Another go at baguettes
I had almost enough T65 flour for one last try.
Starter was refreshed on Tuesday. I meant to feed it before going to bed but forgot! Wednesday morning I gave it 1:3:3 feed hoping to mix mid afternoon. It was cold that day and things slowed. As I had to go out about 5 pm I put it in the fridge until yesterday morning. Pulled it out first thing and left it to warm up. Baguettes were the 2nd dough to be mixed so it was late morning before I was ready.
10:45 am Autolyse - Mixed flour and water and left for 45 mins. I had to add a small amount of bread flour as I was short of T65 flour by. 20 g
11:30 am Added starter and yeast and mixed on low for 4 minutes, added salt and mixed for about another 2 minutes. I tipped dough out onto bench and gave it 20 SLAFs - this just seems to line the gluten up. annd dough. looks much smoother and shinier.
12:20 pm coil folds
13:10 pm coil folds then into fridge.
19:45 pm remove dough from fridge and allow to warm up, targeting 16°C dough temperature.
21:15 pm divide and pre shape
21:30 pm final shaping and left to proof. after an hour or so I popped bagguettes in fridge to hold whilst other bread finished baking and I could heat the lava stones up. Final bake 21 minutes at 255°C - never baked at that temperature before! although I reduced temperature to 235°C about 3/4 way through as I thought it might burn.
I am reasonably happy with the bake - the baguettes rose beautifully - by far my best effort with shaping and volume. Still haven’t managed to get that lovely open crumb and scoring still needs work.
Not sure when I will be able to source T65 flour again but will try again if I do.
Leslie
Comments
Congrats on getting your best results so far! Those are nice and plump! Crumb might not be extremely open but I’m betting they tasted good. 😁
and crust was thin and crisp so yes it was a stepup. thanks
Leslie
Very nice improvements Leslie, I hope you are enjoying the process and the fruits of your labours with these baguettes. I bet they were really tasty with the T65 flour. I hope you get some more again, or at least another flour you can use to keep baking baguettes. When I was learning I found that if I left it too long it felt like I was doing them for the first time.
Benny
maybe I am less fearful of the process and the dough. I am heading to Europe (it is still a scary thought to travel again) in a couple of months to visit family so hope to bring some home with me then.
You have a good point about the time between bakes so I will see how I go. Still don’t understand why I can’t get a more open crumb - I can with my other breads. Timing was an issue this time but next time maybe it needs that longer overnight retard. I was careful not to deflate the dough when shaping. When I finished mixing I felt dough just needed a bit more work hence a few slap and folds. Do you think it would be better if I skipped them?
happy baking Benny
Leslie
Without knowing all the aspects of your formula and temperatures that the dough fermented at, I would guess that you need to ferment longer. The bulk fermentation seems short to me at less than two hours unless the pre-fermented flour was really high.
I’m not sure that you need more or less gluten development. I know that we can achieve open crumb with very little gluten development but then you have to be very careful not to over ferment at all because you won’t get ears. If you develop the gluten more, I think the dough can handle more fermentation and then more easily get open crumb.
Happy Baking Leslie, keep working at those baguettes.
Benny
Bulk fermentation was approx 1.5 hours at room temperture during which I did 2 coil folds, followed by 6 hours in the fridge. I then left on bench for 90 minutes and when dough had reached 16 deg C it was divided, preshaped before final shaping and another 45 minutes proof. So dough had in total 2.5 hours at room temperature (21 deg C) and 6 hours cold. Ideally as per recipe I would have left it overnight in the fridge.
Next bake (whenever that is) I will skip the slap & folds and just autolyse, mix etc and see if that is better, sticking to a better timing schedule :)
Leslie.
Is there a reason that you wait for the dough to warm up before you shape, just wondering?
Given you timings and the room temperature of 21°C I’d say that you need more fermentation time. Why not pre-shape and then shape right out of the fridge and give it more time after shaping to ferment more?
Benny
and that is what Fabrice does here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5B_nYulA7E
I will rethink the fermentation time etc for the next bake but have to admit following (more or less) the methodology here has helped.
Your feedback is as always most helpful
thanks Benny
Leslie
You made beautiful loaves...be pleased and proud.
Leslie
Hard to believe that you of all people didn’t get an open crumb. I think it was Danayo who said you could get an open crumb with cement. I have found that baguettes don’t hold to the same rules as other breads which is why I think many bakers get frustrated with them. The T65 I have is very delicate and it comes together very quickly but will unknit if you knead it too much. There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground between what Benny and I think is the remedy but some of the differences are related to SD vs IDY used for the leavening. Safe travels and happy flour hunting.
Don
Next bake I will autolyse, mix and skip the slap & folds and see if that is what is making the less open crumb. I had to smile at your first comments but baguettes really challenge me. I am feeling more confident after this bake but it will be several months till I can get more T65. Europe here I come in September - Einkorn and T65 flour as well as kamut are on my shopping list!!
Many thanks & I appreciate your input
Leslie