50% wholegrain baguette with 25% red fife 25% WW 50% bread
Baked my weekly 50% wholegrain baguette this morning per following spec:
25% wholegrain red fife from Breadtopia
25% WW from Bob's Red
50% bread flour from KA
77% hydration
Did a Biga preferment with all the flours for 24 hours in my 55-degree F basement
0.2% instant yeast
2% salt
Mix with a spiral mixer for about 25 min
Dough temp was consistently kept at around 80-degree F throughout the process
Bulk ferment for about 2.5 hours starting from the mixing, pre-shape, final shape, and final proof within another 1.5 hours
Did two very gentle slap and folds during bulk rise just to redistribute the dough but not for gluten development as it passes windowpane with flying colors out of the mixer
Bake 12 min covered with my steel graniteware pan at 450-degree F and 8 min uncovered at 425-dgree F
I was going to do this bake with my newly brewed FLAS but decided not to use it because there was still a little bit cheese smell in the solution. I am working at different ways to pure all the unwanted smells from a FLAS before I want to use it in my bread.
I think that is it. Oh, forgive my lousy scoring, as I probably can take a scoring lessen from alligator Al. I am not happy with a broken strap though as sometimes I end up with some close to perfect score lines and then come with an explosive oven spring and end up breaking all the ears. Let me know if anyone knows how to control the oven spring, as I can take a lesson from that as well.
Cheers!
Comments
I need to get baggies on the list ! That is a really nice loaf
Thanks Caroline for your nice comment. Yeah, I usually do okay with my baguettes if I use instant yeast, and this is one of the better ones than I usually get with a wild looking crumb. Now for my sourdough baguettes that is a different story and I am glad I don't have to tell that story anymore as I tossed my SD starter into the trashcan a few days ago :). I am starting a new starter and will post something when I am further along.
How's is your bicycling life so far this year? I have not ridden outside since last Nov, but I have been riding on my trainer at least once a week to do some power training. Some of our local groups have been riding all winter, and I am looking forward to have my a** whipped for the first few rides hopefully in a couple more weeks when the warm weather come. I have been running weekly outside throughout the winter though, in fact, I just got home from a 10-mile run, it was around 40-degree but with the wind it felt like in the 30s.
It’s been so cold here in VA all winter unlike anything I can stand. So many single digit nights .
we are in the gym 5 days a week and I am wheelbarrowing tons literally of compost to flowerbeds so that counts for something… what I don’t know 😳😂.
Cycling officially starts April 1 as we will be in Venice Beach FL near my fave cycling routes for 1 month!! We get in 100’s of miles during that month. Then we are set when we get back here to VA.
Glad you are getting out soon . I’m afraid my long distance runs are a thing of the past at 71…
I will be bagging it soon yours look great!
Oh yeah tell me about winter, I am getting tired of it here in Ohio Valley.
I heard that FL is pretty flat everywhere, I thought you like climbing, no? We do not have mountains here in Ohio Valley, but we have a lot of short stiff hills from the river which is just as challenging to climb as scaling a long mountain pass.
We also ride a wonderful paved bike trail The Legacy https://www.google.com/search?q=paved+bike+trail+nokomis+fl&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS676US676&oq=paved+bike+trail+nokomis+fl&aqs=chrome..69i57.14878j1j7&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#trex=m_t:lcl_akp,rc_f:rln,rc_ludocids:202896819133423337,ru_gwp:0%252C7,ru_lqi:ChtwYXZlZCBiaWtlIHRyYWlsIG5va29taXMgZmxI2rGQmpiCgIAIWikQABABEAIYAhgDGAQiG3BhdmVkIGJpa2UgdHJhaWwgbm9rb21pcyBmbJIBBHBhcmuaASRDaGREU1VoTk1HOW5TMFZKUTBGblNVTjVkR1pMYlRoQlJSQUKqARgQASoUIhBwYXZlZCBiaWtlIHRyYWlsKAA,ru_phdesc:u1sxma_uVQ0,trex_id:RI3sTd
It has two great climbs so we do those 2x each way on a ride out and back . I love climbs and our Blue Ridge mountains as well as any street in Lexington and surrounding areas has staggering hills. Gotta get my legs back in April then good to go 👍
Yeap I know what you are doing there, as I do hill repeats all the time. I love riding on the Blue Ridge mountains and have been dying to get back there to do it again. Thanks.
Now that looks like a good ride!
That crumb is wonderful Ming especially for 50% wholegrain, really impressive. I no longer fuss about broken straps of the ears, they don’t detract at all from the baguettes.
Benny
Hello Doc, great to see you back as I think we miss seeing your daily bakes here. Thanks.
Hey man!
Looking at this what do you need 'flas' for ???? :)))
Haha, I am most interested in FLAS for some additional aromas and flavors but if it improves anything else that will be a bonus. Cheers!
Baggie scoring is an acquired "art" for most except for the few and some nerds that get it right off the bat. Kudos to them, but most of us are not in that league.
No issues with these as they look great. And, as with Benny, I'll take oven spring over no broken straps any day of the week! Come with the territory, so no apologies needed on any front.
As far as what you should be aiming for, this is from a rye bake in late Jan. If you can do this you should see some improvement. Higher hydration means a sharper angle into the dough and vice versa. The difference between the two is subtle. Will just take some time and feel.
Alan
Thanks Alan for all the tips. Yeah I was so excited to see you post that score line pic in the rye CB a few weeks back. Believe me I looked at that pic over and over many times but couldn't find anything out of ordinary of it. I slash mine with a similar pattern, sometimes straighter with 3 cuts, othertimes more angular with 4 cuts. Perhaps the depth and angle of the cuts that cannot be seen in the pic are the magic. I also believe the conditions of the dough like the hydration, gluten strength, ripeness, etc. and oven variables must have something to do with how it opens up during oven spring. I have got some good looking ears before but it has been a hit and miss game though.
and perhaps something will catch your eye. During the baguette CB doc.dough had questioned the depth/angle scoring thang as well. I posted these comment. I'll also say that I "always" score the dough when it is still cold, so I'm working with a stiffer dough.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/64622/community-bake-baguettes-alfanso?page=5#comment-467873
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/64622/community-bake-baguettes-alfanso?page=5#comment-468069
You can also get a little window into scoring in action in this short video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGF3ApIXn6U
Great. I will check them out. Thanks.
Here is a photo onto which I’ve highlighted my scoring on these three most recent baguettes, in case you’re interested.
669CE0DF-1737-411C-91C6-12D1572DD676.jpeg
Yeah I saw that a while back. Excellent illustrations. Thanks.
Beautiful whole grain baguette Ming!
Thanks Troy for your nice comment. I make a baguette like this weekly, I just do not blog often enough with it.
I see that you are a mountain biker? I still remember I bought my 29er mountain bike with disc bakes when it first came out (quite a few years back), I think it was a Gary Fisher which is now part of Trek. I modified frame to make it rigid to convert it to a road bike, people thought I was crazy riding a weird bike with disc brakes, now most road bikes have disc brakes. I have not done mountain biking for many years since I dedicated most of riding with road cycling, perhaps one of these days I will be back to it, especially we have had many road incidents around here, which makes me very nervous every time I get on the road.
Gary made great mountain bikes! As far as the modification, you were just ahead of your time! Many of the "new" gravel bikes are similar in geometry and feel as a '90's mountain bike with drop bars. Some can even take up to a 1.8" mountain bike tire. You were just setting the trend. :-)
I hear you wholeheartedly on the roads becoming dangerous. I race mountain bikes, but I like to train and get my base miles in on the road. Unfortunately, the distracted driver situation is terrible and it's a little scary out there these days. We have at least another 6 weeks before the snow melts and we can get on the roads. Another 8-10 weeks before we can get on the trails.
Holly cow, that must be more than 20 years ago when I bought that 29er, for some reason I kept thinking it was some 10 years ago. Yeah, I remember it had the same size wheel as a road bike and I was able to find some smooth tires for it.
Wow, you must be pretty strong to do mountain bike racing. Many of my cycling buddies around here are Cat 3 road racers but I don't recall knowing anyone that do mountain bike racing. At 52 I am not quite old yet, but I can't ride like when I was in my 30s anymore. With that said though I ride with a single gear (single speed not fixie) only nowadays, you wouldn't believe it every time I meet a new rider in the group, they kind of shock that I can keep up with the group with a fairly hilly course, they always examine my bike to see if there is a motor in it, and I always tell them I do have a motor embedded in each of my legs. Anyhow, we need to get back to talking about making bread before we get off track here. :)