Baguettes

         On Thursday we made what may be one of the greatest examples of artisan bread, the baguette.  The baguette is made with a fairly simple recipe but the prep and shaping can be difficult and require careful attention to ensure good results.
       A preferment known as a poolish is created the day before and allowed to proof overnight.  This has a two-fold purpose, the first is increased air pockets and rise in the dough, the second purpose is the formation of a better flavor profile.  The poolish was a much sticker preferment than the biga as it was created with equal portions of flour and water and a very small amount of yeast.  This gave it 100% hydration, but required yeast to be added the next day.

Shaped dough on pleated couche

      The poolish was mixed with flour, warm water, yeast, and salt, today everyone mixed by hand using the technique we used on Wednesday.  This dough was slightly stickier than the previous day but it came together very well.  After proofing, the dough was streched and folded before being divided into four equal portions. This dough had a huge rise almost filling the bowl.  The portions were roughly shaped before a second shorter proof.  After this proof the dough was shaped in to the classic baguette log shape.  These logs were placed onto a pleated bakers couche and allowed to proof for a final hour.                    
      We used four different baking techniques for our baguettes. Two were placed onto baguette pans, one was a dark vented pan and the other pan was a shiny perforated pan.  The final two loaves were baked directly on the stone hearth.  One of these

Dragon Tail Baguette

loaves was scored in the traditonal baguette form and the final loaf was cut into what is known as a "dragon tail."  The scoring is essential to having a good final shape.  Most of our loaves had a very nice shape but one of the loaves had a slightly bulging shape which could be due to the cuts running horizontaly along the loaf instead of laterally.

Inner crumb structure of baguette

    The final product was very pleasing.  It had a very nice golden crust with a nice crunch.  The crust also retained some of the flour from the couche which created a nice color contrast.  The crumb was very open and soft.  Overall the bread turned out great and was worth the effort that was put in to the shaping and forming of the bread.
    In addition to the baguettes we created "Touch of Grace" biscuits, strawberry refigerator jam and

Touch of Grace biscuits

cooked some country ham.  The biscuits made with White Lily flour to ensure tenderness and the batter was much wetter than other biscuits I have made.  The batter was tossed into bread flour for coating to keep each portion divided.  These biscuits were extremely tender and fluffy and this may be my new go-to recipe for biscuits.