Gnarly baguettes and divine sweet potato soup
Well, I made those baguettes I'd been craving. Simple really -- I just did the NYT / Sullivan Street bread scaled down to make three 8-ounce baguettes. Well, I also substituted 10% of the white flour for whole spelt, because I had some on hand, brought the hydration down to 75% and folded it twice before going to bed.
They were very tasty, almost buttery, and the crust was perfect. Crunchy and full of flavor. Crumb was nice too, with the irregularly shaped , though not cavernous, holes I was hoping for.
Man, though, were they butt-ugly.
Thin, bulbous, crooked, ugh. And I did my first attempt at a wheat sheaf all wrong -- I should have cut from the top, not the side, so they turned out looking twisted.
When you all make baguettes, how much do you weigh each out at? I've got just enough room for a 12 inch baguette but it seemed to me that 8 ounces was a little on the small size. Also, any hints you can give on shaping, and I'm all ears ....
But, even if they were ugly, they went very, very well with Zolablue's divine sweet potato sausage soup. I pretty much stuck to the recipe, though I added more sweet potatoes since I had to thaw out 8 cups of stock (smallest container I had) and didn't want it to be thin.
I'd once thought that soups weren't photogenic, but now, having seen Floyd's photo, I'm beginning to think that it's just that my soups aren't photogenic.
Anyway, that's a perfect winter meal, as far as I'm concerned (though, the bread really should be whole-grain ... but heck, even I get a Jones for white bread every once and a while ....
THANK YOU, Zolablue. This soup was a huge hit.
Comments
Looks like we had very similar meals this evening!
8 cups of stock?!? Gadzooks! We're going to be eating leftovers for one or two nights, but it sounds like you may have a week's worth.
Shoot, that's nuthin'. I made a recipe a few weeks ago that called for 16 ...
We've still got some of it in the freezer .... In any case, if I decide not to put some of the leftovers in the freezer, this is one soup I won't mind eating for lunch every day this week.
The salad looks amazing. Hazelnuts and feta?
Yes, lettuce and spinach, hazelnuts and feta with a simple vinaigrette. Hazelnuts are produced by the truckload, here, so they're relatively cheap direct from the farmers. There's also a couple of good goat dairies that make feta cheese, so it's not terrifically expensive either.
Nuts really spruce up a salad, for me, anyway.
I love that you made the soup and even more that you liked it! My husband swore to me he doesn't like sweet potatoes but he lapped that stuff down like crazy and told me anytime I wanted I could make it again.
And I have to say I love the look of your baguettes. Honestly, I love the rustic look. Perfectly fine, to me!
It's a keeper, Zolablue. Great stuff. We're having it AGAIN for dinner tomorrow night, though with some whole wheat mash bread instead of baguettes. Mmmmmmmm.
they have much more character, artistic. Uniform is boring. Your dinner looks yummy!
Every time I succeed in making a good loaf of French bread, I remember why I don't make it that often. Far too easy to get used to ... I could eat that stuff every day. Mmmmmm.
Thanks, Paddyscake. One day, though, I hope to shape a nice, uniform looking baguette, just so I can say I did it. :-)
baguettes and batards should be scaled to 12 ounces. I've been doing mine at 16 oz and think it's too much. So, 12 seems to be the happy medium. I'm toying with the idea of making a couple of loaves this evening. If I do, I'll get back to you.
Larry
The 12 oz, 12 inch batards are a much better porportion and look more batard like. Now I'm curious about using the 16 oz dough and stretching it out to 16 inches. I haven't had much success in doing that in the past. Scaling for a specific goal is new to me but I want to start making a variety of shapes and sizes including sandwich rolls so I have some learning to do.
Larry