Gosselin Baguette
The recipe can be found here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/8524/philippe-gosselin039s-pain-%C3%A0-l039ancienne-according-peter-reinhart-interpretted-dmsnyder-m - thank you David!
I used a bit more than 375g of water, so I am guessing the hydration is around 76% to 78%. For flour I used whatever left in my stock: 50%+ Gold Medal bread flour, ~25%KA bread flour and the rest is GM AP flour. Stuck to David's procedure pretty closely. Took forever for the dough to double, I think next time I will add warm water with the yeast and salt. I preshaped into batards. The dough looked wet then, but not scarily so, probably because I have been handling a lot of wet doughs lately. I did shape them as normal baguettes rather than the "stretching" method, since I was afraid there wouldn't be enough surface tension otherwise. I also tried my hands in scoring these. With such a wet dough, I was just aiming to make a smooth cut, so I held the knife more vertical than usual. It worked as expected - not that much ears, but decent scoring marks. The best part is the crumb, very open and hole-y:
Can you see the shine on the wall of the holes?
They do have a sweet taste like David describled, benefiting from the long autolyse no doubt. Comparing to Mr. Nippon's baguette, which has a similar autolyse schedule, but at a higher temp, I would say Mr. Nippon's is slightly sweeter. Both are very delicious.
In the first picture, do you notice that the bottom baguette's bottom side is not brown? That's because when I took out the parchment paper after the first 10 minutes, two of the baguettes slid too close together, the almost touching sides didn't get browned properly. Another lesson learned. Next I will try this formula with cold retarding, first suggested by a few TFLers here.
Comments
Everything looks great, nice scoring, beautiful crust color and do I detect some crackly crust at the tip? The crumb looks perfect, translucent and airy. Congratulations.
Don
Next I want to try your version of Gosselin with cold retarding. Actually If I am honest, I made these so that I could compare to your version! :)
Wow! Fantastic crust and crumb. Shaping and scoring are quite challenging with this dough, but you did it! I love your bread photos.
Okay, now to up the ante. ;-) If you are going to attempt traditional scoring on these baguettes, and you want a traditional result, the trick is to hold the (very sharp) blade at a shallow angle, and make your cuts fast and no more than 1/4 inch deep.
If your blade is sharp enough, your cuts are fast enough, the angle and depth are just right, you have just the right amount of steam, your oven and stone are adequately preheated .... and the chicken entrails indicate it is a propitious day for baking baguettes, you can get lovely ears on your loaves, even with the slack dough.
I must say, if anyone can do it, you are the one!
David
the chicken entrails indicate it is a propitious day for baking baguettes
-- That's what was missing! I knew there's a secret! Haha. You should've seen me standing over the slack sticks with the knife in my hand, trying to psyche myself up. In the end I chickened out and did the vertical cuts. Next time I will take a shot of whisky and try the shllow angle cuts. Oh yeah, watch the chickens too.
You should read the entrails before the mis en place. Watching the chickens while scoring baguettes is not a good idea. It can lead to self-inflicted injuries, and it scares the chickens.
In California, we generally prefer a nice chardonney for pre-frontal cortex suppression. In West Texas, a shot of whiskey is the drug of choice, I gather.
I always find these cross-cultural discussions so interesting. ;-)
David
"pre-frontal cortex suppression" - from the sound of that, maybe it's the dough that needs the whiskey! :P
David
They look just like Gosselin's baguettes!
Sylvia
Oh Sylvia, your kind comments just made my day! Thank you!
txfarmer,
these are some of the finest looking baguettes I've seen, in terms of crust and crumb.
Lovely work
Best wishes
Andy
In the mean time, I am staring at your steamed pumpernickel picture, drooling.
If your crumb was any holeyer there'd be nothing but a crust wrapper! Those are absolutely gorgeous baguettes, txfarmer. I'm amazed you were able to shape them so well and still preserve that wide open interior.
Thanks for sharing a wonderful bake!
Larry
Thank you so much for such sweet words!
Lovely.
Thank you！
Absolutely stunning, txfarmer. I can't imagine how you managed to shape them so beautifully at that hydration. I'd probably be stuck to the counter with the dough.
I think you should make a video and share your wet-dough magic.
Now about the subject line: on the occasions when I come up with a lovely open crumb, my kids call it diet bread because they claim there's more holes than bread. I tell them they're bread-challenged. ;-)
Your baguettes have a wonderful balance of bread and open crumb, and I love your combination of flours! Gorgeous.
Thank you so much. My husband calls my baguettes and ciabattas "cheating baker's breads", because I am "selling" less breads for the same $$$. :P
My only "trick" for handling wet dough is "minimal touching". I have been making baguettes and ciabattas a lot, I find it's the best to do what needs to be done in the least amount of handling possible. Any extra tucking and pulling would only make it worse. That's actually why I shaped it as normal baguettes this time - I know what needs to be done to shape it normally, if I were to do the new "stretching" technique, I would've had to touch it a lot more, which I imagine would acutually be harder.
Very wonderful looking breads txfarmer! Well done as usual.
Eric
Thank you Eric! :)
As I am looking at this fantastic bread and thinking for words to compliment, and going down reading the comments, all my words have been taken!!! Is it worth repeating them? Absolutely. You deserve every compliment and more for inspiring us all. Congratulations!
Salma