Raisin Pecan Whole Wheat Levain Baguettes

Recently I had an urge to try to recreate one of my favorite breads.  This one originated in Ken’s Artisan Bakery in Portland, OR.  To me it tastes almost like a dessert or sweet treat.  Eaten fresh, toasted, whatever, and with a slathering of butter or cream cheese across the top, the sweetness of the raisins just pop out on the taste buds.  It has more whole grain than any of the other baguettes I’ve made at home so far, and uses a stiff rather than a liquid levain.

A few differences to these include a “pre-shape" right out of the refrigerator as a square rather than cylindrical, a very short rest before final shaping and cross hatched scoring rather than the traditional baguette scoring.

This was my third attempt and I feel as though I am coming close to reproducing the original.  Well, as close as my taste buds will help me recall.  My first was working out the details, second was ironing out some of the procedures, and this attempt was the cleanup version, where I tried to make the baguettes shorter and more torpedo-like than traditional baguette.  These are actually about 12" long, although you wouldn't know if from the photos.

I still have a bit of work to do on the shaping, but think that I am almost there.

Here is my take.

And here is the only picture of Ken’s original version that I can locate, from his bakery website.

As the famous saying goes: “Man cannot live by Raisin Pecan bread alone”.  In between my attempts at the baguette, I decided to run a SJSD batch, but increase the volume by 25%, thereby making larger versions of David Snyder’s original beauties.  I also changed the SJSD liquid levain build, following dabrownman’s build schedule, albeit in 1 stage rather than his 3, and to sub out all of the levain flours with a 50/50 WW/Rye mix of flours.  So maybe this qualifies as a SoSJSD (Son of San Joaquin Sour Dough)  baguette!

I'm getting pretty consistent scoring (especially now that I've left my cold proofing experiments in the rear view mirror), but I'm not getting those big ol' ears, which I so love, with any consistency.  I'll blame it on the new oven (I'm certainly not going to take responsibility, now am I?).  

Or maybe I'll just Blame it on the Bossa Nova https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XpWOBEZLEs

alan