March 3, 2012 - 9:09am
baguettes...grrrrr
Just venting here.....why? The Classic French Baguette is amazing in its simplicity, then why is it so incredibly hard to get right? Why, Why, Why? Grrrrr.....
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Just venting here.....why? The Classic French Baguette is amazing in its simplicity, then why is it so incredibly hard to get right? Why, Why, Why? Grrrrr.....
Not the first time I hear that.
A baguette is, sort of, one of the simplest breads, just flour, water, and salt. The short ingredient list, however, makes getting to the perfect baguette very complex. There is nothing to hide behind. It must be scaled just right, mixed just right for the formula, formed just right, proofed just right, slashed just right, baked just right, and cooled just right. Any fumble along the way, and you're toast (pardon the expression) .
KAF has a series of videos on making and evaluating baguettes. They're worth a look.
Keep on plugging. Every now and then, the Baking Gods allow us mere mortals a single perfect baguette. It's worth waiting for.
Cheers
if the french can do it, then anyone can do it :-) But, if you are slash challenged like me it is more difficult. But I can practice slashing on other breads and not worry about baggies, till I try to make them :-)
You do realize that this is an international forum, don't you? Appending a smiley face emoticon to a discourteous remark doesn't automatically make it funny or clever.
SteveB
www.breadcetera.com
We should stick to poolish jokes in this forum. Oh, yeah ... ;-)
David
face was meant to show that it was meant as a harmless joke. Is there some part of that you do not understand? No harm or insult was ever intended in the least. I'm guessing that the French are just like us in every way and baguette challenged - as I admitted if you read further as I made fun at my inability to make any decent baguettes and my slashing handicap. This is called self deprecating humor and especially useful after joking about someone else. I shows you meant no harm to those who understand such things.
Without humor there can be no love Steve.
The only thing 'simple' about a baguette is the ingredients. The talent required to manipulate dough just so - yielding an open, irregular crumb - and to achieve slashing just so - resulting in beautiful 'ears' - is difficult. It requires practice and more practice. Which is why it is so hard for the home baker, who unlike the professional, doesn't shape and bake baguettes day in and day out, to make a good baguette.
Baguettes, IMHO, are the MOST difficult to master. Yes, simple ingredients, but a challenging dough to execute well.
Larry
Well I've got some more proofing right now, it is just so frustrating, baguettes are my nemesis!!!! I shall overcome, I shall master the baguette. "Capere Die Et Panem"
As mentioned in another thread, I have started using the recipe Anis Bouabsa's baguettes they are a real winner the only techniques I use is the Bertinet method of slamming the dough to achieve a firmer consistency. This method is probably not necessary but I prefer it as my dough does not lay so flat and has more body.
"A baguette is, sort of, one of the simplest breads, just flour, water, and salt."
Do you not use yeast in your baguettes? Or are you referring to Sourdough Baguettes?
Stephan
Ok, so I mis-typed
Please consider it as, "A baguette is, sort of, one of the simplest breads, just flour, water, yeast, and salt."
Cheers
I stand in the window of the local French bread baker. My nose almost pressed against the glass. He lays out the raw dough on the sheeter, five to a row and then about 6 rows long. He takes his lame' and bends over the dough and as if he is in a trance...he makes the 5 perfect slashes in each without lifting his hunched shoulders or bowed head. They are slid into the oven, the stream is added and we wait. Out they come. Pictures of perfection. He looks at me and smiles. I smile and my eyes mist....I have seen art being created.