Boring baguette

[james]

I made a so-so baguette with the extra pizza dough from our weekend pizza night, and I'm looking for help. It was 65% hydration, Caputo Rosso -- it made some great pizza. I stored the dough overnight in the refrigerator, proofed it for 5 hours (folding twice), shaped the loaf via Hamelman, gave it a final proof of about 90 minutes and baked it between two FB Stones at 425?F with convection on. (I know it would have been better in one of my WFOs, but it was cold, drizzly and dark). The internal temp was 205?F.

It was OK, but the crust is too light, too thin and not crunchy enough. I also didn't get a nice grigne. The crumb was OK, but more elastic would be better.

Any ideas? I know this loaf would have sprung and been perfect in a WFO, but sometimes you need to bake inside.

Thanks for the input.
James

[Dutchoven]

Re: Boring baguette

James
I think it looks quite good for leftover pizza dough...also baguette are somewhat boring...I might suggest a higher bake temp with steam and probably no convection...good baguette ususally are baked in a very hot shallow oven chamber with lots of steam and then get vented about half way through to set the crust...can be vented sooner if you like a lot of crack to the crust...
Best
Dutch

[james]

Re: Boring baguette

Thanks Dutch,

It's true that your basic baguette isn't a work of art. I guess that's why they bake twice a day in France -- fresh, but usually uninspiring.

Hotter at the start, lots of steam to start, then vented. I'll try that.

Thanks again,
James

[AnnieMacD]

Re: Boring baguette

Hi James,

I agree with Dutch - hotter oven - and be sure the stone is really hot, ie, heat the oven for 45 mins - 1 hour before baking.

As an aside, I had some Peter Reinhart sourdough pizza dough in the fridge for 11 days (yes, 11 days!) already shaped into pizza balls. I had too much bread to make yesterday to make pizza, so shaped into 2 torpedo loaves and let proof for 3 hours. Baked in the WFO and they had huge oven spring and a nice, even, rather shiny crumb. They are VERY sour but not boring! I just tried it as an experiment as I hate wasting dough. Moral of the story is - unless it's eating up everything in the fridge - bake it!

Annie

[texassourdough]

Re: Boring baguette

Hi Annie!

ELEVEN DAYS! You must have created a whole new lifeform in the dough by then! WOW!

More seriously, did you have any special handling problems? When I let my sourdough dough go more than a couple of days it tends to lose structure. OTOH, it CAN give great crust. Pleae tell us more about the bread...

Thanks!
Jay

[james]

Re: Boring baguette

Moral of the story is - unless it's eating up everything in the fridge - bake it!

Annie

I'll remember that one!
James