It's been a long time coming
No, not the Crosby, Stills and Nash song. Rather my "full sized" baguettes. Geremy (kendalm) has been bugging' me ;-) on and off for a while to try my hand at a full sized baguette. And so here is my first attempt using the same Pain au Levain w/ 125% hydration rye levain as I ran last week.
Obstacles; not enough oven depth so I had to load them in sideways, my couche isn't large enough, no retarding tray for the couche, and no oven peel long enough. Other than that, things were mostly honky-dory! For the couche I used a stiff kitchen towel brought back from Paris by my brother a while back (the lead photo), a cut up cardboard box for the retarding tray, and two cookie sheets taped together for the oven peel. Oh, and three pieces of parchment remnants to cover the oven peel. Certainly not ideal, but just creative enough to get me there.
The baguettes weighted in at 365g each, a little over the dictated 350g, and fell ~9-10cm short of the 55cm standard - mostly from being a bit gun-shy on meeting the length vs. the width of the baking deck. A bit sticky due to the 16% rye, they could have been shaped a little better too. One unappreciated result was the four of them being lined up across the baking deck. This created insufficient space between them and therefore the sides of each one insulated and under colored the other. Not an issue when they are loaded head first across the length of the stone.
I baked these less boldly than I ordinarily would have, trying to be a bit more "traditional" in baguette shading. I think that I'll be keeping the cardboard "tray" around for a while as I'll probably want to run these again while attempting to be truer to weight and length the next time.
Baked at 460dF, 10 minutes under steam, 12 minutes more and then vented for 3 minutes.
365g baguettes x 4.
Comments
So size does matter, eh? I confess that I caught the CSN&Y ref as soon as I saw your subject line. Dates me I guess. Dates us all. Nice looking breads, as always, and exquisite scoring, also as always. I like your tea towel too. Instructive!
t
Not to get too off-topic, because you started it after I started it - But I loved the sound of Stills' guitar from the first note of For What It's Worth, as iconic as the first note of I Feel Fine. Even if the song in question isn't his. Just for the heck of it, here is what I consider to be a superb version of my favorite CSN song.
Oh, and thanks for the fine words too!
alan
They turned out very nicely regardless of shaping issues imo.
I lament having only a domestic oven which is way too small to make any decent sized baguette. Faffing with couches, peels and stones equally seemed pointless while ever I can't make a proper sized baguette so in the end I opted for baguette trays. They have the advantage that you can proof on them and then transfer the whole thing into the oven so absolutely no risk that they will be misshaped or damaged during the loading.
As for shaping, it's a knack gained from repeated attempts like everything else. For me it is the pre-shaping that is the most vital element. Get a good consistent and even pre-shape and the shaping, sealing and rolling become pretty much fool proof imo.
Something that I've mentioned numerous times in prior posts. The pre-shaping of these was on target, but that touch of stickiness worked against me as the rolling out of the dough went longer than I am used to. I use a hand peel so I generally do not have issues with moving the dough from couche to oven peel. My oven is only 30 inches wide and the baking stone was cut to 21 1/2 inches across - the limitation. I missed the mark on length this time around but I seem to not duplicate mistakes often, so I'll see what happens the next time.
thanks, alan
Fyi my two stones (I have an upper and lower) are both 22 inches. To get 55cm you need the final loaf to measure 21.5 inches and you also have to consider shrinkage which is about 1 inch so really the ideal wet length is 22.5. For the record I peel them on angle to get the final length - that way I can fit a 22.5 inch loaf onto a 22 inch stone. Most times however I settle for a cm or two short - close enough !
Will just have to have a go too! never made any ever so that will be fun.
As usual beatiful bake. something to aspire to!!
Happy baking Alan
Leslie
With the exception of the truly gifted few, baguettes prove a challenge the first few times around for most of us, including yours truly. But diligent attention to corrections yield a better product over time. Join the fun. Even if the shape comes out looking more like a walrus than a baguette, it is still good eating!
thanks, alan
Gorgeous!!!
Thanks for the checklist of obstacles. I'm working on getting my gear together. :)
From the doyenne of jury-rigging on TFL, the one who diagnoses everyone else's ills, I'm surprised that you don't have almost every trick tucked away in the bag already!
Workarounds are sometimes stressful, except when they are fun. I did give a diligent look-see for existing kitchenware, or otherwise, that I could use to substitute for what I was lacking, but that "Easter Egg Hunt" got me nowhere except for inventing the few things that I'd mentioned. At least they worked out.
thanks, alan
baguette is a pain! I think these are pretty nice for a home baker p better than the norm in France for sure. Mine always get a drooped nose on each end when they go over the stone length I consider it a signature bread 'pain a la bouche'. These look grand as usual and extra long.
Well done and Happy baking Don Baggs
Jimmy Durante nose baguete a few times myself. If you haven't, then you haven't been baking long enough.
Maybe a "pain in the tooshe"?
And channeling what Buckethead told Ozzy Osbourne when being interviewed for a gig and Oz referred to him by his real name "no one calls me Don Baggs except my Mother". N.B. Buckethead was too weird for even Ozzy.
thanks, alan
That is some amazing work.
with the outcome considering the change to length on these. Not used to scoring something so slender, but it came out well in the end.
thanks, alan
You might try an appropriately sized piece of double-corrugated cardboard for a peel until you can find a piece of 1/4" lauan plywood.
The scoring is beautiful!
cut down to size. You can see it in use here in this short video I made last year. One of the first pieces of baking equipment that I armed myself with was this thing. The flip side of it has markings which I use for measuring out laminated dough and babka.
thanks, alan
not the hand peel! I don't think that I'll have sufficient interest in making these full sized baguettes all that often for reasons that I outline in my response to kendalm below. So, if I need to tape together two cookie sheets for that occasional run, I suppose that I'll just do that. OTOH...
Thanks for the suggestion, and apologies if I referred to the wrong implement. Nomenclature is supposed to be a help :-( .
alan
I love 'm especially that bottom one in the first photo. Wish I had bee following been busy travelling for biz and prolly won't be baking this weekend :( but alas alan has taken on the challenge and come through with flying colors. I am amso willing to bet he gets hooked and figures ways around the space challenge. I personally sort of creeped up to full size over time and eventually found my own steps and tools (for example I require a large plier to remove my stones for easy peel off). I made a cardboard peel that's long enough and purchased a 24 inch wide couche. And so by the time you have your method and tools at your disposal its just not even a thought anymore to bake shorties or 'bagards' as I like to call them.
As alan states, this loaf is really a formidable challenge especially of you follow the specs. Many american bakeries will cheat and do 450g xl sized versions but as soon as you drop the weight and increase the length getting spring and bloom etc becomes much more elusive. Pretty sure that even of these are slightly shy of the 55cm mark its pretty clear alfanso don baglione has the Midas touch :)
These are too thin and long for my personal preference, probably due to making the others for so long now. I like the girth of the short baguettes more, and as strange as this sounds, these are a little in the way on my kitchen counter. The shorties fit much better on the cooling rack where the breads reside once the bake is over. Also, the muscle memory for rolling out the shorties is locked in place, where these I had to force myself to roll long and wasn't quite comfortable with where to stop. But a worthy exercise nonetheless.
I surely had some initial concerns about how these would open once the bake began. I gave up peeking through the oven door glass long ago, instead busying myself with clean-up and prep, whatever. And typically don't look at the action until ~7 minutes or so into the bake. So I was pretty darned pleased to see them bloom as "typical".
thanks, alan
Why the parchment sheet ? I don't use them because they burn at the temps needed but then again I go to 550 because I have the door open for a while during prep and now,starting to think that maybe if I use a sheet in the same manner as you do I could set the temp a bit lower. From experience I have found that getting good spring is aided by direct contact to a really hot stone - I will not get as much spring if the stone is not going to transfer as much heat possible in the first 5 minutes. Starting to think I should try your technique ...
to doc.dough, you can see how easily the oven deck can be loaded. The entire parchment just simply slips off the oven peel and slides into place on the baking surface. I've never had an instance where the parchment burns up, and I can typically get a few consecutive bakes out of the same sheet of parchment, assuming that it doesn't tear upon removal and need to be discarded. I never fired up the oven as high as 550dF except for pizza, and even then the parchment chars, but doesn't burn up. My typical pre-bake temperature is 480dF-500dF, and then drops down for the bake.
I agree that the parchment acts as an insulator between the dough and the deck, but it doesn't appear to affect the oven spring that I can get. When I release the steam is also when I remove the parchment - again seen in the video link.
If you wish to use parchment, try to avoid the paper typically sold on the rolls. They end up being too expensive and the curling of the paper off the roll is just a pure nuisance. If you can get into a restaurant supply store, see if you can find what are called "hotel pan" sheets which are flat and maybe folded over in the center for packaging purposes. The paper that I use I buy locally, but this is it.
alan
signature dark bake, I would recognize that scoring as yours! You may have found it more awkward to work with the different dimensions, but it still very much shows as yours.
Thanks for posting about your inventive creation of tools - it's so inspiring to see what all can be done even without the "official" type of gear, and that there are always new areas to experiment with.
Gorgeous baguettes, sir!
When I started this whole shebang it was in response to my buying FWSY and then busying myself with getting the kitchenware that I didn't already own. The first purchase was a dutch oven, and it was probably the most expensive thing to this day that I bought. Well, excepting changing out a single for a double oven, so that I could have a dedicated bake space. Anyway, I've used the dutch oven maybe there times and it resides somewhere in the depths of the cabinet.
All that leads to me stating that baking is a pretty inexpensive hobby with only a few tools which are really necessary that one should use. I did order a real couche, but after that it is basically just pick-up stuff to fill the void. Jelly roll pan, cookie sheet, piece of laminated flooring, etc. I suppose the digital scale ranks up there in cost, although my $10USD pocket scale does up to 5K in 0.1g weights nicely. And then there are the actual ingredients. I use standard run-of-the-mill supermarket flours unless I can't find them, diamond brand kosher salt, tap water...
All in all like many other things, one can go high end with the Rolls-Royce version of implements, but that doesn't inherently make a better end result. I like staying one step from the bottom rung I guess ;-)
Thanks for your high praise, alan
Those baguettes look tasty as did the rye you made after your journey was complete. I am going to give the rye bread a try. Mine always seems to come out dense with tight little holes in the crumb. Edible but not what I am looking for. Keep posting those great looking pics. Lets me know there yet may be hope for my rye.
Thanks
Gene
By the way..... CS&N was my first thought when I read the title too......
I think a trick with "workable" rye is that when used in what might otherwise be considered a "normal %" of the total flour, what you experience may be a culprit. I'm resorting to only 20% of the total flour as rye in that other post.
If you want to experiment with greater percentages, let me point you toward these two posts. The first is by WoodenSpoon for what works out to ~33% rye batard. The second is from Phil, or PiPs who doesn't seem to post here anymore. His take is as a 40% rye with caraway. Those two should provide some info on working with greater percentages of rye than what is typically found in bread.
If you want to try a Jewish Deli style rye, which ups the rye % even more, take a gander at Varda's entry on Jewish Corn Rye. (corn meaning grain in German, if I have that right.) And David Snyder's build method for a Rye Sour used in this same type of bread.
If you wish to give what I recently posted a go, I just added the formula and method to that post.
That should keep you out of trouble for a while ;-)
alan
And don't skip clicking on that link to CSN above. The Springfield played a few blocks from where I grew up just as FWIW was released. Missed it, darn it!
Thank you for the recipes to check out. I am not very sophisticated when it comes to percentages and such. I'm pretty much a gram or ounce guy. I have tried a loaf done at approximately 2.5 cups unbleached and 1 cup rye. I can see that it was a bit too much rye so I will check out the things you suggest and see what I can come up with. I've been told that subbing dill pickle juice for some of the water will add some flavor as well so the lesser amount of rye flour may work there.
Thanks