Hey TFL,
I've been reading recipes/thoughts from here for years and experimenting non-stop. After getting quite a few elements to click and finally start making great bread (in fairly unconventional ways), I figure it's only fair to share back with the community! :)
For context: I've always enjoyed bread, but after living in Europe (France/Lux) for a few years, I truly fell in love with it. I'd seek out the best bakeries I could find and try the most natural/levain-based loaves they had. I experimented a bit at home, but just purely to learn. Then I moved back to the US (Ohio) about 9 years ago and quickly realized that it was nearly impossible to find anything like the bread I had grown to love in Europe. The closest similar bread I could find was a 45min drive and cost $15-20/loaf.
So I dove head-first into trying to bake it myself -- baking 2-4 loaves/week and adjusting every parameter I could think of to see what worked best for me with a standard home oven. As the bakes improved (and neighbors started asking about it), I started looking into what it would take to scale up while still doing it from home. After lots of research into cottage food laws, it became an exciting reverse engineering project to back solve how I could make the most great bread possible without investing everything I had into a brick-and-mortar bakery.
It's still a work-in-progress (i.e. any feedback would be much appreciated!), but it's also at a point where I imagine sharing some of the process could be inspiring to other home bakers looking to grow.
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I've found the Respectus Panis method to be incredible in terms of both flavor and general approach (room temp bulk, long fermentation, and lower salt). Always looking to improve -- any feedback would be super helpful.
The resulting demi baguettes have a deeply caramelized crisp crust, tender crumb with open/wild alveoli, a creamy color, and a complex lightly tangy wheat flavor from the long fermentation. The 200g size is also great for making sandwiches or cutting in half and toasting for tartines.
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Demi Baguette de Tradition recipe (makes 16 @ 200g each):
- 2.4g Whole wheat 50/50 Active Levain
- 1305g Water (filtered, cold)
- 0.14g Yeast (instant, 4g/tsp)
( - - swish levain/water/yeast to combine - - )
- 1419g Organic Bread Flour (12.7-14.1% protein)
- 473g Organic T80-T90 Flour
- 26g Kosher Salt (1.35% of flour weight)
Mix all together by hand (no need for autolyse with such a long bulk), then rest an hour and give it a stretch-and-fold or two to develop the dough.
Total bulk resting time is 20 hours at room temp (70°F).
Then divide into 200g portions, bench rest ~15 minutes, knock out any large bubbles, roll/shape into demi baguette (14-16" long), and immediately place onto loader.
Oven should be fully preheated until baking stones reach 525°F.
Before loading into the oven, slash 3 times with a lame/razor (at a low angle to encourage grigne/ears).
Bake at 525°F w/ steam for 12 min, then open door for about 3 seconds (to vent steam), and change to 575°F+Fan for 4-6 min (to develop the crust via Maillard reaction).
Cool 30+ min on a rack before serving/bagging (must be < 100°F to limit any chance of condensation).
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This recipe is for 70°F ambient temperature. If your kitchen is cooler/warmer, you'll want to increase/decrease your levain and yeast accordingly (+/-15% for -/+4°F).
And yes, it really does use such tiny amounts of levain and yeast! I actually use a milligram scale to measure the yeast because it's important to get just the right amount for such a long room-temp bulk. And for what it's worth, this bread still falls well within the "pain au levain" definition, since it has much less than 0.2% of flour weight as yeast (only 0.007%).
From experimentation I've found that the combination of bread flour and T80-T90 flour (at a 75:25 ratio) comes very close to approximating the flavor/ash of a French T65 flour. You can of course substitute with different flours, but will likely need to also adjust the hydration to match.
Oh, and loading this many baguette into the oven at a time onto baking stones is a lot easier with a couple of DIY dough loaders! I shared a version of these on here years ago (https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Dough-Loader/), but I've tweaked it a bit to make it more fool proof with the cloth wrapping all the way around a plank to keep the motion more consistent.
And here's a pic of my current oven setup. Two decks made using side-by-side 3/4" thick stones. Takes about 75 minutes to fully come up to temp, but transfers heat to the bottom of loafs very nicely once hot.
I've been selling these baguette locally (via PALM bread / Le Phare) for a few months now, but seems like I learn something new every week. I've been inspired by lots of bakes on the fresh loaf and appreciate all of the discussion to help bakers improve their craft. Hope this can nudge some more bakers to give scaling up a try.
Happy baking!
And stunning results. All the best with your business.