December 9, 2020 - 7:53am
Le Goût du Pain, Raymond Calvel. The French renaissance of bread baking
Following the teachings of Mr. Calvel, I will be attempting to modify this high hydration Bouabsa, baguette formula, to incorporate mechanical mixing. Along with the Autolyse, already used in the formula, the Cavel concept of the improved mixing method will be incorporated. The goal being, minimizing manual labor while controlling oxidation and preserving flavor. Wish me luck!
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It surely was a dickens shaping this high hydration dough. Did I mention that I hate working with high hydration dough?
The rewards of a Bouabsa are well worth the effort.
I was not going to post photos of the finished loaves. But hey I am among friends here. So the dough came out of the Bosch too sloppy the first bake. Then I grossly over-proofed. (no photos) I decided to take the temperature of the interior of my refigerator. I found I was only at 41 F. (Is the difference in ferment time really so great from 38F to 41F?) Without changing the temperature variable, I did another bake yesterday. I tweaked the Bosch procedure a bit and came out with a much more compliant dough. With a little over four, I did a better job of shaping. I cut the retardation from a total of 16hrs. to a total of 7Hrs. Don't you know the dough was still over-proofed! Not as bad but, bad.
I think I am going to continue my baguette journey with formulas of lower hydrations, which I have already had success with. The Bosch is not well suited to high hydration doughs above the mid to high 60's, that alone makes high hydration like shoveling sand against the tide. Add to that my skillset with high hydration and. it's not worth the trouble. Lastly, I kick up the refrigerator thermostat two notches from 5 to 7. So far it looks like 41 is the best I am going to achieve. The smoke oven thermometer is not very responsive at low temps I am finding. But I trust the number once it stabilizes.
I will stick to variations of these two formulas.
1. Gosselin Pain a Ancienne
2 Hammleman Vermont sourdough
As far as changing the Bouabsa formula to Bosch specific. I think you are not saving much from performing 300 slap and folds. That result could be different using another mixer, say a Hobart for instance.
Will, why did you want to increase the hydration? I have found with the Bouabsa baguettes that they do not need high hydration to achieve a great bake with an open crumb.
Also, you wanted to minimize the manual work, but I have found that they don’t require much anyhow, just a bit of Rubaud and coil folds and time does the rest.
I did not bump up the hydration. Tomorrow I am going back to reasonably low hydration of 67% only two points higher than my best bakes. As far as manual labor I agree. While it is possible to do high hydration in the Bosch, you have to work at it. Whole grains can be higher hydration and still fairly easy to work, I have found. All white is a ball breaker!