Baguette Traditional

Our friend came for a holiday to Thailand and she brought us French cheeses. Did you ever ate Navarrais goat-sheep cheese? It is delicious; so soft and tasty. The small cheese is our home-made cheese. We made this 3 weeks ago here in Thailand. It's ok, but not delicious yet. But together with the French cheese this called for French bread.
When I first found this recipe by Fromartz, I wasn’t sure if I could do this. The recipe is 4 pages long! But, I have some months of experience now and I like a challenge. And even more, I love to experiment and learn. But, do have a look at the baguettes Sammy Fromartz made.

And I’m very happy I took the challenge. This recipe shows the importance of stretching the dough. It keeps the fermentation gas in the dough and add holes in the crumb.


I made these baguettes a few times already. Every time they tasted great, but didn’t look so nice. When I was too careful to shape them and wanted to keep the gas in the dough, the baguettes looked like sausages. This time I want to show real baguettes. I have watched shaping video’s and have some practice now. These baguettes look almost French. They are so delicious and I like all the work baking them. I will bake these baguettes often and they will look more French each time.

I like this video on shaping baguette Have a look at it on Day 2.

This recipe takes 2 or 3 days. Sammy bakes 2 baguettes on the second day and the other 2 the next day.

This is what I used for 4 baguettes:
90 grams sourdough starter, 100-percent hydration
420 grams water
590 grams flour
10 grams whole wheat bran
13 grams sea salt
1 teaspoons instant dry yeast because today the weather is hot (otherwise 2)

Olive oil to grease bowl
Cornmeal or semolina to dust cutting board

This is what I did:

Day 1
Pour starter and yeast into bowl and add water, mixing until the starter breaks up a bit.
Add flours and salt and mix for a couple of minutes. The dough will be heavy and shaggy. Let it rest for 5 or 10 minutes, covered with plastic.

Knead the dough by hand of in your mixer. I kneaded it by hand and by machine, both ways for about 10 minutes till it felt smooth.

Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.
Put a little olive oil on the counter to keep the dough from sticking. Stretch the dough until 3 cm thick then fold (first time) top and bottom in thirds like a letter.


Cover in a lightly oiled bowl to rest for 20 minutes. You fold the dough 3 times and cover to rest for 20 minutes each time. At first the dough was very sticky, but with 3 folds the dough comes together en becomes smooth.

Clean bin, oil lightly (with 2 tsp olive oil), and put dough back inside. Cover and place in refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours.

Day 2
Put a little olive oil on the counter to prevent the dough from sticking. Then remove dough from container.
Cut dough in half. As you can see there is a lot of gas in the dough. This half goes back in the refrigerator.
Cut dough into two rectangular pieces (about 250 grams each) and gently stretch into rectangles 13-by-18 cm with the long edge facing you. Be careful not to press and destroy all the bubbles inside the dough. Cover with light towel and let rest for 5 minutes.

While dough is resting, cut parchment paper large enough to fit your baking stone. Dust paper with flour. Roll up 3 kitchen towels tightly. Set aside. (Or if you have a couche, dust it lightly with flour).
Shaping
Shape dough into a log by folding top and bottom of rectangle toward middle and gently sealing the seam. Place your left thumb in the dough and fold top with your left fingers. Gently seal with your right wrist. Do this 3 times and seal seam. Have a look at the video, pictures show more than words. Gently roll and stretch into a 36 cm loaf or just under the size of your baking stone. You should have a log about 4 to 5 cm thick.

Place the baguettes on the parchment with support from the towels. Cover with light kitchen towel and let rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Preheat your oven to 245 C. Put baking stone in middle of oven. You need to steam, prepare for this.

Baking
Remove towels from under the parchment paper and carefully move the paper with the loaves onto a flour-dusted overturned cookie sheet or cutting board. Dust top of loaves very lightly with flour. (If you used a couche, carefully lift loaves with a bench scraper and place on parchment paper on a cutting board). Use a bench scraper to gently adjust the loaves and straighten them out.

Make four cuts on the top of the loaf with a razor blade, 1 cm deep, running lengthwise on the dough. A swift slash at a sharp 20-degree angle works best.
Take cutting board and slide parchment paper with baguettes onto hot baking stone. Do not open the oven again while baking.

Check baguettes after 18 to 20 minutes. They should be dark brown and crusty. If pale, continue baking for 1 to 2 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes on rack before eating. They are best eaten within 6 hours.

While baguettes are baking, form the remaining dough into loaves or leave for up to 24 hours and make fresh loaves the following day.

I found this on Chewwise
I will send this to Yeastspotting