WHICH FACTORS EFFECT A BAGUETTE'S CRUST??

David

The short answer is Yes. I don't know the recipe or techniques you're currently using so it's hard to advise exactly.

There are many different methods of lengthening fermentation but here is what I do when making 'baguette/pizza' dough.

I make a poolish the night before in which I add (and mix together) all of the water in the recipe and a equal weight of flour, 1/2 the yeast in the recipe and none of the salt. I also usually add about 15% whole wheat, white whole wheat or some other whole grain flour (as part of the flour total) which not only boosts the flavor but leads to a redder crust as well. I make sure all of the whole grain flour gets in the poolish.

Be sure to make the poolish in a container that is oversized by at least three times the volume of the poolish as it will rise, potentially by quite a bit.

In the morning, I add the remaining yeast, flour and the salt and mix it up and knead smooth. Let it relax 30-45 minutes and then stretch and fold every 20-30 minutes until the gluten seems well developed. It is then ready enough to use. Actual 'hands on' time is probably about 15 minutes to this point (spread out over 10-12 hours).

A day or two (or more) in the fridge, only makes it better.

As a guide line, I use 1/2 ts (about 1.5g) total Active Dry yeast for 5 lbs of dough. Sometimes a little more or less, depending on the room temperature. There are many recipes that call for a 'packet' of yeast (which I believe is 2.25 ts or 7g) for about 2 lbs of dough. If your recipe is anything like that, I would suggest you cut back on the yeast dramatically.

Good luck

dobie

Hi David, 

Regarding the color, are those flours malted? If not, a small amount of barley malt could go a long way towards getting you closer to that reddish color you want. If they are malted, does your dough go straight into the fridge after mixing, or is it left to proof for a while before being refrigerated? If it goes straight into the fridge then it's possible that your dough has reduced enzymatic activity resulting in lighter coloration.

As for the crust blisters, avoiding refrigeration entirely will likely take care of that problem. 

The reason your baguettes are so smooth and shiny is likely because of over steaming. Baguettes only require a light steaming in order to help with oven spring and blooming of the cuts. Too much steam will result in a shiny crust with cuts that open poorly. 

It now occurs to me that when you mentioned rough vs. smooth cuts that you probably meant cuts that opened with that nice tear vs. cuts that left little more than a smooth slash on the surface. The answer I gave you before was in reference to the actual cut edge of the grigne (rough or smooth). But if I'm understanding you better now, you want the "rough" cut. Correct? If so, that comes from proper scoring (correct depth/angle) and, just as important, proper steaming (not too much).

It sounds to me like a big part of your problem arises from too much steam in the oven. Too much steam will give you smooth cuts and a shiny crust. High amounts of steam also contribute to crust blistering. 

If you try any of my suggestions, just try changing one variable at a time to help you isolate which techniques are the ones that give you the most bang for your buck. Good luck.

Edit: Pictures would go a long way towards helping us diagnose your problems. Without them, we're just guessing at what's going on.

Cheers!

Trevor J. Wilson

David

There are three things very clear to me.

One, you are obviously baking at a sophisticated level.

Two, that I am somewhat embarassed for answering your question as if your recipe came from the 'back of the bag'.

Third, that Trevor is a very experienced baker (much more so than I) and I am glad to have become aware of him by your question.

I am not familiar with the 'Bouabsa method' but I would love to hear more, if you care to expound.

If I remember correctly, T55 and T65 flours are somewhere around 11-13% protein? Similar to All Purpose flour here in the US? BTW, where are you geographically?

If you are cold fermenting 21 hrs and not getting 'red'; first, that surprises me; second, I would be thinking flour, not process; and third, maybe the substitution of 15% to whole grain flour, might have an effect.

A few years ago, I did some fairly extensive tests (for me, anyway) regarding how much whole grain flour I could introduce to an otherwise lean 'white bread' recipe, and still have the dough respond fairly close to the original recipe.

I was trying to balance increased flavor with the behavior of the dough/bread (health be damned) and I settled on 15%. Not 12, not 18, but 15%.

Now, that was a while ago and I think differently now, but, as far as a 'keeping the recipe the same' approach, I think it's valid. Hopefully, we'll see what Trev has to say.

I would imagine, considering that you are already doing long ferments, that that might give you the 'red'. Maybe you could do a small experiment that increases whole grain flour in your normal process, and see what happens.

As I understand it, the 'red' comes from sugars. I will assume you are building lean doughs, so adding sugar would not be an option.

But I think Trevor might be on to something when he suggests adding a bit of diastatic malt, as the enzymes within would accelerate the conversion of starches in the dough to sugars (and it is still, after all, just another form of flour).

Diastatic malt is very easy to make, and if you would like, I'd be glad to share the process with you.

Also, whole grain flours are more enzymically active than whites, so again, that might be the simpler answer.

Are you baking professionally or privately?

Anyway, thanks. Hope I didn't offend you.

dobie

braed straight from the fridge if I remember correctly.  I to get much better blisters when baking straight from the fridge no matter if SD, yeast or yeast water.  Cold dough makes great blisters but you also get even better ones with Mega steam or a DO

What I meant was that I would mix up a batch of baguettes using the "straight dough" method (no poolish/pre-ferments). I would only use a small pinch of yeast (scaled for batch size) since I intended to let the dough sit overnight for so long. I never weighed the yeast, just eyeballed it. Not something I would recommend, but I'd been doing it long enough that it was never a problem.

And I would make sure to mix the dough very cold (usually with a water temp in the mid 30's -- as cold as our water chiller would get) to delay the fermentation.

I would make the dough around 1-3pm in the afternoon and then come in the next morning and shape it at 5am. I would just mix it until everything was evenly incorporated, but I wouldn't develop any gluten -- it would form that on its own as it sat overnight. Because I used so little yeast, and mixed the dough so cold, it was never overproofed when I came in the next morning.  The dough had slowly come to room temp and was perfectly proofed and ready to go.

This method made baguettes that were better in flavor and crumb than our regular poolish-based baguettes. The long overnight soaking of the flour helped to increase enzymatic activity in the flour, thereby releasing more sugars. This is probably what gave the baguettes a reddish tint compared to our regular baguettes. Though there was no poolish, the long fermentation time (even longer than the usual 12 hour poolish we were using) brought tons of flavor to the dough. 

Additionally, the crumb was much more open. I would actually make the dough a bit stiffer than our regular dough, but by morning the flour was so fully hydrated and relaxed that the dough felt softer than our regular dough. And it was so much more extensible which made for better shaping, oven spring, and crumb texture.

I guess you can consider that a form of the no-knead method.

I hope that helps.

Cheers!

Good for you, Alfanso. My baguettes are not yet 'crusty and beautiful' but I consider it a challenge. Yes, betty boop stuff is so cute. I don't have 'stuff' but nicknames.

Yes David, it is.

I did as I threatened and built a batch of dough yesterday pretty much in accordance with Alan's video. It will be out the fridge in about three hours.

I did some further reading of janedo and dmsnyder's original threads and discovered a few things.

Apparently, in the original attempts of 'Bouabsa' baguettes, kneading of any kind was kept to a bare minimum. Also, the double hydration technique was not initially involved. I'm sure these were refinements made later, but interesting.

The notion was presented that T65 flour in France is approximately the same as All Purpose flour here in the States with the addition of 15% Whole Wheat flour. Since that is my habit anyway, that is what I did.

So, having deviated from Alan's recipe, now there is a price to pay. When I did my initial mix, it looked a little stiffer than Alan's video. I realized, of course, WW flour absorbs more moisture. So, just intuiting a guess, I added 10g of water for the second hydration. This worked out pretty well as my dough then seemed very much like Alan's in the video.

So, I was all ready to do my 300 french folds, but found that after about 10 or so, my dough looked like Alan's did after 300. Hmm, what to do. I just went about the 3 stretch & folds in the next hour.

However, I checked it again at another 20 minutes, and it clearly needed more S&Fs. I ended up doing another 3 over that next hour and then set it to rise for an hour before putting it into the fridge.

After that hour, it had again collapsed significantly, so I gave it one more S&F and let it proof another hour. At that point it looked pretty good, so I put it in the fridge. Soon, we will see.

dobie