Need Advice from Experienced Bread Baker

[minas6907]

Hey Everyone

In the past weeks, I've sort of rekindled my interest in bread baking. Having a copy of Bread Bakers Apprentice, I made the Pain a l'Ancienne, which came out wonderfully. I'm still working on the one actually, there have been times where the loaves come out picture perfect, the scores open up, the baguette browns evenly and is crisp, they look like they belong in a small cafe in the France. Then there are other times where they come out sort of flat, and the scores are barley visible. Anyways, I think I'm narrowing that one down.

But my question here is about the Lean Bread recipe from "Artisan Breads Every Day." Hopefully, I dont get too wordy, but I sort of like this recipe for a few reasons. Firstly, in the recipe from this book for French Bread with (I think) 66% hydration, it came out waaaaay to light and fluffy, like sandwich bread in the shape of a baguette or boule. I like the Pain a l'Ancienne recipe with 80% hydration, but I suppose thats not really meant to be shaped, Reinhart gives instructions to just sort of stretch it out into shape, not really forming it and tightening the gluten on the outside, but it does have a nice crumb, and most of the time, I can get the crust crisp. And it seems in between those, is the Lean Bread with 75% hydration. This also had a nice crumb, not and nice as the 80% hydration dough, but I still thought it was acceptable.

So I'm wondering about my baguettes. The pictures are the 75% hydration Lean Bread recipe from Artisan Breads Every Day. I followed the instructions, formed them into baguettes, and let them proof 1 hour covered, and about 45 min uncovered. I read on a website that the times Reinhart gives to proof are guidlines, and its more accurate to test by poking the dough, so I did that. The dough had very little springing back, which I took as a sign of bring proofed. Into the oven they went with steam, and they did spring up, but the scores opened very little, and the bottoms baked quite unevenly. Can someone give me a few tips on what I can do for more even baking, and to have the scores open up? The pictured loaves were baked on a sheet pan at 450f. Am I over proofing them?

Hopefully this isnt getting too long, but if I still have your attention...what seems weird to me is that I made a small batch of 80% hydration dough, and one day later I took off a piece and shaped (or tried to) it into a batard, I let it sit for like 10 or 15 min probably after bring shaped, and it went into the hot oven...then it sprang up like crazy and developed a beautiful ridge (see the picture with the mussels) and was perfectly crisp, no blond spots on the bottom, even brown...I'm not kidding, this is the best one that has come out of my oven. This little batard was baked on the back of a cast iron pan that was preheating with the oven. Then 24 hours later with the same dough, the baguettes I baked were ok, just sub par, could barley make out the scores. What accounts for the difference? I cant imagine it was being baked on the cast iron pan vs. a sheet pan.

Anywho, I'm just wondering what steps I should take after the 75% hydration dough come out of the fridge after 24 hours of cold fermentation to get a decent looking and even baked baguette. Thanks for reading this and any help provided. :-)

[Mjx]

Actually, sheet pan vs. cast iron pan could make a significant difference, simply owing to the fact that the latter holds heat substantially better, and is less affected by fluctuations in oven temperature.

[tikidoc]

Things that have made a big difference in the quality of my baguettes -

A good baking stone

Steam in the oven (nothing fancy, just a shallow pan with water in it when I put in the bread)

Shaping technique

Scoring technique

For the last two, I found the following to be very helpful:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI-WstoakmQ

www.youtube.com.sg/watch?v=rb0lljsKk80

In general, I think Ciril Hitz's videos (and books) are very good.

[Lisa Shock]

You said your cast iron pan was already warm. I am suspecting that your room is too cold. The dough may not be warming up enough after being refrigerated. If it's cold, it will be sluggish.

Also, dough that's perfect at one time may not improve with more fermentation. After a while, yeast can run out of food.

I like Ciril Hitz, I have taken many of his classes (with and without Mitch Stamm, they're always better with Mitch) and use his methods and formulas all the time now. They always work beautifully.

[qrn]

+1 on the stone , and a cast iron skillet on the bottom rack,that you put a cup of hot water in as you close the door after you put the loaf on the stone...,be sure to slash the loavesand spray with water beforegoing in

Bud

[minas6907]

Hey, thanks everyone for your responses. I do think I need to work on shaping the loaf, and I have always been using steam in a piece of hot cast iron. I think an issue for me is also the fermentation time. I've been messing around with the cold fermentation thing for a little while, and it seems that after 1 day in the fridge, the bread bakes up really nicely, where as any longer there is a noticeable difference is the way it springs up. Makes me sort of uneasy because Reinhart claims that most of the doughs in Artisan Bread Every Day has a four day window of being in the fridge, but I dont see how the dough would bake on first day would be the same as waiting 3 more days for it to ferment, the loaves would come out different. Maybe I'm wrong, but the dough does continue to rise in the fridge.

Question though. So I have a dough thats been fermenting in the fridge, do I pull it out, let it come to room temp, them shape it and proof? Or do I pull it out, shape while its cold, and wait for it to come to tempature before putting it in the oven? The loaves above, in the first three pictures were a little cool before they went in the oven, but they did grow in size, I was afraid of over proofing. Any pointers with regard to the proper procedure of cold dough? Thanks! :-)

[minas6907]

Ok, well it seems I'm getting this. I'm getting better at shaping, and baking the 80% hydration dough on the first day seemed to preform well. Maybe I can keep it longer in the fridge, but so far it hasnt yielded good results. I did a test, I made a baguette on a sheet pan after it came out of the fridge, the I made a batard on my cast iron pan after shaping, resting, proofing, and the difference was noticeable. No blond spots on the batard, I think I'm finally getting this down. Its definitely not as easy as boiling sugar, dough can be picky :-) I'll keep messing around, but I'm getting the hang of it!

Heres some pics