April 17, 2009 - 1:21pm
My sourdough baguettes
Made these today, used just flour, water, salt, and sourdough starter, baked weigh is about 500-g each. The crust was good and the crumb was soft, not too holey. I used corn meal on the cooking sheets but the baguettes were stuck. I have never had that problem before... I had to go to work this morning while the baguettes rose in the cold oven. By the time I came home they had been sitting in the oven, on the cookie sheets, for 4-1/2 hours. Not sure if it was the reason they got stuck. I practically had to chisel them out. Next time I will try parchment paper instead.
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These look wonderful. You did an excellent job from what I see. I just wish I could taste them...
Good job,
Dennis
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Beautiful. Would love to try some. :)
Susie
Thanks all! Renee, when you use parchment paper, do you still sprinkle corn meal on the bottom?
Speaking of baking stone, does it make a big difference? I saw a pizza stone at the store the other day and was tempted to pick it up. What's the purpose baking with a stone?
I use a 1 inch thick granite slab as a baking stone. In my experience, baking bread on a nice hot stone makes a world of difference. Firstly, when you load the bread in the oven, that immediate hit of heat from below really promotes great oven spring, which will in turn help any slashes in your loaves bloom better. Secondly, the crust of my breaad improved when i started using a stone, though I'm not sure what the scientific explaination for this is.
As I mentioned, I have a granite stone, and it works great. The downside is that I have to preheat the oven for around 2 hours to get it really hot. Prior to this I used a terracotta baking stone, which heated much faster, but also split into two pieces after only a few weeks of use.
Hope this helps
ben
P.S. nice work with the baguettes.
I use a thin (aka cheap) pizza stone and I think it gives my breads better oven spring. I also use parchment paper.
I don't have any sticking problems EXCEPT the one time I used an egg wash on challah..I think it was the egg that caused the sticking...
why I didn't buy the stone in the first place. The preheating time is just too long. I will try the parchement paper on cookie sheet next time. If it get stuck again I will consider getting a stone. By the way, do you remove your stone from the oven after each bake? Or can you leave it in there for other purposes?
typically I leave mine in there permanently, I don't like to move it around too much, as I suspect that contributed to the demise of my first stone.
ben
I get oven spring and I don't preheat at all. As soon as my oven hits the required temp I put the dough in. I can't afford to run my gas oven for an extra hour just to preheat the stone so I can't tell you if there would be a difference. My stone is only 7/16".
I can't remember who, but someone suggested preheating the oven for 2 hours prior to baking. That's just too expensive for me.