Baguettes?

The baguette, that classic French bread, is a milestone in every baker’s life. Some achieve it. Some fall flat. Some never try. I tried. I did not succeed, but I learned. Hopefully next time I’ll get it. Or, at the very least, closer.

I started out with a recipe I found online at https://myloveofbaking.com/sourdough-baguettes/. It was not the most complex of the recipes I saw but nor was it the simplest. It had things that I look for – weights on the ingredients being one of the most important ones. The main reason I chose it was that it was one of the few recipes I saw that was for 2 baguettes – most are for 6. When I’m getting started and trying things out I want to keep it small and this let me do that without any added fuss.

So I took the recipe and made the dough. Relatively straightforward and nothing too out of the ordinary. It’s a simple no-knead starting with an autolyse followed by 3 stretch and folds. After that it changes the usual order around somewhat by going into the fridge overnight before shaping. Bring it out of the fridge, let it come to room temperature and rise, shape it slowly, carefully, and in 3 steps with rests in between. A final rest and then into the oven. Again, in 3 steps.

You’d think with the detailed instructions – and video – it would be easy to get it right. You’d be wrong. First off, I’m an idiot. I didn’t think that perhaps the couche I was using was longer than any baking pan I might own. Had I thought about that first issue I might not have run into the second one which was that I made them way too thin. I didn’t want to ruin the whole thing by trying to reshape them so I just sort of folded the ends in to make them shorter. That’s why they kind of look like lacrosse sticks.

After all that I’ve got to say that it was worth it. The crust was amazing, the crumb was beautiful – just right for spreading butter or jam, and the taste had just the right amount of sourness. Hopefully I’ve learned from my mistakes and will to a better job of shaping my baguettes. I’ll let you know.