Baguette – Sourdough

Posted by moon garden on 01/09/2013 · 10 Comments 

One night,

I fed my sourdough starter as usual before I went to bed.

–

Next morning,

I couldn’t believe my eyes…

YOU can’t trust my eyes,

because I am a totally “blind” person without my glasses or contact lenses!

Anyway, I went to my bathroom to fetch my glasses and wore them.

So, I was no longer “blind”, right?

–

I have never seen my starter as active as this!!!

Literally, it almost came up to the top of the jar, even though I didn’t close tight the lid.

First, I was afraid the worst thing happened with my starter…

but actually, it has nice & fruity smell, also fluffy & happy bubbles!

–

I felt my starter was very ready to be USED today,

so, I decided to make my baguettes :-)

I chose a slower & longer fermentation method, expecting the flavor of the sourdough will be milder.

Through The Flesh Loaf, I found the perfect recipe for this experiment.

Yes, it takes around 36 hours.

It sounds long time and requires much trouble, however, actually you can do whatever you want during the fermentation.

I bet you don’t feel it is so much trouble to prepare it!

Above all, the flavor is fantastic and the taste  and texture are to die for!

Because the shaping was not good enough, I didn’t get a nice oven spring this time…

From left to right, the first two are the sourdough, and the rest two are the yeast.

I would try this again sometime soon to get the perfect crumb and the oven spring!

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Baguette – Sourdough ———– adapted from txfarmer / The Flesh Loaf

Submitting this post to YeastSpotting.

Makes 2  baguettes

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Ingredients

75 g 100% hydration starter

212.5 g Gold Medal All-purpose Flour

3.825 g Salt

150 g Water

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Formula

212.5 g Gold Medal All-purpose Flour (100%)

150 g Water (76.5%)

3.825 g Salt (1.8%)

Directions

1. In a bowl, mix flour and water roughly, cover it with plastic and Autolyse for 12 hours in the fridge.
2. Add Sourdough starter and mix by folding dough in the bowl.
3. Add salt and Slap & Fold for 4 minutes or until the dough becomes a ball.
4. Bulk fermentation at room temperature, 1 sets Stretch & Fold (1 set = right over left, left over right, bottom over the top, top over bottom) every half hour until enough strength has been developed.
5. Let it rise until the dough starts showing the yeast activity. It takes about 6 hours total in winter time (it depends on the season) in my kitchen.
6. Put it in the fridge for 16 – 18 hours.
7. Pull it out of the fridge and leave it out for 1 hour.
8. Divide into 2 equal parts and preshape the dough.
9. Let it rest for 15 minutes.
10. Shape into baguettes (This video is very informative!) and place onto a floured couche, seam-side up.
11. Preheat the oven to 500°F
12. Final fermentation for 45 minutes – 1 hour.
13. Score the top of the baguettes using a lame or a sharp, serrated knife.
14. Place the bread in the preheated oven, pour the water onto the brick blocks and shut the oven door immediately. Turn down the oven to 480°F, bake the bread around 20 minutes.
15. Let them cool onto a rack.
16. Ready to eat!

* The time and temperature will be changed depends on the season.

Filed under BAGUETTE, SOURDOUGH · Tagged with All-purpose flour, Baguette, Gold medal, Overnight fermentation, Sourdough