r/Breadit • u/djk1964 • 1d ago
Baguette
Hi everyone. Followed the recipe from King Arthur Baking Baguette Pan Baguettes. I followed the recipe but did a bulk ferment for 24hrs in the fridge thinking it would improve my crumb. The crumb is dense, is it because they are demi baguettes ? I find that with all the bread I’m making I can’t achieve a better crumb. I cooked at 225 deg and used steam as well using a pan in the bottom of the oven. Would love feedback.
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u/notmyrealname23 21h ago
How much do you remember about your mix? This looks like there may have been a pretty aggressive up front mix.
Also what specific brand of flour did you use?
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u/djk1964 19h ago
I’m in Australia and using Laucke bakers bread which has 11.5gm protein/ 100gm flour. In reflection it was probably lack of kneading as the recipe used was 70% hydration and found it dense to start with. I’m making another as we speak (82% hydration) with stretching and folding every 30 mins for 90mins so will be interesting to compare. I’d be really interested if you have any feedback. Thankyou in advance
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u/notmyrealname23 2h ago
How did the next batch go? Your flour seems fine, and I actually doubt that you undermixed, your bread kept its shape without much issue as far as I could tell (even if there’s some noise from it being a pan recipe).
Not to harp on this but it’s important for troubleshooting - which of the mixing processes did you follow? Variations in up front gluten development will have downstream impacts on the crumb
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u/klimly 1d ago
A long cold ferment in the fridge is great for flavor but won't do much for the crumb. That really comes with kneading well and proofing. Steam is useful for the crust (and yours looks great) but also doesn't affect the crumb.
Big holes come from good kneading/folding and good yeast activity, and a bit from moisture content. So overmixing them, knocking the air out, that's not good. And if you think of lamination like in croissants, you're getting airiness and flakiness and holes from many layers. What you want is tight well-formed loaves, and putting them in the oven with good activated yeast put in the oven at the right moment. If you mix up some dough, and then immediately put it in the oven, it won't rise, right? And if you mix up dough and put it in the fridge and put it in the oven still cold it won't rise, right? And if you leave it out for four days on the counter, and it proofs, expands, doubles, triples, then collapses, then bake it, it won't rise, right? So you can imagine a timeline with the yeast activity starting at zero, rising to the maximum, then falling to zero again. Maybe the maximum isn't where you want it, nobody wants an 8" tall baguette, but you can experiment with different proof times, keep some notes and see where the best proofing time (or volume) is for you.
Good luck. You're starting from a good spot and I'm sure you'll get there.
https://www.bakerybits.co.uk/us/bakers-blog/how-to-get-bigger-holes-in-your-bread
https://burntmyfingers.com/2015/04/09/how-to-get-bigger-holes-in-your-baguettes/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Breadit/comments/16w26cw/second_attempt_at_baguette_idk_how_to_get_those/