The Baguette Bake-off

Shucks tks for the kind words, Dom and Jeremy. I only hope that what I bake tastes as good as they look, and not look better than they taste.

Jeremy, I used this formula from you:

[quote]
levain 96g 35%
t65 148 49%
ap flour 148g 49%
wheat germ 3g 1%
water 173g 58%
salt 7g 2%
yeast 0%(if your levain is slow.5%)
[/quote]

I've to work at improving the spring and getting them huge holes next. This bake-off is giving me loads of slashing practice. Yeah!

Can't wait to see the father-n-son baguette and dom's crumb. Jeremy, you baked baguettes again, right?

TP Very good!
2 min less in oven, crust is a little, little too dark, but only a little.
Why, wheat germ, use malt instaead, enzymatic active.

Just now I startet spelt levain, poolish will follow later..
recipe is similar to Luc Boulet's, a frech boulanger teacher.
The only difference is using 630 spalt insteadf of 550 wheat, but it contains 1150 rye, this is what I have at home
It's not original, Luc has accommodated his recipe to germen flour sorts.

[quote="bianchifan"]
Just now I startet spelt levain, poolish will follow later.. recipe is similar to Luc Boulet's, a frech boulanger teacher.
[/quote]
You are going to bake for us [size=7]incredulous look on face[/size]

[quote="bianchifan"]
The only difference is using 630 spalt insteadf of 550 wheat, but it contains 1150 rye, this is what I have at home
It's not original, [b]Luc has accommodated his recipe to germen flour sorts.[/b]
[/quote]
The mind boggles...

[quote="Jeremy"]
Carla be nice, he is from [b]Woopietall[/b] or something?
Do they have good beer in that region? I am a southern German beer purest snob!
[/quote]

Yeah he is tall (if that is really HIM on that avatar!) and he does whoopies every so often ...
Or did you mean Wuppertal? Which means the valley where the wupper (river) is flowing through. No idea about his beers though.
I came origianally from the southernmost, westernmost little city in Germany. Now here is a riddle!
And our local beer was very excellent (if I may say so - even if the English is bad).

[img]http://sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/4908-1/DSCN1529.JPG[/img]

this was the same formula as the last one

[quote]
So for 2 baguettes

100g starter (40%)
153g water (61%)
5g ground malt (2%)
250g flour (100%)(Kialla unbleached white 11.8g protein)
5g salt (2%)
[/quote]

but using organic plain flour (white wings) with 10.8g protein

I'm not sure how much difference the flour made
The dough didn't have a period of cold fermentation this time, so no blisters like TPs.
The slashes worked better (new razor blade), but the big split on the base was disappointing.

like TP, crumb nice and soft, with a good crust. I haven't got the aesthetics right yet, and still haven't got close to Jack's crumb.

next try: wholemeal baguettes (a la grissini)

Dom

I'm not sure what contest you had in mind Jeremy, but how about this for a challenge to the sourdough-ites out there

A search for the best sourdough baguette recipe/formula for home bakers!

The rules would be - can't include yeast, or use flour that is only available to specialist bakers or Europeans (ie no T55)
It would be hard to go past [url=http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?s=9d09750ac8468132efd0de5642f763a9&showtopic=73591&view=findpost&p=1054933]Jack Lang's formula[/url], but it involves using an industrial strength food processor, which puts it out of the reach of many of us.

I am not sure what criteria they would be judged by - any suggestions for what makes the perfect baguette?

dom

[quote="Jeremy"]
Which city? I lived in Stutgart, my local brew was Stuttgarter Hofbrau,
[/quote]

Well if I tell you my origins it wouldn't be a riddle any more would it?
Whats wrong with google??

I studied in Stuttgart-Hohenheim where all the good sourdough research is made!!

Could it be that "Labekase" is Leberkaese?
If yes - very nice stuff - as long as you do not think about what is in it!!

What about a prize?

Perhaps we could commission Bill to make the winner a special couche? (unless he is the winner, in which case we would have to do something else?)

dom

[img]http://sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/4912-4/100_2860.JPG[/img]

[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/4917-3/100_2862.JPG[/img]

Some pics of my baggettes
Normbake

[img]http://sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/4914-3/100_2858.JPG[/img]

Cheers Normbake

[quote="SourDom"]
A search for the best sourdough baguette recipe/formula for [b]home bakers[/b]!

The rules would be -
can't include yeast,
or use flour that is only available to specialist bakers
or Europeans (ie no T55)

I am not sure what criteria they would be judged by - any suggestions for what makes the perfect baguette?
[/quote]

Well it must include also use of hands - as most people have hands, while rarely anybody has big dough mixers.

And it must use some sort of flour that even us here in NZ can buy!!

And you cannot judge it by picture alone. The smell, taste test and the crumbling (or hopefully not) of the crumb can only be seen live!

[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/4911-3/100_2860.JPG[/img]

Normbake

Hey, [b]Normbake[/b]...nice to see you joining in the fun. Do give us some details. Is this wholemeal?

I'd love to try wholemeal or spelt baguettes next.

[b]Dom[/b]: Love your pix...yup, [size=24]Z[/size][size=24]OO[/size][size=24]oo[/size][size=18]OO[/size]oom in. And...thanks for saying I'm 'nice and soft'. Not sure what good crust means?

Oh my! Markus baking for us??? Pix to zoom into the crumb, ja?

Tks for the crumb colour comment. Noted.

[quote="SourDom"]
[snip] I haven't got the aesthetics right yet, and still haven't got close to Jack's crumb.

Dom
[/quote]

Yoooohooooooo......Jack!?

[quote="carla"]
I came origianally from the southernmost, westernmost little city in Germany. Now here is a riddle!
And our local beer was very excellent (if I may say so - even if the English is bad).
[/quote]

I love riddles! More little hints, please.

On another thread Dom said:

[quote]
welcome back. perhaps we could convince you to share your baguette expertise in the great baguette bake-off ?
[/quote]

and Teck Poh said:

[quote]
Mick! If you're baking anything, why not baguettes?
[/quote]

Well, thanks for the invite. Ironically, after three months teaching other people to bake I've hardly baked anything myself, the brain's turned to jelly and, instead of baking this weekend, I'm under orders to PAINT THE KITCHEN.

Like Dom I think Dan's white leaven bread makes great baguettes especially proved overnight in the fridge. I don't do anything subtle like compensation for using 100% hydration starter. They go straight from the fridge into the oven. Give them a little stretch before they go in to elongate the gas bubbles.

Here, as they say, is one I made earlier:

[url]http://www.danlepard.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3483#3483[/url]

I'll try and get out more often.

Best wishes to you all - even if you Antipodeans are heading into Spring while we are going downhill into Winter.

Mick

[quote="TeckPoh"]
[quote="carla"]
I came origianally from the [b]southernmost, westernmost little city[/b] in Germany.
[/quote]

I love riddles! More little hints, please.[/quote]

Well you do not really need any more hints TP.
You've got 2 co-ordinates now.
So go looking.

Were you a Saarbrückener?

Mick,

lovely looking bags. I'd forgotten seeing them on DL's site a while back.

What sort of flour did you use?

how much stretching did you do when they came out of the fridge?
Did you bake on a metal oven tray, or a stone, or the bottom of the oven (old oven I imagine)
How did you stop the buggers bulging or exploding when baking from cold??

Dom

Normbake

very different baguettes. It looks like you had some whole grains in there, as well as wheatgerm on the top?
Your slashing style looks a bit like Carla's. Unconventional but effective.

cheers
Dom

Hi TP I used oatbran and crackedwheat in the dough.
I dusted the top of the doughs with cornmeal but it made it quite hard to cut I won't do that again.
I made up some couches out of some 90 mm pipe a while ago it was the first time I used them.
Normbake
[img]http://sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/4927-3/100_2861.JPG[/img]

Wow, lots of great ideas in this thread! Oatbran. Cracked Wheat.

Yes, thanks, Mick. I must have missed that thread. Lovely bags.

Jeremy, I wish I can slash like you! Just gorgeous. And, I can see how nice and taut your bread was shaped.

Dom said:

[quote]
What sort of flour did you use?

how much stretching did you do when they came out of the fridge?
Did you bake on a metal oven tray, or a stone, or the bottom of the oven (old oven I imagine)
How did you stop the buggers bulging or exploding when baking from cold??
[/quote]

It would have been Doves Farm Organic Strong Bread Flour which is standard good quality Brit bread flour, about 11 - 12% protein, i.e what I use for everything. It would have been the old gas oven.

I roll out the baguettes a little short of the width of the baking sheets, improvise couches using tea towels, whack them in the fridge. Then in the morning I ease them off the tea towels, stretch them to the width of the baking sheets - only 1- 1.5" - slash them and into the oven - nothing clever.

When I run out of paint I'll give it a go again.

Best wishes,

Mick

tipping point this morning.

[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/4931-2/DSCN1530.JPG[/img]

This was the wholemeal recipe that I used a few days back for grissini

(It is a converted version of a Carol Field 'the italian baker' recipe)

100g starter (50%)
116g water (58%)
3g malt (1.5%)
60g wm flour (30%)
140g white flour (70%)
4g salt (2%)
15g olive oil (7.5%)
5g vegetable shortening (2.5%)

mixed (Dan Lepard), proved for a couple of hours (2 folds) then in the fridge for most of the day
Shaped (Jack Lang) then put in the fridge on a tea towel couche overnight
This morning stretched (bethesdabaker), slashed (J Hamelman) and baked from cold

grignes were much better after reading Jeffrey Hamelman's instructions

[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/4934-2/DSCN1532.JPG[/img]
[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/4937-2/DSCN1533.JPG[/img]

and the crumb - soft and moderately open for a wholemeal (30%) loaf
very very tasty!

[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/4940-2/DSCN1536.JPG[/img]

I have a bit of a surfeit of bread in the house so I may have to slow down! (yesterday I also baked a sourdough hybrid version of Dan Lepard's chelsea buns)

cheers
Dom

if Jeremy has to finish the miche before he is allowed to bake again he may be out of action for a few days...

PS the miche looks gorgeous J

Dom, that's just gorgeous!! And the grigne! And your photography!

lol....re: your acknowledgment to the gentlemen who had influence on your bread.

Thought I would add the ones I made today

These are 100% sourdough

[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/4942-1/DSC02727c.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/4944-1/DSC02728c.jpg[/img]

Plain organic supermarket flour (9.8% protein) (pastry flour)

Sponge:
200g flour
100g water
10 g mother

Ferment for 12 hours

Pre-mix:
400g flour
1g Vit C
12 g Salt
320g water

Rough mix and leave for an hour

Dough
Mix intensively the flour and the premix. I use a food processor, but I guess you can use a mixer, mixing until the dough picks up and then releases - almost overmixed.
Probably too tough to mix my hand.

Bench rest (bulk ferment) 1 hour
Shape and put in a couche. Retard (refrigerator) overnight Bake hot, plenty of bottom heat and steam in the first minute.

Beautiful, as always, Jack. And, you used pastry flour?

thanks TP - thats a lot of exclamation marks!

Jack - you provided the inspiration for this thread, so it is great to see your contribution.

it is a beautiful lookuing baguette, I am interested that you have moved to a more french-style firm starter, and then used a period of autolysis with the premix. What do you think the effect is on the recipe?

If my family hasn't overdosed on baguettes I will give your recipe a try during the week

cheers
Dom

wow, great job everyone, i'm so hungry after reading this thread
sadly i got no time for anything but you can be sure to see my regular spam come back in a while.
right now i'm selling my house while building new one near the beach (aussie friends might know area called 90milebeach)
but i be lurking here all the time.
worst of all is that i have to eat bread from coles :O
and i don't know if it is related but for last few weeks my son is out of control and i think it could be all this chemicals in supermarket breads that make him unstable , well i got to point at something because sure as hell it isn't because of bad parenting

My formula is slowly adapting.

This is the latest version. It uses a starter that is firmer than usual (following Jack's suggestion), as well as a combination of my regular baking flour (11.8g protein) and some supermarket plain flour (10.8g protein).

Starter - 60% hydration
24 hours before - refresh #1
10g starter (22%)
25g water (56%)
45g flour (100%)

12 hours - refresh #2
80g starter (60%)
80g water (60%)
133g flour (100%)

Dough
100g starter (the above recipe makes plenty extra) (40%)
185g water (74%)
110g low protein flour (44%)
140g higher protein flour (56%)
5g salt (2%)
3g malt (1.2%)

For this attempt, the dough was mixed (three short kneads over 30 mins) then put in the fridge for 12 hours. It had about 5 hours out of the fridge, then was divided and shaped before going back in the fridge.
Out of the fridge this morning and straight into a hot oven (220C) with a lot of steam (dish full of boiling water plus spraying).

[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/5434-2/DSCN1656.JPG[/img]

A little overproved perhaps, but not bad

cheers
Dom

Crumb shot

[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/5437-2/DSCN1659.JPG[/img]

[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/4558-1/new_Bag.jpg[/img]

[quote="TeckPoh"]
Were you a Saarbrückener?
[/quote]
[quote="Jeremy"]
Frieburg Im Briesgau?
[/quote]

More to the south,
the west is ok

[quote="Croc"]
worst of all is that i have to eat bread from coles :O
..... it could be all this chemicals in supermarket breads that make him unstable
[/quote]

Take a sec and do some planning. You're not inspired by Dom? You can make these...your son's rehabilitation depends on it! All the best to the biz of the house sale/building!

BTW, Dom, did the bottoms split and crack this time?

Last year my camera sucks so I must do it last autumn

Baguettes of spelt (T6/600, white spelt flour)

[url=http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pict0632dm3.jpg][img]http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8416/pict0632dm3.th.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://img132.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pict0649kc8.jpg][img]http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/865/pict0649kc8.th.jpg[/img][/url]

same but with addition of little accerola powder

[url=http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pict0681bt8.jpg][img]http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1445/pict0681bt8.th.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://img526.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pict0684zg9.jpg][img]http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/698/pict0684zg9.th.jpg[/img][/url]

just got to say WOW for jacklang crumb texture and that is with low protein flour