This has been a labor of love over many years, but it's finally starting to come together! I've found the Respectus Panis method to be incredible in terms of both flavor and general approach (room temp bulk, long fermentation, and lower salt). Always looking to improve — any feedback would be super helpful.
The resulting baguettes have a deeply caramelized crisp crust, tender airy crumb with open/wild alveoli, a creamy color, and a complex lightly tangy wheat flavor from the long fermentation. The 200g size is also great for making sandwiches or cutting in half and toasting for tartines.
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Demi Baguette de Tradition recipe (makes 16 @ 200g each):
- 2.2g Whole wheat 50/50 Active Levain
- 1305g Water (filtered, cold)
- 0.13g Yeast (instant, 4g/tsp)
( – – swish levain/water/yeast to combine – – )
- 1419g Organic Bread Flour (12.7-14.1% protein)
- 473g Organic T80-T90 Flour
- 26g Kosher Salt (1.35% of flour weight)
Mix all together by hand (no need for autolyse with such a long bulk), then rest an hour and give it a stretch-and-fold or two to develop the dough.
Total bulk resting time is 20 hours at room temp (70°F).
Then divide into 200g portions, bench rest ~15 minutes, knock out any large bubbles, roll/shape into demi baguette (14-16" long), and immediately place onto loader.
Oven should be fully preheated until baking stones reach 525°F.
Before loading into the oven, slash 3 times with a lame/razor (at a low angle to encourage grigne/ears).
Bake at 525°F w/ steam for 12 min, then open door for about 3 seconds (to vent steam), and change to 575°F+Fan for 4-6 min (to develop the crust via Maillard reaction).
Cool 30+ min on a rack before serving/bagging (must be < 100°F to limit any chance of condensation).
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This recipe is for 70°F ambient temperature. If your kitchen is cooler/warmer, you'll want to increase/decrease your levain and yeast accordingly (+/-15% for -/+4°F).
And yes, it really does use such tiny amounts of levain and yeast! I actually use a milligram scale to measure the yeast because it's important to get just the right amount for such a long room-temp bulk. And for what it's worth, this bread still falls well within the "pain au levain" definition, since it has much less than 0.2% of flour weight as yeast (only 0.007%).
From experimentation I've flour that the combination of bread flour and T80-T90 flour (at a 75:25 ratio) comes very close to approximating the flavor/ash of a French T65 flour. You can of course substitute with different flours, but will likely need to also adjust the hydration to match.
I've been selling these baguette locally (via PALM bread / Le Phare) for a few months now, but seems like I learn something new every week. I've been inspired by lots of bakes on Breadit and appreciate all of the discussion to help bakers improve their craft. Hope this can nudge some more bakers to give scaling up a try.
Happy baking!
by akumpf
16 Comments
They look fantastic. And fitting 16 in one go is amazing. It’s the multiple bakes that kills it for me, when I bake big.
Wow zero proofing after final shaping. I’ve never heard of that with baguettes but you can’t argue with the results. Those things are gorgeous and honestly I bet this recipe would be a lot easier to follow for most baguette bakers. I think a lot of people overproof their baguettes after final shaping based on what I see on here. Thanks for sharing the results!
I’m by no means an expert, but the amount of salt seems low – although you have no doubt experimented with that as well. The shaping could be a little bit more consistent, but other than that it looks fantastic.
Hi, thanks for sharing. The bread looks very nice to me. If you are willing, can you share some more details about your oven setup and those loaders? How do they work? Thanks.
These look incredible! What do you dust with to get that flour residue after baking? My loaves always come out all brown with no leftover flour or dusting for some reason.
They look great. Maybe a very slight improvement yiu could do is scoring at an even lower angle (e.g. almost parallel to the baguette, they might spring even more
Greattttt job! The only other input — and this is a minor, minor point — I can give is that the scoring needs less angle from the vertical middle point for the uniform bulbous ovenspring to be centred on the top of the loaf. I’m not explaining this well, I know!
Nice!
Those look great! I’ve been struggling with volume in my bakes because 1 dutch oven means 1 loaf at a time. I want to use stones, but I’m not sure how best to set it up. Do I go full width, or is that going to ruin the air circulation? Do I do steel or stone? How thick?
Can I get more info about your oven setup?
These look absolutely fantastic!! Well done!
Have you tried not using commercial yeast (only natural levain)?
What oven do you have that goes up to 575F? Any tips for ovens that top out at 550F?
Whoa these look award winning!
That crumb is crazy good!! Amazing job
You need to work on being able to send us loaves via the Internet, those look great!
Looks amazing. Is 2.2g of levain and 0.13g yeast right? How do you measure that?
These look fabulous!
Given that you mention having changed many variables, what were your results for omitting the dried yeast and relying entirely on the levain?
I produce something superficially similar (though not baguettes; I shape into 130g batards for use as rolls) using only my starter, and my fermenting and baking times are largely similar.
You need butter and my presence to consume as many as I can