  Also while I was working out the mechanics of shaping and scoring, I gave away a lot of bread to neighbors, but no one complained about getting free, fresh baguettes.  For a slightly earthier flavor I sometimes used 90% white flour, 5% Whole Wheat and 5% Rye.

Anyway, here's my basic recipe:

AP Flour  500g     100%

Water      315g         63%

Salt             10g           2%

Yeast            5g            1%

This will yield about 830g of dough and you can make 4 short, skinny baguettes to practice on.

Have fun and post pic's of your progress.

idaveindy's picture
idaveindy

Welcome aboard!

You're in luck!  There are plenty of posts about people's experience baking bread in kamado style grills such as the Big Green Egg.

There is a search box in the upper right corner of most pages.  Just put:

"big green egg"

(that is with the quotes) in the box and click Search.

Searching for:

kamado

can bring uo even more.

--

One of the needful things for baking seems to be a "heat diverter" placed somewhere  under the baking stone, so that the radiant heat from the coals doesn't get the baking stone too hot. 

Bon appétit!

 

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

I miss my twice-year jaunts to the Black Mountains of N.C. My boy Matthew graduated from Warren Wilson College!