Second Baguette Bake, Second Post!
At the urging of my wife, I recently started breaking out of my weekly bake of FWSY boules in the combo-cooker. My first baguettes were a disaster. One was actually vaguely obscene. While working up the courage to have another go, I tried a couple of batards (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/41526/intro-and-todays-bake) which came out pretty well and gave me more confidence in my ability to generate enough steam.
So I mixed up a batch of FWSY straight dough and tried again. Pretty pleased with the results, but obviously have a long way to go! My slashes need work, I made them too diagonal to the length of the loaf and they need to be more even, but still managed to get some ears. The one with the single slash bloomed a lot more, but I guess that's normal?
After the encouragement I got from the intro post linked above, I began a SD starter using Ken Forkish's method but 25% of his crazy amounts (thanks to several threads here on TFL), so will be working up to some levain recipes which I am really looking forward to.
Love the site, so inspiring and helpful. Happy baking!
-Gabe
PS, I bought a 22" wide baking stone to hopefully load 20" long baguettes, but realized my pizza peel is a measly 10" wide! I made these 16" long and loaded them using a baguette pan and parchment as a peel. Are there 22" wide peels out there, or am I going to have to improvise at the hardware store?
Crumb and underside:
Comments
looking baggies sir. Great crumb, lovely bloom, you have to be pleased. I wish my oven were big enough to accommodate "proper" sized baguettes. As it is I have to settle for half baguettes.
Happy baking
They have to be tasty too. Well done and happy baking
I've seen a lot of your very impressive bakes and it means a lot. They are tasty, but I'm really looking forward to getting some levain into the mix. Cheers!
for both looks and taste comes from our own (TFL) Davis Snyder who converted hos San Joaquin SD to baguettes. txfarmer's 36 hour ones are pretty tough to beat too.
Happy baking
Those bad boys keep showing up as I look around the site. Definitely going to have a try once my starter is ready, which should be soon, it's almost leaping out of the container already! Will have a look at Dave's San Joaquin also, thanks!
Much appreciated.
We upgraded to a cheapo oven a couple of years ago and got very lucky with it. Decently wide, and holds perfect temperature. It's a bit hotter in back so things need a 180 flip, but overall very good. I found a peel here that looks like it would work (though it would be nice if it was wider so I could load 4 at once if needed to minimize open opening).
http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/american-metalcraft/836/p382971.aspx
I may end up getting a bigger one and cutting it down.
Your baguettes look really good, Gabe. Your diagnosis on the scoring of the multi-slashed one is correct.
You might want to consider a "SuperPeel," now sold by OXO. It is 14" wide and deep enough to take 4 baguettes, if you are careful. They used to sell an extender which allowed 16" baguettes, but no longer do so.
David
Thanks, David. I consider you one of the real gems of TFL, your experience, knowledge, and generosity in sharing both are fantastic. As mentioned, I lurked for a while :). I've looked at the superpeel, and it seems like a great product, but doesn't get me any more width than my jury-rigged baguette pan "peel". I think I'm going to get something long and widish that will hopefully let me load 4 baguettes. It would be great if there was something like the superpeel that was 20" wide so I could get loaves on the stone without having to pull the shelf out to load lengthwise (if that makes sense).
On another note, thanks for sharing your steaming system in your last blog entry, I'm going to try that. The bloom you got on the Hamelman seed loaves was amazing! Just received his book, looking forward to baking from it. And thanks in part to you my starter is on day 3 today :)
suppress = superpeel. Damned autocorrect! I guess there's no way to edit a comment here?
-Gabe
Fantastic loaves! The crust looks as if it could have been professionally steamed. You're a natural!
Thanks, Hannah (my sister's name!)
I'm amazed and inspired by your bakes, and love how you experiment so much. I wish I was more like that, I tend to focus on a couple of things until I feel proficient and then move on to something else (not just in baking, my wife calls me "the hobby hoarder" because of my serial interests :) ) I particularly love your extreme scoring techniques! Have to try the scissor spiral one of these days.
Thanks for the lovely thoughts. I'm glad you're enjoying my mad scientist posts. I actually want more of that ability settle on a process to hone; I have a lot of trouble sticking to formulas, even though I know rationally that I need to learn the fundamental skills from those with deep reservoirs of knowledge and experience. Sorry if you've mentioned this, but how are you getting your steam? And are you using a lame for scoring?
I'm currently using two cast iron skillets - a smaller one that I put a bit of ice in before loading (to "moisten" the oven à la Hamelman), and a big one that I dump boiling water into right after getting the loaves on the stone. I now use heatproof gloves after the steam burn I got the first time!
I'm probably going to try the method David uses here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/comment/315668#comment-315668
I've tried all sorts for slashing - straight razors (a onetime hobby :), sharp chef's knives, serrated knives, I've mostly been using a razor blade these days, held in the hand, and most recently I've improvised a lame by threading the blade through a wooden skewer.
Thanks for clarifying! Really, really good result from the double pan method.
Thread your razor blade on one of those wooden coffee stirrers they have at Starbucks et al. It really holds the blade more securely and you still get desired curve.
I also happened to discover that a plastic knife blade cover kicking around my drawer made an excellent handle for the homemade lame.
Your baguettes look great!
Thanks!