Good afternoon all!
So my latest batch of baguettes (#8 in my notebook of results) was “hit n miss”.
I lowered hydration to 64%, started with a poolish, used IDY and KA bread flour. Kneaded on a KA stand up mixer for 8min@2spd and 2min@3spd. Folds during first hour then rest for 2 additional hours at 76*F. Refrigerated for 8.5 hrs. Baked at 480*F on a cookie sheet (in AirBnB).
I bought a cheap $20 wooden “project panel”, 2ft x 3ft at Lowe’s as an experiment (so far I’ve always worked on granite kitchen countertops).
Results:
Dough definitely handled better on the wood… but that might be a result of the lower hydration.
I had seen a French baker’s video discuss allowing refrigerated dough to warm from 4*C to 17*C before pre-shaping. With this batch I elected to preshape at a lower temp, 14*C. The preshaping went great but the shaping did not. The dough fought extending into the traditional baguette shape and I ended up with baguettes shorter than desired. I assume the dough’s reluctance to elongate was due to its temperature?
The scoring felt better but the baked results were not great.
Onward!
…just set it aside to rest (covered with tea towel) for 10-15 minutes, then you should be able to stretch it out more before final proofing. As you gain experience, you should get to where rolling out the final shape takes no more than 3-4 forward-backward rolls.
You might also try pre-shaping to more of a jelly roll shape that gets you maybe 1/3 of the way to final.
Bonne chance,
Phil
elongate it wasn’t because they were cold. Looking at the photos I would say they rose too much during the bulk fermentation and it looks like too much tension in the preshape.
You should try the Bouabsa recipe that was adapted here. It’s really good and simple and many people have had some success using it.
Don