Loaf slashing problems
I make a baguette with a Poolish (100 % hydration ) which is about 25 % of the total dough. The mixed dough is 68 % hydration. The last, I hope, problem is that when I go to slash the loaves the wet risen loaf "grabs the razor" and I end up with lots and lots of "drag marks" on the loaf. Additionally the fresh slashes close up immediately. After the slashes I mist the loaves and bake. I get a nice "oven spring" and a good thin crust BUT, alas, the slashes look more like healed scars than the wide "gringe" that I want.
I have tried drying out the loaves to get a thin skin for 6 minute and various other times as well. I have worked on my surface tension and I think that there is no problem there. I´ve tried oiling the razor, wet the razor with water. No help. Since I get a great "oven spring" I don´t think over-proofing is the problem. I´m out of ideas. Can anyone shed any light on how I might cure this problem ? P.S. I know that some dragging to be expected (see Hamelmans videos) but mine are WAY WAY out of order. Please help !
1. Do not hesitate! Quick confident slashes.
2. Don't hold the razor flat like this |__|------ this will cause a drag. You just want the tip for scoring so it cuts instead of dragging. Hang on i'll try to "draw" it \/------- so you're lifting it instead of it being flat. This way it'll cut.
3. Doing quick confident slashes and holding it correctly together with wetting the blade will all help a lot.
4. Try refrigerating the dough for the last 30min of the final proofing (making sure you time it well so when you take it out of the fridge it's ready to bake). This helps with high hydration loaves.
Let us know how you're doing.
Yes, I agree with all that you have said, abeNW11. I have tried all of those ideas except petting loaves in fridge for awhile. Good idea. I´ll try that tomorrow. In addition to the sticky dough I also have rather large bubbles in the loaf. When I say large I mean the size of a large grape. Quite naturally, when I slash through those bubbles , at the end of proofing, sometimes the loaf partially collapses. I have read that when I shape a baguette I want to handle it with "kid-gloves. So, I have not been able to figure out how to keep most of the small air pockets but deflate the bigger ones (which grow and grow and grow)
is not so high. Should be quite ok to handle. You don't need to quite handle it with "kid gloves". The idea is to knock out all the big bubbles and keep the smaller ones. Now unless you start kneading it again you aren't going to be getting rid of all the small bubbles. You're quite ok with gently flattening out enough to pat out the larger ones without fully deflating the dough. So what I would do is flour your surface, dough scraper and hands, [I don't like to sprinkle any flour on top of the dough because when you fold it they'll be flour on the inside which won't get soaked up and will bake as dry flour], then tip the dough out onto the surface. With your hands floured just enough so it doesn't stick gently flatten out the big visible air bubbles. Proceed to shape trying not to introduce big air bubbles back in. Hope this makes sense. When it comes to refrigerating a bit before scoring don't let it proof right up to the last second and then refrigerate otherwise it'll carry on proofing in the fridge and it'll over-proof. Aim for it to be 90% proofed when taking out of the fridge. Many say the dough should have "doubled" for final proofing but 90% is better. So slightly under doubled.
for 30 minute before slashing. This also might help the spring, keeping the ears up and better blistering too. Slashing will also be a breeze. 68% hydration used to be the norm for baguettes but now that we have taken it to 75% for bigger holes, 68% is way easier to slash.t ehn the higher hydration recipes.
PROBLEM SOLVED. AT LAST ! abeNW11 gave me a wonderful tip. The refridgeration of the almost proofed loaves for 30 minutes prior to slashing. Works like a dream. FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC. ! I am so very happy I could dance and sing. YAHOO ! A beautiful loaf to look at. Crust :thin and crisp. Crust color : deep golden. Crumb: wildly open with some really big holes, many medium size holes and thousands of tiny holes. Crumb : a pale golden and the hole-walls are shiny. Crumb. faintly sweet. Crust: a slight nutty flavor. The over-all flavor just simply WONDERFUL and the flavor lingers on the pallete. I´ve been working on this loaf for years and I was beginning to think that I´d NEVER get it right. Thank you all for the tips down through the many, many (hundreds) of trials. Now that every thing has come together I´m asking myself, Gee wiz, this is easy. How come I didn´t "get it" years ago ? signed happy, happy boy Thanks again everybody
Sounds like you've nailed it. No looking back now. Looking forward to seeing many wonderful baguettes.
Enjoy!