Problem with baguettes
It seems getting good results in a gas oven is not an easy job.
This is what my sourdough baguettes look like, I prepare a pre ferment at noon, mix the dough at 6pm, bulk ferment till 4am the next day, where I preshape into a ball, rest 5min then shape baguettes, final ferment in couche for an hour.
Baking starts at the highest level of I guess 400c placing the baguettes in stainless baguettes dotted trays. For steam I place an old metal tray at the bottom and when I put the baguettes, I throw 12 ice cubes in the tray and spray water quickly then close for 10 min, turn convection for 5min, then rotate the tray and let steam escape, lower heat and bake for another 10 min and finish with broiler to give the roast effect.
My final loaves are missing the scores and plastic white with harsh roast and a crack along the loaf.
This may be hard to ask but can anyone get a clue as to what is wrong just by the looks of the baguettes? The get a hard crust too
Perhaps I'm wrong but that crack looks like the seam of your loaf. Obviously seam should be down when you bake unless you're doing the natural score boule look etc. The pale look of your loaf suggests inadequate steam, theoretically it could also mean that the available sugars have been used by the yeast and there was not enough left to cause good crust color but we would need to know more about the recipe to determine that. The pale loaf can also be a result of the crust "skinning" too much before hitting the oven.
Seam side is always down, we can rule that out. As for the recipe, yields 4 x 300g:
Poolish:
50g culture, 125g water, 125g flour type 65 organic
After 6 hours to add:
330g water, 100g whole spelt, 56g whole wheat, 436g flour type 65, 8g unrefined sea salt.
With 30min autolize before the addition of salt.
I mix all for 12min then do a single fold. Proof roo. Temp (25c) for 3hours then 3hours fridge (4c) then 4hours room temp. Preshape, rest 5min, shape and proof for 1hour.
Hope this would give a clearer view, and thanks for your assistance
Baguette shaping is just great! You are not getting bloom perhaps because the surface is drying out from the lack of sufficient steam and the convection fan blowing over the surface of the dough.
alan
Thanks Alan, 400c is in Celsius, its the highest my gas oven reaches, you might be right about a couple of things, I use a straight lamelle the one the architect uses but I sharpen the blade every now and then, I guess I should use a normal blade. And I will try doing an extra fold or two to give the dough more strength.
Thanks for your help
Alain
Youre Baking at 752 degrees fahrenheit?
Thanks for sharing the formula, that is helpful indeed. As Alfanso pointed out your hydration is right around 65 which is pretty low especially considering the whole grain flours which will soak up more water than the T65. Also I noticed your salt is at 1.07% which is really low, this could lead to faster fermentation rates and allow your culture to eat through available sugars which could in turn lead to a pale crust. Also you have 20% of your flour pre-fermented in your culture which seems high for a 10 hour bulk fermentation. It's hard to judge these things from afar sometimes; is your dough proofing up really high by 4 am and becoming pillow like/does it deflate pretty heavily when you handle it? Is it supple when it is done being mixed ? Does it tend to want to stick to the bench and your hands or does it pull away readily? Baking and steam issues aside their might be some issues with the formula that could be causing part of your problem.
I bake in a gas oven when I do my home baking and typically use a cloche method or something of that nature that traps the steam released from the product and allows it to steam itself. As already noted by alfanso the convection fan should be off, the last thing you want is a strong air current. The air current will dry your crust and your scores and not allow your loaves to expand. I personally don't think what he said about steaming for 15 minutes prior to bake is necessary. That seems like overkill and the steam you produced 15 minutes ago would be long gone before you load, it shouldn't take too long to fill the small cavity of a home oven with steam...The ice cube method that I have used successfully involved a beat up cast iron pan that I no longer hand use for and an old school vegetable steamer basket...Put the steamer basket in the cast iron and preheat them along with my baking stone. Toss ice cubes in the steamer basket 30 seconds before loading, spray side walls with water to get some good steam going and load. repeat the spraying once or twice. This method normally leaves steam billowing out of the oven for me...
And as other have pointed out as well 400c? really? In a home oven? I'd like to see what oven you've got cause I have never seen a home oven that goes nearly that high :)
Hi FBC,
Thanks for providing that analysis of potential problems, even if it wasn't directed at me, but for the O.P. I'm now pretty good at execution, but still have trouble sometimes analyzing my own problems, no less someone else's from afar. I really appreciate reading your set of problem solving questions and ideas for the baguettes. And I also feel that a 750dF oven is only good for making quick bake pizzas and charcoal briquettes.
Still so much to learn...
alan
I am currently baking every single day and selling my products to bistros and health shops. My original recipe was working wonders for me, it had almost 20g extra water and 3g salt, but due to client's endless requests for less salt, I ended up neglecting my extra water that I used to add after 5min of mixing.
I will try today to incorporate water and salt as in my original recipe and also add the extra fold.
The ratio culture/time is not stable these days, since ambient temperatures are changing drastically, one night its 16c, another its 25c in mid winter!. We were swimming today in the morning and playing with snow in the afternoon, true story.
I will post photos of my result tomorrow. I also noticed something while trying on a mix of 50g spelt, 50g oat, 50g buckwheat, 50g barley all in the mixture for a country bread, the fermentation time was half the time faster! with a very aromatic smell in the dough.
Regarding the oven temperature, I'm afraid I made a mistake, its 300c, it is still rather high but once I open the oven for loading and dropping the ice cubes the temperature drops to 200c. I have a 90cm La Germania and I had its heat sensor adjusted for max heat.
Thank you for your help
I hear you, we've had an extremely up and down winter as well. I don't use any extensive first fermentation times like that at work because it would be way to difficult to control and pull off consistent product. I'd almost suggest moving towards a formula where you can adjust your water temperature to get the right dough temp, ferment for a few hours with folds and then bulk retard over night. This would effectively eliminate the affect of the drastic temperature swings.