Baguettes with Poolish
Jun 28th, 2008 by SteveB
It’s been said that the baguette, althoughone of the simplest breads (being comprised of onlyflour, water, yeast and salt), is perhaps the most difficult bread to make well. A good baguette has a thin, crisp crust, a light and airy crumb having a distribution of both large and small air pockets (alveoli), and a slightly sweet, almost nutty flavor. Being the perfectionist that I am, I would also add that a good baguette has to look enticing, being a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach.
The baguette formula used here is a modification of the Baguettes with Poolish formula described by Hamelman on page 101 ofBread: A Bakers Book of Techniques and Recipes (see book for baker’s percentages). The main changes were in the method of mixing (seeMusings on Mixing), the amount of yeast used in the final dough and the elimination of the folding step.
Poolish
- 10.6 oz. King Arthur All-Purpose Flour
- 10.6 oz. Water
- 1/8 tsp.Instant Yeast
Final Dough
- 1 lb., 5.4 oz. King Arthur All-Purpose Flour
- 10.6 oz. Water
- 0.6 oz. Salt
- 1 tsp. Instant Yeast
- 1 lb., 5.2 oz. (all of the above) Poolish
Prepare the poolish the night before baking. Mix the flour, water and yeast together until the mixture isthe consistency of a smooth, thick batter. Coverand let it ferment overnight at a temperature of around 72oF until mature (about 12 hrs).
The next morning, prepare the final dough by combining the flour, yeast, salt, water and poolish, just until all the ingredients are mixed and well hydrated (I find a dough whisk to be particularly suited to this task). The water should be at a temperature which will give a final dough temperature of around 76oF (more on this in a later post). I also used less yeast than the Hamelman formula calls for because of the hightemperature of my kitchen at this time of year (the higher temperature would shorten the first fermentation time, and hence compromise the flavor,if the quantity of yeast was not reduced).Depending upon your conditions, you may need a bit more or less yeast.
After the ingredients have been fully incorporated, the dough is mixed by hand (see Musings on Mixing…) for about 10-15 min., until the dough develops a smooth skin which doesn’t tear while mixing. The dough is then placed in a lightly oiled, covered container and allowed to ferment. This first fermentation is judged complete when the imprint of a finger poked into the dough remains. In this particular case, the first fermentation lasted 1 1/2hours. In addition, the dough was judged to have developed sufficient strength afterthe hand mixing so that thefolding step during the first fermentation suggested by Hamelmanwas not needed.
Once the first fermentation was judged complete, the dough was divided into 4 equal pieces, by weight, and each piece was given a gentle round pre-shaping. The dough pieces were then covered with plastic and allowed to rest for 20 min.After the rest, each dough piece wasshaped into a baguette and then nestled within the folds of a linen couche, asshown below:[qt:http://breadcetera.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/BaguetteMaking2.MOV 500 375]
The shapedbaguette dough isthen covered with the remaining linen and allowed a second fermentation time of about 1 hr. The second fermentation is judged complete when a finger press results in an impression that lasts for 2-3 secs.
After the second fermentation is complete, the baguettes are scored with a lame and baked in a 450oF oven for 20 min., with steam being supplied during the first 10 mins. via a hand steamer and an inverted buffet tray with a small hole drilled into it (details of the steaming technique are described here):
Hey Steve, I did put an errant = sign in the formula, my bad, I didn’t proofread my entire post. I made baguette on Sunday, my best so far! I found that I was overworking the dough after the first rise. My texture was so much better, with lots of small and large holes. I just started a rye poolish. Do you have any help there? Also, I am not getting any ears, the slashes almost disappear. At what angle do you hold the lam, and how deep do you go with the slashing?
Lynda, after you mix your rye pre-ferment (also called a rye sour) and place it in its container to ferment, I would suggest sprinkling the top lightly with rye flour to prevent the sour from drying out and to monitor the progress of the sour’s maturation. As the sour matures, it will expand and cracks will start to form in the surface flour layer. Remember that rye flour contains more nutrients and fermentable sugars than wheat flour, so the fermentation should occur faster than would otherwise occur with wheat flour.
When I score my baquettes and batards, I typically hold my lame at a 45 maximum angle to the surface of the loaf and score anywhere from to inch deep.
Steve,
Just took my third attempt at duplicating this recipe. Each time the rise during the actual baking was non existent, or anemic. The crust was great, flavour was very good, just am not getting that nice crumb. I have used the double flour addition technique twice and the hand technique once. The oven was 500F when I put in the loafs quickly cooling down to 425-450 when I put in water (do not yet have a steamer … may have to wait ’til christmas.) I fun it for 15 minutes at 450 without the fan, and turn a fan on for the last five minutes.
Any insight you can share would be most welcome.
Cheers,
Tom
Hi Tom,
The first thing I would look at is the protein content of the flour you are using. Is it in the 10.5-12% range? I’m assuming that you’re using a mature poolish, indicating that your yeast is active. Next, I would be sure to mix the dough to medium development (i.e., when pulling a windowpane with a small amount of dough, the dough doesn’t tear and can be seen to have threads of gluten within an otherwise thin, translucent film). A tight shaping will also contribute to providing a good oven spring. I would also check to make sure that the baguettes are not overproofing (see the finger press test described in the post). Finally, try just placing a long pan over your baguettes right after you load them onto your baking stone. The moisture given off by the baking baguettes, if confined to the space immediately surrounding the baguettes, should be enough to delay the setting of the crust and enable maximum oven spring.
Steve,
Thank you for your advice. They came out much better than last time. Still looking very much a home creation but moving towards the “feast of the eyes!”
I expect the biggest difference came from putting a pan over the baguettes; however I do suspect I was over-proofing as well. I will have to pay more attention to the amount of yeast and the ambient temperature of the kitchen.
Just to show you how much of a novice I am. I did not take the pan off the top of the baguettes until the very end. They of course the baguettes were soft and doughy cooked through and through, with an internal temperature of 200F. I kept them in for another 10 minutes to get some semblance of colour. I assume that I should have taken the pan off half way through the baking cycle.
Thanks again,
Tom
Steve,
I finally tried your method last week and must say that it turned out really well. Next time I’ll try to improvise some sort of steam in to the oven to see how it changes the crust because the crust wasn’t so impressive. I’m thinking about hooking up some sort of a hose to my tea kettle – what’d you think? Here’s my full concept post with a drawing: http://www.cckid.com/tea-kettle-steamer/
Nick, I remember reading some time ago about someone who connected a length of copper tubing to a tea kettle and ran the tubing through the vent in his oven so that he could introduce steam directly into his oven without having to open the oven door. He claimed it worked pretty well for him.
Just stumbled upon your blog and wanted you to know that it’s /incredible/! I’ve only recently become involved with baking, so we seem to be in the same boat only you are much, much farther upstream in terms of practice, knowledge, hands-on experience and, well, everything. I’ll be trying this recipe soon!
Cheers,
Liz
Hi Liz,
Welcome to Bread cetera! I hope you enjoy your visits here and find information and tips that will help you throughout your bread baking adventures.
this is an awesome recipe. I use something similar to this, but mine is from Anis Boubasa who is a french baker known for his baguette in paris.
You can check his baguette recipe out at my site and a step by step instruction on how to bake the baguette.
Hi SteveB,
What beautiful baguettes you have there! I am planning on making your recipe this week. I do not have any couches though and I would like to improvise/make my own (without having to use kitchen towels). What kind of fabric should I use in making these couches? What other suggestions can you provide?
Also, can you please give me the appx temperature of the water above (for the final dough). I don’t really understand the temp formulas and I don’t want to have to come up with it on my own ( i know I’ll screw it up and that part alone will likely discourage me from making this bread).
Finally, can I ferment my poolish more than 12 hrs. If I make it the night before, I won’t be able to get to the full recipe until later the next day, after work. I hope that very long fermentation won’t kill it. If it does, then I won’t be able to make the baguettes until this weekend. Thanks Steve.
Mado,
The best fabric to use for a couche is untreated linen canvas. If linen is unavailable, then any untreated lint-free fabric should work fine.
An easy-to-follow explanation on how to calculate the required water temperature can be found here. If you want to be able to bake good bread, you really need to take the time and make the effort to learn how to perform this simple calculation.
The time it takes for a poolish, or any preferment for that matter, to reach maturity is dependent upon the amount of yeast in the preferment as well as the temperature at which the preferment is held. If you want your poolish to take longer than 12 hours to reach maturity, then either lower the temperature or use less yeast.
Excellent looking baguettes you have there, just like I buy in France (when I’m there at least). I have some Type 55 flour, so will try your recipe v soon.
I really enjoy your blog entires – thanks for posting. Your perfectionism is to be applauded!
Yes the baguettes do look great on the outside. I would like to see the “crumb” of the bread as well. If you wouldn’t mind to up-load some pictures it would be great to see, and understand the hydration rates used in making your baguettes.
Hi Joel,
“Baguettes with Poolish” was one of the first posts I made to this blog over two years ago and at that time I wasn’t as diligent in taking photos of the crumb of my breads as I am today. A photo of a suitable crumb structure for a baguette can be seen heading the post “Baguettes la Bouabsa”, shown here.
Hello – Great blog you have here. Already a fan! I am planning on baking this bread, but have a few questions beforehand: You mention “(all the poolish)” which is about 21.2 oz, but it says 5.2 oz next to 1lb. Am I missing something or is there a chance any of these might be typos? Because 1 lb = 16 oz, which is neither 21.2 nor 5.2. Also, in the final dough it specifies 1 lb with 5.4 oz next to it. I am a bit confused at this point and would appreciate it if you can clarify.
Gri, the recipe Poolish is made with 10.6 oz each of water and flour, which totals 21.2 oz.
1 lb, 5.4 oz = 16 + 5.2 = 21.2 oz
I don’t understand your confusion.
C’est reussi…j’ai reussi! I made your French baguette recipe today and the breads came out looking PERFECT! I do not have that beautiful shine that your baguette has but everything else was just perfect. Here are a few tweaks I did with respect to this recipe:
Since my kitchen is fairly cool this time of year, I added 1/4 tsp of instant yeast to the final dough. I also transferred some techniques I recently learned with another recipe to this one and things turned out great. Rather than mix all of the final dough’s ingredients directly to the poolish, I started out combining all of the final dough’s dry ingredients together and then set it aside. I then added the water (alone) to the poolish, stirred the whole thing for about a minute until the poolish looked and had the feel of a wet pancake batter. I then incorporated the the dry ingredients to the poolish. After everything was well mixed and the flour fully hydrated (it took appx 2 min), I covered the dough and let it rest for 20 min. I then stretched and folded the dough onto itself (it took about 7-8 folds to cover the entire dough), turned the odd looking ball upside down (making sure I had pulled the dough’s skin to form a boule), covered and let it rest another 20 min. Repeated the stretch and fold a second time, turned the dough upside down again and let it ferment between 60 to 80 min. I never used the 15 min slap and fold technique recommended herein and my dough still developed the strong gluten it needed with that 2 simple stretch and fold and 20 min rests. The baguettes came out looking beautiful and well “spring”, with a crumb fulled with airy holes. They tasted just as wonderful.
Thank you SteveB for putting this recipe and steaming technique out there for all of us and for allowing an amateur home baker to share in this exciting bread baking experience.
Mado,
Congratulations on your baguette baking success!
As you’ve discovered, there are a number of techniques available to the baker that will develop the dough to the appropriate degree, including machine mixing, ‘slap and fold’ hand mixing and ‘stretch and fold’ hand mixing. Each of these techniques can be used in the production of a wide variety of different breads.
HI,
i have been trying to bake baguettes all the time but i was not able to do it well until i made them according to your recipe and your shaping technique ….the result was unbelievable….4 beautiful, flavorful, tasteful, and full of many other things baguettes ….and you know whats the most desirable? that all gone in about one hour by family members….;)
Steve,
Is the stainless steel Buffet tray preheated to oven temp. before it is placed over bread/bread stone or is it placed in at room temp? If it’s at room temp when placed in oven doesn’t the steam condense into water droplet and soak bread and also significantly reduce oven temp.?
Hi John,
It is not necessary to pre-heat the stainless steel buffet tray. The amount of steam one introduces during steaming is equivalent to a fairly small amount of water, far too little to ‘soak’ the bread. It will, however, condense on the surface of the relatively cooler loaf, producing the desirable effect of gelatinizing the surface starch and delaying the onset of crust formation, thus allowing the loaf to experience its maximum oven spring.
That is one perfect looking baguette. You are an excellent maker! I don’t think it could get any better than that. I am truly impressed. Awesome job!!
2 questions-
1) You say: “Once the first fermentation was judged complete, the dough was divided into 4 equal pieces, by weight, and each piece was given a gentle round pre-shaping. The dough pieces were then covered with plastic and allowed to rest for 20 min.”
Why is it necessary to rest the dough piece? Why can’t it be shaped into a baguette immediately?
2) You say: “….baked in a 450oF oven for 20 min., with steam being supplied during the first 10 mins. via a hand steamer.” Is that 10 minutes of continuous steam? Or every few minutes a blast of steam? Or something else?
Hi Fred,
Pre-shaped dough pieces are allowed to rest before their final shaping in order to allow the gluten to relax. Without this relaxation, the dough can be overly elastic and difficult to shape, resulting in tearing.
For details on my steaming technique, see here.
Hi Steve
First can I say what an interesting site.
I have baked many a loaf prior to and since moving to France, we are very lucky in our village that we have a fine baker, his baguettes are superb!!!!!
Now I have baked many loafs as I said previously, mainly speciality breads but I would like to try my hand at baguettes, so tonight (it is half past midnight here) I have just started my Poolish ready for the morning but my problems have already started…………
I had to convert your measurements to metric i.e. 10.6 ozs = 300g
but when I added 300g of water it hardly mixed the flour so I just kept adding water till the mix was like thick cream, fingers crossed will see how it turns out in the morning 🙂
Great site, will enjoy reading the rest of it.
All the best from France
Bonjour Stephen,
One thing to keep in mind is that the recipes on this site have been formulated using American flours. French flours typically behave quite differently from American flours, often requiring less water to produce a dough or preferment of comparable consistency (interestingly, antithetical to what you’ve described). Be that as it may, when making the poolish, adding 300 g of water to 300 g of French T55 or T65 flour should yield a paste of medium to thin consistency.
I look forward to hearing the results of your efforts!
Bonjour Steve
Used T55 to make the poolish.
Steve please note I am just telling you how it happened “No complaints”
The poolish looked good the following afternoon I then continued adding the flour (T45) water, yeast and salt as per your instructions but this resulted in a really wet mix? Mess is a better discription, chucked it all in the Kenwood and kept adding flour until it looked like dough Ahhh!!!!!! OK back to bread making allowed it to rest for an hour, cut it into three, kneaded for a minute or two and formed it into loafs, covered with a tea cloth and whacked oven to full speed, we have an Italian made oven, gas jets in bottom, which gets Really Hot ( sorry have not taken temp) does a pizza in 5/6 minutes, great results (my wood burning oven in the garden is about two thirds done, more on that later) put loafs into oven plus icecubes in bottom cooked for 10 minutes turned down a little and cooked for a further 20 minutes checked and they where done, a little too hard underneath should have turned it lower after the first 10 minutes but boy did they taste good, I was quite pleased with the results the taste and spring was really good, so thank you Steve.
Will try again soon as 2 loafs now in freezer, and will keep you informed.
Bon chance
StephenM
Bonjour Stephen,
Your experience fits much better with what I described previously, i.e., that French flours absorbs less water than American flours to yield a dough of comparable consistency. Next time, try using the specified quantity of flour and add only the amount of water necessary to arrive at the desired dough consistency.
Hi Steve,
I can’t tell you how much I enjoy your site! Thank you so much for your willingness to share your knowledge of bread baking. I have to ask, am I missing something or have you not made a new entry since 2010? How can we get you out of retirement?
Ari
Hi Ari,
You haven’t missed anything. It’s been awhile since I last posted. A steady income without having to work would go a long way towards getting me out of blogging retirement! 🙂
hey steve. could you describe your steamer… I can only see a small picture and no description on this site. thanks
Hi George,
The hand-held steamer I use is the SteamFast SF-227, although I would imagine that any hand-held steamer with a small nozzle could be used.
Hey Steve. Well I purchased a full sized stainless stell serving pan and 3/4 inch oven stones. I did a 20 minute autlolysis befoe adding salt that I dissolved in a couple of tablespoons of water from the recipe. ( I thought it would incorporate into the dough better. I also added a short folding after 1 1/2 ferment and another 30 minute to get the right consistency. I am spraying water into the pan after the bread is placed on the stones. The bread turned out great with a nice “open” crumb that I have been striving for. The only thing that is lacking is a nice “ear” to the grigne. It opens up nice but I don’t get that raised edge at all. Is it possible that I am using too much water. The bread practically doubles in size from baking alone.
Steve. after reading my above note to you. I’m surprised that it would make any sense to you. I did not use a steamer. I just gave the bread a healthy spray of water. before putting the lid on. Also the second batch I made I thought that I wasn”t deep enough with my cuts. Instead of a double edge razor I actually used a scissors. This gave me a much larger opening which is appealing but I still can not obtain that nice “ear” on the grigne.
Hi George,
A number of factors contribute to the way in which a grigne opens. These include the level of dough hydration, dough development, tightness of shaping, correct level of final proofing, scoring technique, etc. I would suggest staying with a double-edged razor as a scoring tool. If you can’t get a good grigne with the razor, then you may want to try varying some of the parameters mentioned above.
[…] feel and smell and behave like they ought to. Just missing a bit of bubbles. Recipe is from here, Baguettes with poolish. Gotta keep […]
hi steve,
i am a novice baker and going through your recipes make me both hopeful, inspired and excited to bake again. i’ve stopped making bread recently as i was quite discouraged with the results of having the base of the loaves being dense and chewy instead of light and fluffy (for breads like raisin, cheese and herb loaves).
would appreciate it if you can help answer some questions.
1. can i use boiling water in a tray as a steamer if i dont have a hand-held steamer?
2. this is a dumb question – how would i transfer the proofed loaves from the couche to the oven? and would the baking be done on a granite sab?
3. how would i know what is the right way to knead dough and when it’s proofed enough?
sorry for the slew of questions but i am quite determined to be good at baking bread at home so that my family doesn’t need to eat store bought ones all the time.
thank you!
Janey, I have been experimenting with making baguettes at home now for almost a year. I have found 3 items that I think are helpful for making a great baguette. I would not use granite stones. Purchase legitimate oven stones. I use 4 tiles that I slide together. 2nd I use a “super peel” ( superpeel.com) this transfers the bread dough very easily to the oven with no mess. ( Also can use to slide pizza into oven) I put the dough on a strip of parchment paper and after the final rise, slide it on the peel and then slide it onto the stones. 3rd. I have a large metal buffet serving pan that fits over the stones and is deep enough to allow the bread to rise. I then just use a spray bottle and spray under this pan. It will hold the steam in. I have heard that spraying directly into your oven may damage the oven. This confines the steam to under the pan.
Good Luck
Hi Janey,
Addressing your questions in turn:
1) Any steaming method that envelopes your loaves with steam for the first few minutes of baking can be used. I happen to use the ‘inverted hotel pan with hand-steamer’ method because my gas-fueled oven is vented and doesn’t hold steam very well (the inverted hotel pan serves to trap the steam around my loaves). If your oven is sealed well enough to trap steam and not vent it (and if your oven’s electronic controls won’t short out due to the presence of steam), then splashing hot water into a simple steaming tray should work fine.
2) I make use of a SuperPeel to perform the transfer. A video of the procedure can be found here. If you do not already have one, I would suggest getting a baking stone with a minimum of 1/2″ thickness. If you already have a granite slab to fit your oven, then I would give it a try. Some people have claimed success in using granite for a baking surface.
3) There are a number of different ways to knead bread dough. Try experimenting to see which one is right for you. This video should get you started. Regarding proofing times, I would first start with a known recipe with a given proofing temperature and time. With practice, you’ll begin to be able to tell by changes in the dough when the dough has sufficiently proofed (hint, it doesn’t always have to do with volume increase).
hi steve,
wow! that’s all i could say for a few minutes after i read your advice and the video of how you transferred bread into the oven. i want one SuperPeel myself! haha. i may be able to rustle up a cover for the steaming part but it doesn’t have the opening like the one in your video for the water. i read somewhere that it is possible to use the steam from the bread dough itself to do the steaming? or should i place a small container or hot water within the cover together with the dough as well?
i have a bread peel that i use for transferring pizzas onto the granite slab but always have a problem of the dough sticking to the peel and destroying the structure and often having a collapsed loaf 🙁 even when i sprinkle an abundance of flour on the peel beforehand. i was thinking if i should place the dough on a liberally dusted parchment paper before placing it on the peel first? in your opinion would that help? apologies for all the questions but looking at your website, recipes and videos, i am so inspired to bake bread again 🙂 in fact, i am attempting the focaccia loaf that you have posted with the poolish sitting in the fridge now 🙂
thank you!
janey
Janey…. Use corn meal not flour if you want to slide dough off your peel. They are like little “ball bearings” If you use parchment paper you do not need to use flour or corn meal. I just cut a thin strip of parchment and put the dough on it for the final proof. Then just lift the parchment onto the peel. Slide the parchment/dough right onto your stone. No need to remove the parchment until after backing
Used your recipe, on first did not use manual just my kitchenaid ,was tasteful but some minor big hole ,did put less salt due to my outdated yeast from 2009,on the next batch added more salt and rad all your post. started mixing manual than mixer and back to manual, they exploded tried your folding tech with a new twist ,as i spread before folding i stretch the dough to a breaking point creating more space for air to be entrap. Did not use steam just a sprayer but i added hickory smoke flavor to the water to give an effect of wood stove it work. Tks for all the information you provided so far the most accurate result to my holey crusade
Janey,
The small hole near the top of the inverted hotel pan was made using a simple electric hand drill. If you use a small enough cover over your bread such that the the dough fills most of the volume of the inverted cover, then the moisture released by the loaf while it bakes should be sufficient to allow for maximum oven spring. In that case. additional steam should not need to be introduced.
As George mentioned, transfer of your loaves to the oven can be accomplished by a couple of methods:
1) You can proof your loaves on a parchment paper-covered oven peel or inverted cookie tray. After proofing, the parchment paper/loaf combination can then be slid directly onto your baking stone or
2) Using a transfer peel (shown in the video mentioned above), you can transfer the proofed loaves to an oven peel liberally sprinkled with corn meal. The corn meal will prevent the loaves from sticking to the oven peel and allow for easy placement of the loaves onto your baking stone. Eventually, after you gain proficiency with this method, you’ll find that you can substitute regular flour for the cornmeal.
Hi Mario,
I think you’ll find that it is easier to obtain a more open crumb structure through hand mixing than through the use of a KitchenAid mixer (although it does take a bit more time and energy!).
thanks for all the information and advice, Steve! thanks George too!
i made a loaf of focaccia with your recipe and it worked beautifully, definitely one of the best results i have ever achieved since i baked my first loaf. thank you for being so patient with the questions.
will attempt more bread recipes and hopefully i have good results to report back 🙂
Hello, i am new to this website and have tried to get in touch with the oracle, Steve. when trying this i am unable to send the information as there is a box that says 1 + 1? Not sure what to put in this as without the correct information my message will not send. says something like incorrect response to challenge? Any ideas.
Much appreciated if any light could be shed on this,
Thanks
Ah, i see this is the way to message, oops!
Great blog! The Baguettes on this page, and the Pain de Beaucaire turned out just fabulous. Thanks much for sharing your recipes and techniques.
In the middle of making the baguettes with poolish, I made the poolish yesterday and it sat in my fridge overnight. I was wondering if that was an error in the ingredients listed for the final dough – 5.4 oz flour and 10.6 oz water? I followed this exactly and mixed the poolish with the final dough ingredients but my bread dough is runny now that is sitting fermenting. Any feedback will be appreciated! Thank you for your great website, I am a rookie at bread making but love to make bread.