August 2, 2010 - 9:54pm
Baguette shaping by Ciril Hitz
Ciril Hitz, cookbook author and instructor at Johnson & Wales has made a marvelous collection of instructional videos. They are on www.YouTube.com. His video on baguette shaping is one of the best I've seen. He goes through each step and each is photographed from several angles
Another video I like focuses on pre-shaping and shaping baguettes, boules and rolls.
Enjoy!
David
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Really fantastic shaping demos, and thank you for sharing. I wont lie, though. When I see all these wonderfully handled doughs being loaded onto commercial machines and easily baked, I do think "beh, cheater".
Thanks, David! NIce videos, so detailed.
Khalid
Great post David, that is a wonderfully detailed movie.
Thanks for the link, David. It's always useful to see these great videos. I notice he didn't fuss when one end of one of the baguettes was bulging more than the other.
Good method for the batard with pointed ends, also.
Great instructional videos David. Thanks for posting them. I've never seen such a slick system as they have for loading a deck oven . It's much more gentle on the dough, and a very efficient way for loading items in bulk.
Franko
That deck oven loader is the neatest thing I've ever seen for bread.
Any idea who makes it?
Would love to install one in my bedroom.
No, seriously, any ideas?
That was awesome! Thanks! But he makes slashing look so easy!
So good I had to watch it twice! I'll have to watch it a couple more times before I bake tomorrow.
I was looking for videos like that have from shaping to finishing so that I could see the result of them.
Thank you so much.
I was just looking at it again and I cannot get over how supple and airy that dough is. Now, I never make all white bread and never, ever have, so maybe that is why, but should white/whole wheat be as springy? Or all whole wheat? I've never seen such bounce or fluff in a dough I work with.
I'm in the process of my second try at your sourdough Anis Bouabsa type baguettes. There seemed to be some conflict about what is done after removing from the fridge. In one place direction was divide the ferment and then shape. Other direction seemed to be saying remove,preshape,shape and ferment. In trying to get mosre info I came across this in your blog page and was struck by what seemed to be preshaping and shaping shich was not the do it very delicatley by Coro; Hitz. Is his technique the delicate touch you like to use for the Anis B recipe?
Thanks so much for all your considerable contributions to this web site and we hacker bakers as well as those other great bakers.
Herb
For the Bouabsa baguettes, after the cold retardation, you take the dough out of the fridge. Divide it immediately. Pre-shape and rest 60 minutes. Then shape and proof for 45 minutes.
The shaping technique I have been using for baguettes is not the same as Hitz's, but you could use his technique. Shaping needs to be gentle but firm. Firm enough to stretch the gluten into a nice smooth sheath and seal the seams well. Gentle enough to not de-gas the dough.
David
Dave thanks for your reply and help. I tried your recipe again and divided it immediately after removeing it from the fridge. The feel was much different than any I had experienced ( not that I have that much experience) It was sort of like soft clay but cold. This time I had reread you dirctions and realized I misread the directions on how often to lift and fold. Actually it seems more like lift and push onto the rest of the dough. The first time I did the recipe I thought you meant go around the bowl 20 times. This makes 100 lifts. This not uncommon for me. I thionk I'm mentally challenged. Anyway I let the divided piesces I think 30 minutes then shaped with the dough feeling as I described. I proofed 45 minutes at 78 deg on parchment paper, this time with the good side up as the first time the dough stuck to the paper. I also put folded pieces of paper between the loaves. The dough was still sticking to the paper so I left it there when I put it in the oven. I doubled the recipe this time to have more loaves and made them thinner, put them in the oven at 550 deg as I've had trouble browning. I did reduce the temp to 480 after 10 min but put it back up after30 minutes. The loaves were about the worst I have made and that's saying a lot. The crumb was very dense that is no holes, unpleasant feel in the mouth and even with about a total of 45 minutes, 10 of which the oven was off and the door open, the bread had very little browniong. The first time I tried the recipe I got stressed when the loaves stuck to the paper and forgot to score them. Actually other than the fact the loaves blew out and the shape was squigley from trying to flip them while sticking, the bread tasted quite good and had the best crumb texture I've had with slack doughs.
If you have any other suggestions I would really appreciate it.
Herb
Hi.
From your description, I think you have several problems. First, you are not resting the pre-shaped pieces long enough and, probably, not proofing the formed loaves long enough. Second, try dusting the formed loaves with flour after placing them on the parchment. This can decrease sticking. Third, it sounds like your oven is not heating to the temperature you are setting. 30 minutes at 480ºF should result in a very dark bake.
David
David thanks for your comments. I will make the changes you suggest and see how they come out. I'm a little at a lost. Some moinths I had the Wolf repair guy come out to test the oven. He used an expensive infared instrument to test it and said it was just about right on the money but he changed the setting so it woul be 25 deg higher. Do you have a way to test the oven temp other than what the instrument says or by baking results. Once the oven is up to whatever it's set for if it's changed it never registered a different temp so I just have to hope it's working.
Thanks again. I admire all the breads you post. Some day I'll be able to postmore than one picture on my page at a time.
Herb
I have struggled with certain aspects of my shaping. I believe that it all stems from using too much flour. I strive for slacker doughs, but at the same time am handicapped by their difficulty in handling without the extra flour. I'm going to try a lighter hand when prepping my shaping surface.
I will be going back and watching his other videos.
Thanks David,
Betty
Hi, Betty.
I think it was Pat who taught me that the board should be flour-free when shaping baguettes. For very sticky dough, I sometimes lightly dust the loaves before rolling them out but usually just use the bench knife to free any sticking spots. It also helps to use minimal downward pressure when lengthening baguettes (or bâtards).
David