The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Spelt 9% Sourdough Baguettes.

Benito's picture
Benito

Spelt 9% Sourdough Baguettes.

No these aren’t 100% whole spelt baguettes. Although I’ve been on a 100% whole grain baking spree I still prefer my baguettes mostly white flour but wanted to try some spelt in a baguette since I realized that I haven’t yet. So this formula is similar to the kamut baguettes I’ve posted before with spelt instead. As well, I changed the levain to a stiff 60% hydration levain.

Overnight levain
9 g + 31 g + spelt 52 g. Starter to spelt 1:5.8 60% hydration levain stiff 77°F ready at 3x rise and pH 4.16 at 9.5 hours.

Fermentolyse - mix 375 g water with all the levain, salt 12 g and diastatic malt 5.8 g to dissolve, then add AP flour to combine. Slap and fold x 100 then add hold back water 29 g gradually working in until fully absorbed then slap and fold x 100. pH 5.4

Bulk Fermentation 82*F until aliquot jar shows 20% rise.
Do folds every 30 mins doing 2-3 folds
Could do cold retard at this point for up to overnight. (Aliquot jar 20% rise) pH 4.7 so a fall of 0.7 

Divide and pre-shape rest for 15 mins (pH was 4.36 at this point after 4 hour cold retard)
Use spelt flour for couche
Shape en couche with final proof until aliquot jar shows 30% rise then cold retard shaped baguettes en couche for at least 15 minutes for easier scoring.

Pre-heat oven 500F after 30 mins add Silvia towel
Transfer to peel on parchment
Score each baguette and transfer to oven bake on steel
Bake with steam pouring 1 cup of boiling water to cast iron skillet dropping temperature to 480
F
The baguettes are baked with steam for 13 mins. The steam equipment is removed venting the oven of steam. The oven is left at 480ºF but convection is turned on and the baguettes bake for 10 mins rotating them halfway. The oven temperature is then dropped to 450ºF and the baguettes rotated again if needed and baked for another 3 mins to achieve a rich colour crust.

I’m definitely rusty with shaping as I didn’t get the length that I was going for with these.  My only excuse is that I was trying a new shaping method I’d seen on IG which I think I like but I’ll know better when I see the crumb.  The other issue was that it was getting a bit late and cutting into dinner time so I rushed the rest time between preshaping and shaping so the dough hadn’t relaxed as it should have been allowed to do.  Don’t rush your baguette shaping if the dough seems a bit tight!

Edited to add scoring diagram. These are this set of baguettes scored. 

Comments

Benito's picture
Benito

I made a tomato haddock curry with peppers baby corn and sweet potato for dinner. The baguette was just perfect with my meal. 

MTloaf's picture
MTloaf

You haven’t lost your feel from baguettes boot camp. You are a multi faceted baker with an amazing variety of breads under your belt already. What’s next? Croissants? Panettone? 
Don

Benito's picture
Benito

Thank you Don for your comments.  I’m glad I hadn’t totally lost my skills considering the months that have passed since I last made baguettes.  I always enjoy the process of baking baguettes and love eating them.  I treated myself and ate this one still warm, which I’ve never done before.  I think I’d need to have kids to get into croissants otherwise I’d be huge.  Panettone I do want to try at some point but will need to upgrade my mixer and be retired to have the time to invest in the pasta madre.

By the way, congratulations on your retirement, I hope life is treating you well.  I hope you get your oven sorted soon so we can enjoy seeing your bakes again.

Benny

SunnyGail's picture
SunnyGail

I noticed that you added diastatic malt...what kind of white flour did you use, is it AP ???

What beauties...Well done Benito!!

Benito's picture
Benito

I use all purpose flour for these and yes I always add diastatic malt to my baguettes.  They have a relatively short oven time so I find they need help to brown adequately in that relatively short period of time.  At 1% there is no gumminess from the diastatic malt.  Thank you Gaelle.

Benny

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Look Mr. Whoeveryouare.  It's becoming boring seeing your multi bakes multi times a week, and almost every one is a sunny display of craftsmanship.  Enough already.  Please give us all a chance to catch up before the embarrassment drives the rest of us away. Stop!

I'll pay you in St. Pierre francs that you might be able to spend in Nova Scotia if you agree.

Benito's picture
Benito

LOL thank you Alan.  If this pandemic ever ends and I don’t get to work from home a couple of days per week I’ll stop doing these multi bakes multi times per week.  Baguettes are a good bake to do during a work day with a bit of up front work and then the rest of the work is back end loaded with the cold retard being flexible so I can build the dough before work, keep an eye on it between patient calls and then throw it into the fridge. Finally end of day I can bake and have good bread with dinner.  Also nice because there are always three so I can give one or two away to share.

I’d like to visit St Pierre someday, so sure I’ll take your money for that visit in the future, but I hope you realize it is Euros that they use!

Benny

Benito's picture
Benito

Wow how time flies.  I never thought 2 years ago, which was only 1 year since I created my starter that I would be baking baguettes with any competence let alone thinking they are simple thing to throw together on a work day.  How on earth do you remember all these posts, are you related to an elephant with their supposed incredible memories?  Or maybe you have a photographic memory.  One of the women I was paired with in medical school for a year had a photographic memory and she used to drive me crazy.  She could recite anything she read and even the page number and where on the page it was written!

alfanso's picture
alfanso

It was posted by you in the link to Don's superb bouabsa skillset, and which I provided for our new baguetteer mlayne the other day.  

As far as memory goes, it used to be fairly good.  A decade ago in my friend's house I was having a bit of a time recalling someone's name.  He said quite plainly "names are the first to go".  Which I've "confirmed" with other septaugenarians.  And to which I've begrudgingly accepted.

PS I don't think you meant to type "photogenic memory".  My brain is quite handsome at times, except when it needs a shave.  That's when it isn't so photogenic.

Benito's picture
Benito

LOL, you're right, spell correct!  I've edited that now.

happycat's picture
happycat

Can you taste the spelt?

Looks spectacular to me, inside and out. 

I'd like to choose a bread and develop some Benny-ish mastery this year rather than succumbing to my usual cat-brain :)

Benito's picture
Benito

I’d say the spelt is subtle at most.  After recently baking 100% spelt loaves I’ve become more used to the flavour from 100% whole grain.  That being said, for baguettes I still prefer me a mostly white flour flavour.

Benny

Ming's picture
Ming

Lovely baguettes you have here Benny, I don't get tired looking at them everyday. It looks like you baked them at 30% rise, if I did that with mine, they would seem under fermented with a crumb that consists of few random big holes and the rest mostly lumped together clusters. I am still experimenting with my methods but I seem to get a more open crumb with baking at 90% rise gauged by a small jar. Nonetheless, look forward to seeing more good looking baguettes from you and others here. Thanks. 

Benito's picture
Benito

Thank you Ming, I spent a lot of time honing in on the optimal rise for baking of these baguettes, although I am gradually adjusting things further with more experience under my belt.  I found in the past that I'd get incredible crumb when baking past 30% aliquot rise, but then lose the ears.  That was back when I did little gluten development though.  I am thinking a bit differently now.  I have been doing more gluten development up front and to combat the increased elasticity from that development increasing the hydration to increase extensibility.  The increase gluten development might allow me to push fermentation a bit further along to get open crumb whilst still getting good grigne and ears.  On the other hand, why fix what ain't broke?  The thing about pushing fermentation further along is that it will also increase the sour tang and for these low whole grain doughs, the pH is pretty low already and I don't want that much more sour tang in my baguettes.

Benny

Ming's picture
Ming

Very interesting insight Benny, thanks for sharing it. As much as I like to talk about the crumb it is actually close to the bottom of traits that I look for in my baguettes. I usually get a wild looking crumb, not as honeycombed as some I have seen here and elsewhere but generally I am pretty happy with mine. The two most important traits that I stride for with my baguettes are the roundness and the thinness of the crust. I have baked some loafs that are so round they have a black streak along the bottom which is an indication they sit on the tangent line on the baking steel for being so round which to me would be an ideal even and optimal expansion during baking. Obviously, I like the crust to be as thin as possible. I don’t get these two important traits every time so that is something I am still working to improve upon. Nonetheless, the interesting thing about bread baking is there is really no definite right or wrong in doing it, it all depends on what you are after assuming you know exactly what you are doing to get there.   

Benito's picture
Benito

Ming you should start posting your baguettes in your blog here on TFL, share what you bake and discover with the rest of the group.  We are always interested in seeing what other bakers do.

Benny

happycat's picture
happycat

I agree. Ming if you share your bakes we can all learn from them. You'll have a piece someone else is looking for. They'll have a piece that might fit for you.

Ming's picture
Ming

Thanks guys for some enticing words, I will definitely blog something here when I have the urge to do so. I have been looking for that perfect bake to fill this urge :). 

Isand66's picture
Isand66

There’s a new king 👑 in town…Benny You’ve certainly mastered the baguette 🥖!  It’s always fun to see what new variations one can come up.  I’ve got to get back into making some myself.. I’m real rusty so it’s going to take a while to come up to snuff.  Right now I’m working on getting the hang of making pizza in my Ooni pizza oven.  So far it’s been a challenge not to burn the crust and to get the dough off the peel cleanly.

Happy baking

Ian

Benito's picture
Benito

Ian that’s exciting that you have an Ooni, I’d love a pizza oven if I didn’t live in a condo.  Congratulations on that.  Can’t wait to see you starting to bake baguettes again, not enough here on TFL baking them.

Benny

alfanso's picture
alfanso

One of the outstanding results of the Baguette CB from Summer 2020 is that we got folks like Benny, Dan, and a host of others to get curious enough to try their hand, and to begin developing nascent skills.  The goal of all CBs, of course, is to be like the rising tide which lifts all boats.  That certainly was the case with the many who participated, and particularly with the standout fast-tracker "students" like Benny.

Regardless of what others may have thought, I never considered myself to be king of the hill.  More skilled than many in this one narrow corner of baking, I'll never be as good at shaping nor open crumb as others.  (I'll still sleep well and eat well 😎!)

Thanks for taking me down a notch, dang Islanders!  My wife grew up in Queens, so I've always known that the entire L.I. spit of land was cursed...

Benito's picture
Benito

I wasn’t actually a quick learner although you keep saying that. I had the same amount of trouble most do with baguettes when they start.  I also think that your consistency in your baking, not only in your baguettes is quite exceptional and you do deserve much praise for that.

I definitely agree that there’s room for more in the baguette brigade around here for sure.  

Benny

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Directing you via the Time Machine to https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/64622/community-bake-baguettes-alfanso?page=3#comment-464596 .  Where you had already made significant strides on open crumb and shaping.  And here comes the scoring!  

How many months of non-stop baguettes did it take me?  Way!  You?  One month, dude!  Sell your "woe is me" story elsewhere!

Benito's picture
Benito

That just shows you the power of a group effort and group learning!