March 14, 2015 - 1:26pm
Carcassonne baguette recipe from Hairy Bikers
The Hairy Bikers Big Book of Baking (Orion Books, 2012, ISBN 978-0-297-86326-7) has some interesting bread recipes including the baguette recipe from a bakery in Carcassonne, the famous medieval 'walled city' in southern France.
Enough of the travelogue... Si King and Dave Myers do know their stuff and so we can trust that they have checked the details, but the recipe as printed calls for 50% hydration (not my typo!), more yeast than I would go for, and approx 0.5% salt.
Has anyone else come across this? Could a 50% hydration work? I am tempted to try it out just to see what happens, but I would expect to have to add more water.
Share
That sounds pretty darn dry, and the salt percentage is really low. However, if the flour they specify is really low protein and highly refined, it would be less dry than if they use American AP or Bread flour.
Pat Roth (proth5) developed a baguette formula which is 65% hydration and makes really nice bread, but that's the driest I have ever gone for baguettes.
David
P.S. I have never seen the Hairy Bikers or their book, but are you sure you are citing a formula for bread to eat, or are they describing construction materials for Carcassonne's wall?
Carcassonne battlements might have been an influence ;8-)
Hairy Bikers are British – TV and books, well regarded...
Just trawling through TFL site, I came across a comment about Ciril Hitz's standard baguette recipe being based on 2:1 flour and water. That works out at 50% doesn't it? I'm intrigued -- want to find someone who has actually done this!
I copied some of their recipes at the BBC website, mostly cakes and other foods - I didn't see breads among them.
I would never go exactly by the amount of water stated in the recipe, but what the dough feels like - it could be an erratum, too.
Happy baking,
Karin
the recipe online. Post it and I will give it a go.
I don't have the book to hand now, but the recipe published was based on 1kg (2.2lb) strong white flour, 500ml water, 1 tablespoon of dry yeast (which I think is roughly equal to 20 g or 2%) and 5g or 0.5% salt.
I tried a version of this using French T65 flour with 1% salt and 1 % yeast. The dough was too stiff to work and I ended up using wet hands several times to make it workable.
The baked result was more OK than I expected, with a good shape. Not great but certainly acceptable. It proved to me that a relatively stiff dough can make a good baguette, but I would still prefer to go a bit wetter and use more conventional 2% salt and 1% yeast as a 'basic' recipe.
believe a lot of recipes are dumbed down to make the dough easier to handle. While it will produce an edible loaf the results are usually less than stellar.
Actually 57% but the woman writing said she added extra water since the dough seemed dry....How much who knows?? Most recipes call for higher hydration.
http://www.gazetteherald.co.uk/leisure/food_drink/9568511.Recipe_for_baguettes/
bread - 'Biker Bagel Baguettes!' Can't wait to try them with sprouted grain :-)