Yorkville Sourdough Baguettes 76% hydration
I was disappointed in my last set of baguettes so had to bake another set. With this set, I was using this new AP flour again and based on the last set decided to go with 76% hydration and do hand mixing so I could better assess how the dough felt. I also didn’t do any cold retard because the dough in the last set really resisted stretching as it was still a bit cold during shaping.
I have only two baguettes to show this time, one of the shaped and fully proofed baguettes slipped off the transfer board and hit the edge of the countertop and stretched out of shape degassing. I didn’t bother to bake it. This dough didn’t resist stretching and in fact I barely had to so any stretching during shaping. In fact, they ended up a bit too long for the cookie tray that I use to support the couche and the pointy ends ended up sticking to the cookie tray and I had to wrestle them off. Despite this I am quite happy with this bake.
Another thing I have been exploring is whether more gluten development can allow longer fermentation and still retain the grigne/ears of the baguettes. I’ve increased the slap and folds up to 260 this time and I really pushed final proofing to a total rise of 50% far greater than what was my standard when I first became adept with baguettes. Back then I tried to get the baguettes in the oven by 30% rise so 50% is a much more. The ears were retained and the crumb looked decent. I think I can push a bit more to 55% with this flour and this degree of gluten development.
Comments
The baguettes definitely look better. How did they taste compared to the last bake? Is your desire to extend the fermentation connected to improved taste?
Cheers,
Gavin
I agree Gavin, these look much better but can still be improved. I’m going to increase the final proof to 55% rise and see what happens. The goal is a bit esoteric, I’m wanting to prove my theory that more gluten development allows greater fermentation. If a side benefit of this is that the baguettes taste better that’s great. These did taste better mostly in terms of lightness of the crumb.
Benny
I think I need to get back into the habit of baking baguettes! Did you make a pizza with the one you dropped?
Thank you Glenn, no that would have been smart. Instead it went into the bin, I was so mad! Yes my half year without baking baguettes caused a lot of rust to set in.
Benny
Those baguettes are dreamy!
Thanks so much John, they were much better than the previous set, so that’s good for sure.
Benny
Hey Benny nice baggies. Nice to see you twirling batons again back in the north country. Were you in FLA during the recent deluge? I have had a lot of other things going on lately but have been sporadically checking in here.
My new pet theory is that longer fermentation leads to more gluten development sort of coming at it from the other direction. My switch to the “No Hostage bread”with a low percentage inoculation and a longer fermentation has been a revelation of sorts. I think it would work well for SD baguettes.
Don
Hey Don, thanks for checking in. Yes we were in Fort Lauderdale during the 1 in a 1000 year flood. In fact the day the rain stopped was the day we were supposed to fly home, last flight of the day. Long story short, we were able to fly out of Miami.
Definitely time does also develop gluten, not as much as mechanical development but gluten does develop passively. Look at the no-knead bread recipes out there in addition to your No Hostage” bread. Anyhow, I have gradually, very slowly since I’m not baking baguettes often enough, changed quite completely what I was doing initially after the baguette community bake. Instead of less gluten development, I’m doing a bit more, and instead of less final proofing I’m doing more.
Benny
I think your experiment paid off. Ideal crust and crumb.
I’m mixing up a 100% whole wheat high extraction home milled SD. I’m hoping for the best.
Happy baking!
Ian
Thank you Ian, I’m pretty happy with this bake. My shaping is still off a bit so I’m going to do another bake of these. Fortunately there are a lot of people happy to take home bake sourdough baguettes so I don’t have to eat through all of them myself.
What are you baking with your 100% whole wheat high extraction home milled flour?
Benny
I made 1 baguette which is about to go into the oven and 1 boule. Hoping for the best 😉
Needs some work with my shaping and timing. Had a small blowout and the scoring didn’t open up. Probably slightly over-proofed. Will see how the crumb came out for 100 % WW.
Easy to have blowouts if the seam isn’t down when baking. One of the challenges is keeping rmtrack of that seam. Hope the crumb is to your liking Ian. These things are finicky and require regular baking for muscle memory. I don’t quite have that back yet either.
Benny
For 100 whole wheat it’s not too bad. I think I rather have some white flour or maybe durum added in to be honest but it was still tasty.