Not Quite Whole Grain Baguettes Recipes

FRENCH BAGUETTE RECIPE

Steps:

• Mix all ingredients in a bowl, cover with a plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.
• Over a period of 1 1/2 hours, do 3 sets of stretch and folds, flipping the dough upside down after each set.
• Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and place in refrigerator overnight for about 12-14 hours.
• Turn the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Divide into 3 equal parts and shape into rectangles. Cover and let rest for 45-60 minutes.
• Starting preheating the oven to 500F, with a baking stone positioned in the upper half the oven and a bread pan filled with hot water on the bottom rack.
• Stretch each dough rectangle slightly and fold into a cylinder, sealing the seams. Using your hands, roll the cylinders gently stretching them to desired length, about 14-15 inches.
• Place on a lightly floured couche, seam side up. Cover and proof at a room temperature for about 30-60 minutes, or until the dough has sufficiently proofed.
• Transfer the baguettes to a piece of parchment paper, seam side down and dust off excess flour. Using a bread lame, a sharp knife or a razor blade, make 3 scores on each baguette. When scoring, use a swift and firm motion to ensure nice and clean cuts.
• Open the oven, taking caution not to get burned by steam, and slide the baguettes off onto the baking stone. Close the oven and reduce temperature to 475F. Bake for 15 minutes.
• Remove the water pan, rotate the baguettes, drop the temperature to 450F and continue baking for another 15 minutes or until deep golden brown.

NOT-QUITE-WHOLE-GRAIN BAGUETTES

Steps:

• Combine the dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. With the machine running, add water until a ball forms, about 30 seconds. (Start with 1 1/2 cups water; you may need a little more or less.) Then process for an additional 30 to 45 seconds. Put the dough ball in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit until risen, 2 to 3 hours.
• Cut the dough into 3 pieces, and using an absolute minimum of flour to prevent sticking, form each into a rough log. (You can make one large boule, or a ciabatta-shaped loaf or whatever else you like.) Cover with a towel and let sit about 20 minutes. Then shape into long baguettes; support their shape by letting them rise in baguette pans or a lightly floured piece of canvas. Set the oven to 465. (If you have a pizza stone, leave it in there.)
• The loaves will be ready to bake in 30 minutes or so. Slide in on a peel or in baguette pans. Slash or cut the top of the loaf. Bake, lowering heat if necessary to prevent browning, until the loaves read 210 internally (not more), 20 to 30 minutes. Cool on a rack.

WHOLE GRAIN SOURDOUGH BAGUETTES

Steps:

• Levain/Starter
• Prepare your 115g of starter by mixing 25g starter with 45g water and 45g flour. This is approximately a 1:2:2 starter preparation, but other builds are fine too. Mark your jar with a rubberband and let it sit overnight or until at least doubled.
• Saltolyse
• Mix the flour, water, and salt together in a bowl. Cover and let sit about 1 hour.
• Fermentation and Gluten Development
• Add the ripe starter to the dough, stretching, folding, and gently squishing the starter into the dough.
• Cover and let the dough rest for about a half hour. Then do two rounds of coil folding or dough rolling, one lamination, and one final round of coil folding. Separate each of the four rounds of gluten development with a 20-30 minute covered rest. Here are videos showing how to coil, roll, and laminate dough.
• When the dough has expanded by about 65%, end the bulk fermentation. For the ambient temperature in my kitchen, this was five hours after adding the starter to the dough. Alternately, you can stop the bulk fermentation a smidge sooner and refrigerate the dough overnight to deepen the flavors before moving on to the next steps.
• Preshape
• Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and divide it into four pieces, about 225g each.
• Roll the pieces into four balls and cover them with a large bowl or slightly damp towel.
• Let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes.
• Shaping
• Prepare a linen couche or a couple of tea towels by rubbing flour into them and making four channels for the baguettes to lie in.
• Lightly flour your counter and flip a dough ball onto the flour. Shape your dough into four demi baguettes. You can watch a video of this technique here or follow these instructions: Stretch the dough into a small square. Fold down about an inch of the top of the square, pat the seam down, then stretch out and fold in the sides by in about an inch. Repeat until you have a tube, then roll and pinch the two edges of the tube.
• Transfer the baguettes to the channels in the couche, laying them seam-side up, and cover with the sides of the couche or a tea towel.
• Final Proof and Oven Prep
• Let the dough proof at room temperature for 30 minutes, while you prep your oven.
• Put a stone, steel, or baking sheet on your oven's middle shelf, and put an aluminum pan with a pinhole poked into it on the oven shelf under the stone or steel. This creates a drip system for steam. When making the pinhole, test over your sink that water drips through it about 1-2 drops a second.
• Preheat your oven set-up to 500°F for 30 minutes.
• Baking
• When the final proof and oven preheat are complete, flip the baguettes onto parchment paper (two per parchment works well).
• Score the baguettes 2-3 times on the diagonal as shown in this video.
• Boil a cup of water (a glass pyrex in the microwave works well).
• Using a peel or upside down baking sheet, slide the parchment sheets onto your hot stone. Immediately pour the cup of boiling water onto the aluminum tray below and close the oven door to trap the steam.
• Bake for 15 minutes (rotate 10 minutes in for even browning if needed).
• Turn off the oven, prop open the door with a wooden spoon, and leave the baguettes inside for an additional 10 minutes.
• Baguettes stale relatively quickly, so if not eaten in a day, wrap them to keep them from hardening and toast them before eating to re-crisp the crust.