The Perfect Baguette: In search of the holy grail

[gsquared]

Jason had his Golden Fleece, Bush has Osama Bin Laden, Pete Sampras the French Open. That almost unattainable goal, that holy grail. Mine has always been the baking of the perfect baguette – golden brown, crunchy on the outside........ The baguette in its most sublime form is more than just a delight in itself, it is a symbol of living at its most civilized, a reminder of what really good food should be. Open a bottle of wine, add cheese, olives, butter and bread and you have a meal. Open a bottle of wine, add cheese, olives, butter and a baguette and you have a feast. Fond memories of sitting on the banks of the Seine with a bottle of Burgundy, a chunk of cheese, a baguette and thee….

Problem: The closest bakery that purveys the real stuff is simply too far from home for it to supply my daily fix.

Solution: Bake my own.

Ha!

I first started trying just before the millennium (good skill to have in the post-Y2K collapse of civilization) and the years since then are littered with memories of abject failures and so-so successes.

"I am about to finally give up", he said, hanging his head in despair. Unless a kind soul out there can provide succour........

[jackal10]

I hate to comment, when there are much better bakers, like Dan Lepard on egullet.

French bread flour is very soft, so you may have more success with cake flour, or 50% cake flour.

Baguette dough is very wet and soft, almost like a cibata, and needs support for the whole process.

This is why they are traditionally proved in linen couches, and then baked in baguette pans supporting the sides for the early part of the bake.

Don't overprove, and handle very gently. Most of the aeration comes from the oven spring, and you want big holes inside, so don't knock the air out.

Make sure the oven is hot enough. Thin breads, like baguette, need a hotter oven than boules

[mamster]

I have little to add to what jackal said, but I do have a question that I hope won't take this thread too off-course. Coincidentally, I made baguettes last night (the Ganachaud-inspired poolish baguette recipe from Bread Baker's Apprentice), and they came out great, but I totally don't know how to slash. I ended up using the old reliable serrated knife, which is not that reliable, but I have a lame and (contrary to anything I may have said previously) suck at using it. Any tips? How fast should I be slashing?

[vengroff]

I've had best luck slashing with an 12" chef's knife that's absolutely as sharp as I can possibly get it. Very little pressure is needed, beyond the weight of the knife itself. Excess pressure, or a dull knife, mashes the bread instead of slashing it.

[gsquared]

Tkx. Going through my (voluminous) notes on previous attempts, I see that I have consistently allowed two rises - overproving? I also certainly have not made the dough as wet as for ciabatta. Mmmmm.......Perhaps this weekend.

Mamster, I may not (yet) be able to produce a perfect baguette, but I am a demon slasher! I use my filleting knife (8 inches), make sure it is honed to a fine edge, spray it with non-stick spray, and then draw it lightly and fairly quickly over the surface of the dough using only the weight of the knife - no downward pressure.

[rickster]

I'd suggest using a single edged razor blade. Less awkward to manipulate than a knife or lame.

[Louisa Chu]

I've only made baguettes once - under the guidance of a pastry chef - not a boulanger - but damn if they didn't turn out perfect! Sorry. I'd make them all the time but I don't have an oven but since I live in Paris right across the street from a great boulangerie, who needs to right? Wait, I can almost smell the bread from my salon window. Ha! Sorry again.

Slashing. Yes, use a razor blade. Pinch the dough slightly, slice, then bake immediately. Don't let it sit around after slashing - this is imperative!

Rising. Two rises. Once, out; the second, after shaping the loaves, in a proofing oven.

Wetness. The dough was not that wet and certainly not sticky. And the many, many times I've see baguettes being made the dough was not what I would call wet.

gsquared, what's your recipe?

[elyse]

Yes, tell us what you are doing, first.

I'd also say that it's not nearly as wet as for a ciabatta. I can give you a formula if you want to figure out the hydration.

I'd learn how to use the lame well. It may take a while, but will be worth it i time. Slash quickly and firmly, but don't deflate the dough. Then straight into the oven. No, throw some water in there first to start the steam going. then steam again before closing the door.

And I say No, No, No on the baguette pan. You want it on the stone.

[gsquared]

Ok - here's one of my many attempts from my notes.

• Prepare a sponge with 20g instant yeast, half a cup of bread flour and lukewarm water. (1 hour)
  
• Add 1 and a half cup bread flour, 2 cups cake flour, 2 teaspoons salt, one tablespoon corn syrup, a large pich of ascorbic acid. (got the last from Shirley Corriher's book)
  
• Place in mixer with dough hook, and start adding lukewarm water with machine going.
  
• Knead and keep adding water until the desired degree of wetness is reached.
  
• Knead for 5 minutes on medium speed.
  
• Turn out into a lightly greased bowl, form into a ball, cover with clingfilm and place in the oven with the oven light switched on. (this gives me a proving temperature of 30C).
  
• When doubled in size, punch down, turn inside out, reform and prove again.
  
• When doubled in size again, form into long loaves and place on a floured linen cloth folded to form a long pocket for each loaf. Loaves about 1 and 1/2 inch in diameter. Cover with cling film and prove again.
  
• During the last prove, pre-heat baking tile to 230C at the bottom of the over above an oven pan.
  
• Reduce the oven temp. to 180C, pour boiling water into the pan, and mist the oven.
  
• Slash.
  
• Slide the loaves onto the baking tile, increase the temp. to 200C.
  
• Bake until the interior temp of the loaves is 93C, misting every 10 minutes or so.
  

The ambient temperature at the time was 23C and the humidity 5%.

The oven is accurate to within 1C. (AEG)

The result -

1. Flatter than I wanted.

2. Good crust, but lost the crust when cooled.

3. Crumb texture no good at all - even texture, but coarse.

4. Crust/crumb ratio - not enough crust.

5. Appearance - nicely brown, but somehow unexiting.

Pic of dough after kneading:

Pic of product

Pic of interior

[butterchik]

I agree with Elyse - no to the baguette pan.

Definitely not traditional, but I roll mine in rice flour which gives the crust some extra crispy goodness, then when they are rolled I nestle them in a rice flour covered cloth mimicking the shape of a bag pan to help them keep their curves.

Yes, "they" - bread is a living thing (and I have no one else to talk to all night)

Not yet perfect, but these things help.

Oh, and a packet of Wilkinson Sword blades

[jackal10]

Bake hotter - 250C or so, - your crust looks a bit pale.

I only use bulk fermentation and one proof, rather than two. Handle very gently, - just stretch, don't knock out the air. Don't punch down.

Try retarding the bread - put it in a refrigerator overnight instead of the second (or only) proof.

The outside will dry slightly and give a better crust. Also the cold dough is stiffer, easier to handle and won't spread as much.

Maybe not quite so wet, unless you are suporting and preventing spreading in a pan.

I find it easier to handle the soft dough in baguette pans, or on a baking sheet

Try and hold the lame at 45 degrees. You are cutting a sort of flap, not straight down.

[mamster]

A couple of observations. First, instant yeast usually already contains ascorbic acid--check the ingredients on yours (I know Fleischmann's and SAF do). More vitamin C will just speed up fermentation more, which is not necessarily what you want.

Are you measuring by weight or volume? Your dough looks a little too wet for baguettes; I'd try incorporating a little less water.

There's no need to mist every ten minutes or so. The steam is only doing its duty in the first five minutes or so. Using the steam pan is good; after the intial steaming, mist the oven at the 0:30, 1:00, and 1:30 mark, and then stop.

And thanks for the tip on spraying the knife with cooking spray; I use cooking spray often, but not for that--silly me!

[elyse]

Okay, back to the cake flour thing. Why? Cake flour is for cakes, and it's probably why your crumb is crap. Bake a cake.

The moisture actually looks fine to me. You'll get better holes.

Don't punch the dough. Fold it over on itself from the four corners of the bowl.

How do you form your loaves? I learned to press into a sort of rectangle and fold two thirds towards me and with my fingers, pressso that some bulk is forming in the doubled area, like an ocean wave crashing. Does that make sense? Repeat two more times tucking in the ends, them pinch with one hand while sealing with the heel of the other. Pinch, seal, pinch, seal. Then roll out as thin as you like making sure that it's still sealed. Keep the sealed side down for all the next stages. This should give you a very good structure and a nice round (fat) loaf.

I don't know the heat conversions, but I bake around 475f and keep it there. Make sure the oven'r preheated long enough to get your stone to temp.

Make sure there's steam in there before the bread goes in, and only steam in the very beginning of the bake. I don't think it much matters what the degree is when slashing the loaves, it's just cosmetic. BUT you should slash nearly straight up and down, or again, it'll lose it's structure. Like four or so slashes from end to end, not side to side, and just barely separate. Still with me? Make sense?

I'd also say leave the bread in til it's much darker. It'll caramelize nicely and taste better. And I really wouldn't take it's temperature. You're just creating a hole for moisture to escape.

Hope this is relatively clear. And I hope it works for you. Did I forget anything?

Edited May 30, 2003 by elyse (log)

[gsquared]

Thanks everybody. I'll take all the replies on board, contemplate my navel and try again. Tomorrow. I'll post the results.

Mamster -

Are you measuring by weight or volume?

I am measuring by volume.

Elyse -

And I really wouldn't take it's temperature. You're just creating a hole for moisture to escape.

I am using an instant read digital therm. witn a really thin probe.

[gsquared]

Ok, the dough is retarding (being retarded? in retardation?) in the fridge. Report back tomorrow.

Elyse, I am not so sure about your description of forming the loaves. I have read similar descriptions elsewhere, and I have to confess to still being puzzled. Is the vital part in all this to end with a loaf with surface tension?

[elyse]

It should resist flattening out, and... I don't know. One of those you learn, and do. Let me check out my notes. I'm tempted to say it'll help the crust and crumb, but that may not be quite it. I'll get back.

On the forming description, if the dough is folded towards you, you're taking your four fingers and pressing down while pressing away from you slightly. Almost like a SLIGHT tuck in. But the result should be a slight rounding of the doubled dough. I wish I could send some pictures. Sorry.

What kind of flour did you use?

[gsquared]

Just bread flour this time around. I'll try the folding, pressing bit tomorrow & let you know how it goes.

[elyse]

Cool. I hope all goes well.

[gsquared]

The results of my latest attempt.

Changes:

1. No additional ascorbic acid - you were right, Mamster, the instant yeast already contains sufficient.

2. Dough slightly less wet.

3. One proving, then retarded overnight.

4. Thried Elyse's method of forming the loaves - it actually makes a lot more sense once you start doing it.

5. Oven temp upped to 250C

I am much happier with this than any previous attempt. Not satisfied, just happier. There is still work to be done, but at least this is sufficiently closer to allow for optimism. Thanks everybody.

[jackal10]

Great! well done!

Its hard to tell from the photos, but I tend to get more spread in the grigne (slashes) from the oven spring.

How long was the first proof? It may be that you are still overproving. Commercial yeast is very fast and only needs half an hour or so.

Otherwise maybe your oven isn't yet up to temperature. They still look a bit pale.

Your baguettes also look broader than mine. More like a bloomer loaf. Mine baguettes are about 3 inches wide and maybe 2ft long, with fewer, more diagonal cuts. YMMV.

I bet they taste great as well.

[elyse]

Glad they came out better. Do you think the cake flour made a difference?

From the lack of holes in the crumb, I'd say you should have more water. IF you want that sort of thing. It looks a little dense to me, still.

Did you slash it differently? If you changed it on my advice, I meant the other way. End to end rather than side to side.

I'd also go for darker. Like DARK. There's an article I have called Why We Burn Our Bread from the March issue of The Breadline. 9th Issue.

I'm still thinking about the corn syrup. I wouldn't do it. I'm thinking about the salt too, but will get back to that later.

[gsquared]

Elyse - I do think sticking to bread flour made a difference. The cake flour produced finer crumbs. I did produce a second loaf, slashed from end to end, but it looked, well, strange! I made four shlashes from end to end.

Jackal10 - I did decide that next time around

a. I am going to prove shorter

b. In the hope of a better oven spring, I am going to shape smaller diameter loaves. Oven was at 250C - maybe I should have baked for a little longer. Will see next time.

I am still not happy, taste-wise, with the salt quantity. I am sure I need more salt, but have been worried about killing off the yeast. Is the salt quantity finely balanced or can one be fairly generous?

[elyse]

I was thinking that the salt seemed a bit heavy, actually. But I'll check when I get home. I think the taste will improve greatly if baked brown.

[oraklet]

Elyse - I do think sticking to bread flour made a difference. The cake flour produced finer crumbs. I did produce a second loaf, slashed from end to end, but it looked, well, strange! I made four shlashes from end to end.

Jackal10 - I did decide that next time around

a. I am going to prove shorter

b. In the hope of a better oven spring, I am going to shape smaller diameter loaves. Oven was at 250C - maybe I should have baked for a little longer. Will see next time.

I am still not happy, taste-wise, with the salt quantity. I am sure I need more salt, but have been worried about killing off the yeast. Is the salt quantity finely balanced or can one be fairly generous?

sure, salt will influence the yeast, but it's not that "finely balanced".

now, i know that european and american flour are different, but the few times i've made baguettes, this is what i did:

rather sticky dough from 1/6 durum semolina and 5/6 pizza flour (tipo 00?); very little yeast; two proofings, the first one loooong (like 24 h) and cool, the second short (like 2 h.); loaves formed, then rests for c. 2 h.; high temperature, like 270ºC, and of course a pizza stone. cup of water thrown in pan at the start.

came out very, very close to the real thing. the first time, i was originally planning to make bread, but one of the kids leaned on the dough, forcing me to give it a second proofing.

[s'kat]

I'm still thinking about the corn syrup.  I wouldn't do it. 

The corn syrup seems a peculiar addition to me as well.

This is the way my loaves tend to come out, and I've been satisfied with the results:

No corn syrup, and I tend towards overbaking as well.