Closer To The Truth Baguettes

by A.J. Coltrane

The middle of December saw the Not-Pretty Baguettes.

Tonight’s are much more photogenic:

The crumb was decent but not exceptional. This may be to be expected given the relatively small diameter of the breads:

Notice how the open spaces are directly down the center — the area that was slashed.

It’s basically a classic baguette formula:  100 parts bread flour, 60 parts water, 2 parts salt:

1.  Before I left for work I combined 200g bread flour and 200g water with ~1/16 tsp of instant yeast.

2.  When I got home I combined the preferment in the KitchenAid with an additional 130g flour, 7 grams of kosher salt, and 2/3 tsp of instant yeast. The combined dough was mixed for 8 minutes on low speed.

3.  The dough was allowed to rise for 30 minutes, then divided, shaped, and placed into a towel-lined (and covered) baguette pan. The doughs were allowed to rise in the baguette pan for 30 minutes..

4.   A loaf pan with 1/4″ of water was preheated in a 450F oven for 15 minutes. (45 minutes of rise time in the baguette pan for the doughs, total.) The breads were then baked for 22 minutes. At the 11 minute mark the loaf pan (with remaining water) was removed, and the baguette pan was rotated 180 degrees.

Progress!

—-

I recently received a copy of Advanced Bread and Pastry. It confirmed something that I suspected. (Paraphrasing) “High protein flours brown more readily than low protein flours.”

I’ll need to look for the exact quote again.