Lucky dragon tails

For many people dragons bring luck and prosperity. In most Thai temples you find dragons. We live near a big Buddhist temple. Here you find many dragon figures in gold and silver. There is a bridge shaped like a dragon, a road in dragon shape and also the river you see from the Temple hill, looks like a dragon tail.
When I saw the beautiful dragon tail Susan had made, of course I wanted to make them too. They look so delicious I’ll think they will bring luck. This time I made smaller buns for the tail. But, next time I will make bigger ones.


Yield: four 260 gram or three 350 gram dragon tail baguettes

This is what I used:
Poolish:
219 g flour
219 g water
0.1 g (a small pinch) instant yeast
Final Dough:
425 g flour
219 g water
3 g (1 t.) instant yeast
12.7 g (2-1/8 t.) salt
All of the poolish
3.2 g (2/3 t.) (diastatic) malt powder (I didn’t have this)

This is what I did:
Before baking day:
The day before prepare the poolish. In a bowl, combine the ingredients for the poolish. Cover and let ferment for 12 – 15 hours, or until the surface is creased and pebbled with bubbles. Baking day:In the bowl of a stand mixer with dough hook, combine all of the final dough ingredients but with 90% of the water. Mix on low speed to incorporate the ingredients, add the remaining 10% water as needed to achieve a medium dough consistency.

Continue mixing to a low-medium level of gluten development.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container. Cover and ferment at room temperature for about one hour and 15 minutes.

Turn the dough into a lightly floured counter. I divide the dough into four pieces of approx. 260 grams each. My round baking stone is 33 cm in diameter. Pre shape each piece into a cylinder, cover, and let rest for 20 – 30 minutes. Shape the dough into baguettes and place them on parchment or a couche. I used a towel heavily dusted with flour. Proof covered, for about one hour, or until the indentation left by a fingertip in the dough springs back very slowly.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven, with baking stone, to 240 ºC. You will also need steam during the initial phase of baking. I placed a cake pan with hot stones and hot water in the oven.
Just before baking, make the dragon tails. Have a look at this video made by Susan of Wild Yeast When the loaves are in the oven, reduce the temperature to 230 ºC. Bake for 7 minutes with steam, and another 10 minutes or so without steam. Then turn off the oven and leave the loaves for another 5 minutes, with the door ajar, to let the loaves dry for a crisp crust.
Cool on a wire rack. They taste great and look so funny, they will bring luck or a big smile on your face when you eat them. I found these tails at Wild Yeast
I will send the tails to Yeastspotting


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