Thanks to Martin Phillip’s videos.
Update: Crumb shot. More open than I usually get. I might have let the poolish sit too long.
Thanks to Martin Phillip’s videos.
Update: Crumb shot. More open than I usually get. I might have let the poolish sit too long.
To be clear, that was not a criticism, Baguette a L’ Ancienne is my favorite. When I lived in Paris I got an apartment a block away from a ranked boulangerie solely based on their proximity.
I took it for the praise it was. I admire the more refined work others do, but mostly I bake super seedy wholemeal loaves for my long suffering family. This is a rare foray outside my usual comfort zone, and I’m quite pleased with the results, considering it was done without a pizza stone. Sorry if this is a little shocking, but I baked them on a silpat right on the rack.
Sounds like me.
‘What is this?’ ‘Whole wheat, Teff, Flax, and Oat, five day cold ferment’… ‘it’s good, could we have normal baguette or boule, even campagne again?’. ‘Oh, and make some more marinated pork belly’.
They like what I bake, but want ‘regular’ stuff too
If they know what they like, they’re lucky to know someone who can teach them right?
Updated the OP with crumb shots. Any notes?
I’m no expert, but the original photos and the crumb shot look a little under baked to me. But, if I will be toasting the bread first (which I often do, it brings a different flavor by Maillard reactions) I under bake on purpose, it also keeps longer that way.
I worried it might be so. They seem cooked through, but a little on the heavy side. A bit more time could have taken care of that. My oven is definitely hotter in the back though, and they were looking uneven.
You said you used a Silpat, I like them but the more I bake the less I use them. Mostly for Bavarian Brezel (lye is hell on reactive surfaces) occasionally for croissant. If you don’t have a stone (I don’t here either) you could try ‘unglazed quarry tile’ which is basically adobe, brick ‘splits’, or go to a metal shop and say I want ‘an X by Y piece of steel’ that fits your oven. They all bake differently, but transfer heat more quickly than Silpats which are actually a thermal insulator.
Whatever makes you happy is what’s important, if I think it looks a little underbaked but you like it, who cares what I say?
I make these loaves and pizza from odd grain combos that I have purposely over fermented and am amazed when other people like them. Full of flavor, but fruity and with an alcohol tang, they aren’t like anything you could buy. I like them. That’s enough, and what I make for myself.
Slight tangent, and it does not work for everything (Bahn Mi sucks this way, for example), but for my taste, proof times should be doubled. For flavor you have five main things, 1 type of ferment, sourdough, biga, poolish, cake, idy, ady, etc. 2 ferment time, 3 ferment temperature (probably should be number 2), 4 surface caramelization, 5 Maillard reactions. The best taste (personally) comes from long ferments with whatever fermentation type, though sourdough is my personal fave, and Maillard. Still, that means nothing, it’s what I like.
Your baguette has the uneven hole structure of a nice baguette a l’ ancienne
They look great, happy baking
Thanks for the encouragement and advice! You’ve given me a lot to think on for where to go from here.