HOW TO MAKE SOURDOUGH BAGUETTES

When it comes to making baguettes with a light and airy crumb, there are two major things to keep in mind. The first, being to create a strong dough with as much extensibility as possible, and two, be very gentle with the dough throughout the entire process. So that's the philosophy I applied with this recipe, and you'll see how those principles apply along the way. Now a quick disclaimer, this is a relatively advanced recipe, so if you've never made sour dough before, I'd recommend starting with my basic sourdough bread recipe, which I'll link in the description below. And for this one, I'm going to assume that you already understand the basic principles of bread making, so I'm not going to explain every step in depth, but I will still talk through the reasoning behind the decisions that I've made. So let's get into it. If you're new here, my name is Charlie, and on this channel I show you how to create delicious food using simple ingredients and techniques, so that you can become a more confident home cook. So let's make some baguettes. So as usual with sourdough bread, the first thing we'll need to do is mix the levain. In this case, I'm mixing 30 grams of mature starter with 100 grams of flour and 100 grams of room temperature water. For the flour, I'm using my usual blend of 50% whole wheat flour and 50% all-purpose flour, but you can really use whatever type of flour you want. Personally, I do like to include the whole wheat though because the rest of the recipe will consist entirely of white bread flour, so including a little bit of whole wheat here will just help with the fermentation since it provides a little extra nutrition for the yeast. Either way, you'll want to let the levain rise until at least doubled in size, which for me takes about 10 hours at room temperature, but again it all depends on your environment and the types of flour that you're using. So I usually let the levain rise overnight, but I'll also link my sample baking schedule in the description below so you can see the exact timing that I use. So here I am about 10 hours later and my levain has doubled in size, so I'm ready to start mixing my dough. So get out a large bowl and add 250 grams of room temperature water at about 70 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 21 degrees Celsius. Then add 200 grams of your levain, which should be pretty much the entire thing considering that some of it will stick to the sides and the bottom of the jar. Then stir that into the water until it's fully distributed. Now add 375 grams of unbleached bread flour and stir with a dough whisk and or your hands until all of the flour is fully hydrated. Like I said, we're only using white flour in this recipe in order to make the baguettes as light and airy as possible and to create a mild but very aromatic flavor. Anyways, once the dough is fully mixed, we're going to perform a 45-minute autolyse, which I realize isn't a traditional autolyse since it includes the levain, but it serves the same purpose. We want to perform the autolyse at about 75 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 24 degrees Celsius, so I'm just going to set my proofing box to that temperature and throw it in there for 45 minutes. Now after the autolyse, sprinkle 8 grams of salt over the top of the dough along with an additional 20 grams of water and fold it into the dough to get it evenly distributed. Then I like to transfer the dough to a clear rectangular container for the bulk fermentation, but you can also just leave it in the same bowl if you prefer. So this dough has a total hydration of 78%, which you can see broken down on the screen. This is a bit higher than some baguette recipes call for, but the high hydration will create some extra extensibility in the dough, which will help us to achieve a really nice open crumb. But if you do like a denser crumb or you just want to make the dough easier to work with, you can reduce the water content in the recipe and it'll still work fine. Also keep in mind that all flours are slightly different, so feel free to use your own discretion and adjust the water content in the recipe to achieve your desired result. Now since this dough only contains white flour, we're actually going to perform the bulk fermentation at a relatively lower temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit, which will allow the dough to ferment more slowly, creating some extra flavor. And this also gives the gluten in the dough more time to develop, which will help the baguettes to maintain their structure while still achieving a nice open crumb. So for most of you, you can probably just leave it at room temperature, or if you have a proofing box like me, just set that to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. I made a tutorial on how to make your own proofing box for relatively cheap, which I'll link below for those of you who haven't seen it. Anyways, once the dough is fully mixed, just throw it in that 75 degree environment for another 30 minutes. Now for the bulk fermentation, we're going to perform a total of six sets of folds spaced out at 30 minute intervals. So we'll be performing three sets of stretch and folds followed by three sets of coil folds. So again, I'm going assume you're already familiar with the folding process, and if not, feel free to check out my basic sourdough bread recipe for more detailed instructions. But basically, for each set of stretch and folds, I perform eight folds along the perimeter of the dough, stretching as far as it'll go without tearing. And for each set of coil folds, I perform four folds, lifting the dough up, then letting it stretch down under its own weight and folding it back over itself. These folds are especially important for baguettes since they're so delicate and they need plenty of gluten development to hold in the gases necessary to achieve an open crumb. So once you finish the six set of folds, just place the dough back into your 75 degree environment for another 60 minutes. Then after that 60 minutes, it's time to divide and shape the dough. So be sure to coat your surface with a good dusting of flour and turn the dough out with the top side down. Then divide the dough into two equal pieces and shape each piece into a taut ball using your bench scraper to develop tension. I didn't do a great job of dividing evenly here as you can see, but if you really want to be exact, you could even weigh out the pieces. Either way, go ahead and dust the dough with a bit of extra flour to prevent any sticking. Then cover it with a kitchen towel and leave it to bench rest for about 25 minutes. And after that 25 minutes, it's time for the final shaping. So one additional piece of equipment you'll need at this point is a sheet like this, which is known as a couche. Since baguettes are obviously too long for any type of proofing basket, we'll use this instead. So you'll place the baguettes between folds in the couche and the material will support the sides of baguette to make sure it rises up rather than rising outward. Now of course you can also just use a kitchen towel if you have one that's large enough, but the nice thing about the couche is that it's made of a very sturdy material, so it does a great job of supporting the sides of the loaves. So if you plan to make a lot of baguettes, I definitely recommend getting one. Anyways, just dust your couche with some flour to prevent any sticking, and I like to use rice flour here just as I do with my bannetons when I use those. And now we're ready for the actual shaping. This is part of baguette making that takes the most practice when you're first getting started, so don't get discouraged if you mess it up the first few times. You'll get better eventually, it just takes some practice. Also just keep in mind that you'll only want to make the baguettes as big as your oven can handle. So I bake my baguettes on a pizza stone which is about 16 inches long, so I'll aim to make them about 14 to 15 inches long to account for a little bit of expansion. So I actually like to keep a ruler on my table as I'm shaping them so I can make sure that they're the right size. So to shape them, start by turning one of your loaves over so the unfloured side is facing up, and be sure to dust the floured side with plenty of flour so it doesn't stick to your surface. Then gently stretch the top portion and fold it over about three quarters of the way down the loaf. Then turn the dough around and repeat that same process with the other side. Remember to be very gentle throughout the entire shaping process to preserve all of the airiness that's developed, but you do want to pop any particularly large bubbles that form on the outer surface. Now little by little grab the dough from the top and stretch it all the way down to develop lots of tension, then pinch it down with your fingers to seal it off. Once you've made it across the entire length of the dough, rotate it so that the seam side is facing down and gently work the dough back and forth with your hands like so to develop some additional tension as you start to stretch the dough lengthwise. After you do that a few times, go ahead and start rolling out the dough starting from the middle and gradually tapering out toward the edges. Try to do this in one smooth motion if possible to avoid handling the dough more than necessary and deflating it. Then just free up the baguette with your bench scraper making sure no parts of it are still stuck to the surface and gently transfer it to your couche creating folds on either side to provide some support. Then just repeat that process with the second baguette and place it directly next to the first. I also like to place some heavy objects on the outsides like a large book to create some extra support. Now just cover them up and let them proof for about one to two hours or until they spring back slowly when poked. During proofing the dough inflates where the gas is produced by fermentation but meanwhile the gluten network is gradually weakening so the goal is to bake the loaves when they're fully inflated but before they've lost a significant amount of their structure. So you can see that at the beginning of proofing when the dough is at its strongest it springs back right away but as the gluten structure gradually breaks down the dough springs back slower and slower until you get to this point which is the perfect level of proofing. If it doesn't spring back at all that means it's over proofed so just make a note to use a shorter proof next time. But of course you can still bake the loaf in that case it just may not rise to its maximum potential. So the proofing time will be highly dependent on your environment but for reference my room temperature was about 75 degrees Fahrenheit or 24 degrees Celsius and I proofed the loaves for an hour and 15 minutes this time. And about 30 minutes into the proof you'll want to start preheating your oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit which is about 260 degrees Celsius to get it as hot as possible before baking. Now like I mentioned I bake my baguettes on a pizza stone and I highly recommend that you do the same because the stone's ability to retain heat is going to help the baguettes to cook all the way through and get nice and crispy on the outside. But even more important than that is to create steam in your oven during the first few minutes of baking. Obviously these baguettes won't fit in a dutch oven so we'll need to use a different method which involves using a cast iron pan filled with lava rocks or pebbles along with a disposable pie pan and some ice. Basically before you preheat your oven you'll want to place the baking stone on the top rack then on the bottom rack place your cast iron pan filled with lava rocks. Then take your disposable pie pan and poke a few holes in the bottom and right before you bake the bread place two cups of ice into the pie pan and set it on top of the lava rocks. So this way the ice will slowly melt causing water to drip down into the hot pan and since the lava rocks are slightly porous they'll help to slow the release of steam even further. So once your baguettes are fully proofed and ready to bake get out a flat baking tray or pizza peel and line it with a piece of parchment paper then very gently transfer your baguettes onto that sheet. I'd highly recommend using some sort of transfer board for this which could be as simple as a cutting board or a sturdy piece of cardboard like I'm using here. So just gently flip the baguettes one at a time onto the board then flip them back over onto the baking sheet. Now you'll need to work quickly here to prevent the dough from flattening out so fill your pie pan with the ice and throw it into the oven then score your loaves. For baguettes of this size I'd recommend making two slashes along the length of the loaf not straight across but just at a slight angle. Also make sure not to score too close to the edges and don't score too deep either you only want to go about a quarter inch down. Finally to achieve a nice ear on your loaves you'll want to score at an angle to the surface of the loaves about 30 to 45 degrees from parallel and it's especially important for baguettes to use a very sharp razor when scoring. It seems like a lot to think about but it'll become second nature once you do it enough times. Anyways as soon as those are scored head over to your oven and slide the loaves off onto your pizza stone and the parchment paper should make this really simple. If you worked fast enough there shouldn't be much steam generated yet so quickly close your oven and reduce the temperature to 450 degrees fahrenheit which is about 230 degrees celsius and after another 30 seconds to a minute you should see a significant amount of steam start to pour out of the oven. Then after the loaves have been in the oven for 15 minutes remove the cast iron pan to prevent any more steam from being generated which will allow the crust to become browned and crispy. Now the remaining cooking time will depend on your preferences so just keep your loaves in the oven until they're brown to your liking about another 8 to 15 minutes. I also like to rotate them after about 7 minutes to make sure that all sides cook evenly. This time I left them in for 10 minutes which was just about perfect for my preferences then once they're done remove them to a wire rack and let them cool for at least an hour before cutting into them to make sure the inside is completely cooked and that's all there is to it. I know it's not the most simple recipe but if you've made basic loaves of sourdough bread before the process really is pretty similar with just a few minor adjustments. So now that you know how to make baguettes if you want to learn how to make some other delicious baked goods be sure to click the playlist on the bottom right corner of the screen. So there you go. I'll see you all in the next one.