20101130 Baguettes for My Parents

My parents love baguettes, especially my dad.  There was no doubt that I wanted to impress them with nice, homemade baguettes. However, I hadn’t made baguettes for a long, long time. The lack of practice in addition to my shaky skills had turned this baguette bake into something rather disappointing.  As you will see, the baguettes were out of shape and the scoring was messed up.  The only thing I probably did right was the handling of the dough, since the alveoli were quite evenly distributed.  But I can’t remember the details now as everything was a blur when I tried to bang out a few loaves of bread simultaneously in the last minute.  Like many parents, my dad was very lenient. He complimented on the flavor and did not criticize the appearance of my baguettes. But I knew I ought to be able to do better than that.

I made these baguettes again today.  Without the stress of packing and catching a flight, I was able to think more clearly.  Every aspect of this bake, from shaping, scoring, to color, has improved except for one thing:  the alveoli were not as evenly distributed.  How I wish I had taken the time to record the details!  Oh, well, I can always try again.  Next time when I come home, Dad, I promise I’ll bring you some decent baguettes.

The following is a summary of my bake:

Here are some pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41705172@N04/sets/72157625518554802/show/