Sourdough Baguettes

Introduction:

Baking a good baguette has been a somewhat elusive goal for me. There are so many different recipes and the outcomes have varied from crunchy & dry, to cakelike & fluffy, neither of which is what I really want in a baguette.  They are also quite a challenge to shape, slash and get into the oven without totally squishing or getting twisted up. Basically I need practice with baguettes.

I have been reading Jeffery Hamelman’s book Bread: A baker’s book of techniques & recipes, and it has a very thorough description of how to shape baguettes (among other things). I’m at my wife’s place this weekend where there is a real oven (nothing larger than a demi would fit in my toaster), so I figured I’d give them another try.

I’ve also been really into naturally leavened breads since I got my sourdough starter working well about a month ago, so I wanted to try a sourdough version. I found this recipe for 36 hour sourdough baguettes on the fresh loaf website and I was intrigued, so I figured I’d give it a try.

Materials & Methods:

This one is simple.

AP Flour Water Starter (100%) Salt

Mass 425 g 300 g 150 g 10 g

This is a very wet dough: 425g + (150g/2) = 500g flour 300g + (150/2) = 375g water 375/500 = 0.75, so 75% hydration

• Start by mixing the flour and water, and letting that autolyse overnight ( I was at work so it ended up staying there for about 24h).

• The next day mix in the starter and salt

• Let rise at >75F for 3-4 h folding every 30 min or so during the first rise

• Retard the rise in the fridge (This was supposed to be another 24h but I was busy and it sat for 2 days)

• Remove from fridge and bring to room temperature. Make sure the dough has reached about 2x its original size

• Divide into 2 portions and rest for 40m (I divided in to 4 portions but I ended up making mini baguettes - I'll try full size next time)

• Shape and proof 30-50m. (check out this video for a good example of how to shape baguettes)

• Bake at 460 with steam for 25m (rotating at 15m)

This was a really long process, but it required very little hands on time. In summary the timeline went like this:

Wed Thurs Sat

8:30 pm 6:30 pm ... 10:30 pm 12 pm 2 pm 2:40 pm 3:30 pm

Mix flour & water begin autolyse Mix in remaining ingredients and begin rise. Fold every 30m Put back in fridge overnight (I left if for 2 nights) Remove from fridge and bring to room temp Divide then rest Shape and proof Bake

Results:

It was pretty cool how such a wet dough came together nicely from the shaggy mess it started out as for the long autolyse (Fig 1) with just a small amount of folding.

Figure 1. The flour and water ready to autolyse overnight

 After the folding and the long cold fermentation I divided and shaped into tidy rounds that held their shape nicely (Fig 2).

Figure 2. Scaled rounds resting

These rounds were shaped into baguettes (Fig 3) following this technique. I definitely still need practice, but these look a lot better than what I usually make.

Figure 3. Shaped baguettes rising. Junior approves.

A final rise for about an hour and they were ready to bake. The last one to go in actually came out the best. I'm not sure if that was bc of the extra 30m rise, or if I just did  a better job shaping that one.

Conclusion:

I was really happy with the way these came out (Fig 4). The texture and flavor were awesome with a thin crackly crust and nice open crumb. I even got the slashes to open nicely on the last one. The long fermentation really lets the flavor develop, but I was actually surprised that the results were not all that sour.

I'm sure it would work fine if I reduced the extreme autolyse and fermentation times that I used here. Honestly I was kind of curious how long I could leave it and still get a decently shaped loaf. I think that the refrigerated fermentation step could go even longer. The trick to getting a loaf that pops up nicely in the oven seems to be more related to getting a good amount of tension on the outer surface of the finished dough when you shape it.

My technique definitely still needs practice but I think i'm on the right track here. They certainly didn't stick around for long. Lunch was baguettes with pesto gouda and olive tapenade, then with kefaloteri, honey, & blueberry jam for desert.

Figure 4. Baguettes ready for lunch