These are the most effective baguettes I’ve made to this point – mild, crispy, superb taste, crust and texture.  The recipe is predicated on Ian Lowe’s Baguettes with Outdated Dough (Pate Fermentee), with my very own modifications.

Years in the past, I took the Baguette class as KAF, however I by no means fairly achieved their high quality. It was a superb class, taught by Jeffrey Hamelman, however I used to be new to extra critical baking, and the ideas have been overseas to me. Over time, I attempted to enhance on my outcomes, however often produced considerably heavy baguettes that didn’t rise properly. 

I’ve been doing a little panettone and shokupan experiments with variations on candy lievito madre, and not too long ago started sustaining a mid-sweet LM that grows fairly aggressively however holds it type for longer than a normal LM.

I made a decision to make use of this slightly than the Pate Fermentee within the recipe, reasoning that because it develops rapidly with out acidifying, it wouldn’t act like the everyday sourdough in a baguette recipe. I additionally used a small quantity of  yeast, partially as a result of this was an experiment. This mixture ended up working very properly, and I’ll in all probability hold utilizing this recipe!

Right here is the Ian Lowe recipe (he shares this on his net web page):

I made a decision to make a 20% batch. This produced sufficient dough to make six 16” baguettes (dimension that works in my Anova Precision Oven:

Notes:

I’m utilizing a French T65 flour, however I feel common bread flour combined with AP flour would work properly additionally. 

As an alternative of the Pate Fermentee, I used my 7percentSu stiff starter, which is a maintained starter, not a one-day starter. It’s a lievito madre/pasta madre-style starter, fed and fermented at ambient temperature. I refrigerate it between baking episodes, and at this level I often use it as a booster for normal LM. 

I used 170g of this starter, slightly than the 187g within the pink column. The dough was very lively.

The malted barley flour that Ian Lowe makes use of is non-diastatic barley malt powder.

I used about 25g extra water to compensate from the marginally drier high quality of stiff starter vs pate fermenetee.

Ian makes use of recent yeast, and I used about 7g of immediate dry yeast as a substitute.

Mixing:

I combined 7 minutes utilizing spiral on low velocity, to mix all substances besides the starter and the additional water. I autolysed for 10 minutes, then added the starter and combined till absolutely developed, about one other 5 minutes. I added the additional 25g of water together with the starter. Timings will fluctuate by mixer.

FDT was 26C. 

I rested the dough on the countertop in a coated container for 1.5 hours, then refrigerated in a chilly fridge in a single day. I had meant to ferment this dough for 3 hours, but it surely was very lively and doubled in 1.5 hours, so I put it within the fridge.

It was essentially the most lively baguette dough I’ve had at that stage of the method.

Subsequent day, I divided the chilly dough into 8” lengthy rectanges weighing 240g, flattened them barely and rolled them up. I positioned them on a floured couche to relaxation and are available to room temperature for about one other hour, a course of I sped up barely by utilizing the B&T proofing field with couche inside.

Forming:

I did this in two phases, because the loaves have been nonetheless slightly chilly in locations. First, I fashioned baguettes utilizing the usual forming method, however solely made them about 10” lengthy, so  that I’d not stress the dough. 

I put them again within the couche for an additional half-hour within the proof field, then hand rolled them out additional, to the total 16” size. 

These have been positioned again in teh floured couche, this time on the countertop, not within the proofer. 

Baking:

The loaves proofed for 45 minutes earlier than the primary batch of three went into the oven.

Throughout this time, I preheated the APO to 450F, with a baking metal on the second shelf.

A pan was positioned within the backside of the oven for water/steam.

Simply previous to baking, I put the loaves onto a peel, dusted the tops with flour, and made 3 overlapping slashes.

Whereas loading the loaves onto the baking metal, I put a few half cup of water within the steam pan.

These baked for simply over quarter-hour.

These have been actually superb, much like what I keep in mind on the Aire (freeway gasoline station) in Auvergne, the place the jambon beurres have been very reliable.