Yorkville Sourdough Baguettes
I know I’ve made these many times trying to improve them, but I think for the flour that I use which is an organic AP equivalent to T55 I have settled on what I think is the ideal hydration and degree of fermentation. I have baked another set today along with the pie for a dinner party we are throwing tonight. Hopefully our guests will enjoy the meal. The main course is a miso vinegar chicken dish with peperoncinis and peppers. Both the miso and the red wine vinegar I make myself, the miso is fermented for 1 year.
Overnight Levain build ferment 75°F 10-12 hours
78°F 9 hours to peak
In the morning, to your mixing bowl add water and diastatic malt to dissolve, then add levain. Use your spatula to cut the levain into small pieces. Next add AP flour and mix to combine. Allow to fermentolyse for 10 mins. Slap and fold x 100 then add salt and hold back water gradually working in until fully absorbed by massaging and then Rubaud kneading the dough, then slap and fold x 200. Can also use your stand mixer.
Bulk Fermentation 82*F until aliquot jar shows 20% rise.
Do folds every 20 mins doing 3 folds
Could do cold retard at this point for up to overnight. (Aliquot jar 20% rise)
Divide and pre-shape rest for 15 mins
Shape en couche with final proof until aliquot jar shows 55% rise then (optional) cold retard shaped baguettes en couche for at least 15 minutes for easier scoring. I often do this for convenience as the oven is pre-heating as well as to make the dough much easier to score.
Pre-heat oven 500*F after 30 mins add Silvia towel in pan with boiling water.
Transfer baguettes from couche to peel on parchment
Score each baguette and transfer to oven, bake on steel.
Bake with steam pouring 1 cup of boiling water to cast iron skillet dropping temperature to 480*F.
The baguettes are baked with steam for 13 mins. The steam equipment is removed venting the oven of steam. Transfer the baguettes from the baking steel to next rack completing baking directly on a rack to minimize the browning and thickening of the bottom crust. The oven is dropped to 450ºF but convection is turned on and the baguettes bake for 10 mins rotating them halfway. The baguettes are rotated again if needed and baked for another 3 mins to achieve a rich colour crust.
I try to leave a bit more space so the ears are a bit wider. I have found that this reduces the broken straps that I often get. It worked for the most part with only one broken strap. I think I can still be scoring more deeply, but really I cannot complain, they baked up pretty well I think.
Comments
Benny,
Another successful Bake! I'm sure your dinner guest will appreciate the effort and the delicious food.
Tony
Thank you Tony, a few small problems with sticking to the couche but nothing major this time, so I’m happy with this bake.
Benny
Doesn't get much better than this! Your shaping and scoring are excellent as usual and your crust looks amazing. I'm sure your guests are going to leave very satiated by the sounds of your dinner!
Best,
Ian
Thank you Ian, that is high praise coming from you.
Happy baking.
Benny
They look fantastic! Loos like you got the formula and process sorted. Nicely scored. Have a great dinner.
Gavin
Thank you Gavin, I’m pretty happy with how things are now. I don’t think there is much left to tinker with for this formula.
Benny
I couldn’t do my usual horizontal single slice through the whole baguette since this was a dinner party. But here are some photos of the slices of baguette. I have the remaining baguettes frozen so can slice it in my usual fashion to show the crumb in the future. In the meantime, the crumb is nicely open on the slices.
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Butter, cheese or olive oil and you have a meal!
Yes very true Ian, and we have all of those at home.
Benny
As usual, your bread is gorgeous!
Before trying my hand at it, I have a few questions:
1) Am I mistaking or you are not using a sweet levain anymore? If so, what was the reason for that modification?
2) In order to help me plan my schedule, approximately how long does it take at the temperatures you use to get 20% (bulk) and 55% (proof) increases in the aliquot jar? If I do not use one, should I be expecting the same increase in the dough mass and in the proofing baguettes?
I thank you in advance for your kind advice and, also, for being so inspiring for a beginner.
Michel
Hi Michel
You are very kind to say that. I was a beginner too not all that long ago, and learned so much from the other bakers here.
I switched to a stiff levain because with my starter being switched to being fed only white bread flour, it produces breads that are less acidic than my starter when it was fed whole rye. Thus I didn’t see the need to make a sweet stiff levain.
Ensure that your starter is very active before you take this on. If your starter is slow, the dough will ferment slowly and your bread will be more acidic. My levain at 11 hours and 74°F had a 3x rise.
At 82°F it took about 3 hours for the dough to rise 20%. 55% rise came about 1 hour 35 mins later at about 77°F. I especially like to use my aliquot jar when doing baguettes because I like the precision and the ability to adjust for improvements in the future based on results. However, I’m sure a majority of bakers don’t use one. You can also look at the poke test for when to get your baguettes baked.
I wish you luck, the baguette journey is a worthwhile one. Don’t give up if your baguettes don’t turn out perfectly, just kept at time, keep notes so you can adjust to improve.
Benny
Finally got to slice through a baguette that I froze and then toasted for dinner with babaganoush, yumm.
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