Much Improved!

Last week's kids-size baguettes have given way to larger adult-size baguettes this week. After getting back late from a BBQ late on Friday night, I spent 30 minutes at 1am mixing and kneading some dough using the same recipe as last week. Except this time I increased the flour base to 425g (ratios for the other ingredients were the same, except for an extra 1-2g yeast) and also spent ~10 extra minutes kneading, which passed quickly given that there as much more fermented product (beer) in my stomach than in the dough. As before, I covered the dough with plastic wrap and tucked it away in the fridge for the night.

On Saturday, I removed the dough from the fridge at 12.45pm before heading to a late lunch, gave it 4 hours to rise (vs. 3 hrs last week), shaped it into 2 baguettes (vs. 3 last week) and then baked them at 4.45pm. The other adjustment I made was to pre-heat the pizza / baking stone for longer, which seemed to solve the problem of having the dough retain too much moisture on the bottom (there was still some moisture, but much less than last time). The combination of the longer first rise time and the extra heat also seemed to result in a better oven rise. The finished product was highly satisfactory.

Dough part-way into first rise

Shaping into baguettes. Gentle!

Finished product cooling.

Delicious bread with nice air pockets.