First I think I am quite entitled to doubt whether there is such a
thing as a 100% sourdough baguette, certainly historically there isn't

check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baguette and any other google for
baguette history, though its quite possible that early baguette, at
beginning of 20thC was often made with some addition of SD either
like Vince's or as rotten dough since for a while commercial yeast
was expensive and also even then French public reacted against lack of
flavour of 100% commercial yeast bread

Of course you can make whatever bread you fancy, it you like it fine,
but don't call it 'baguette' if only common thing with this 'type' of
bread is vague shape and/or cut. Nobody is talking about following
exact recipes, there is clearly no one exact recipe for baguette, most
'artisanal' bakers in France nowadays offer at least two different
baguette (cheap and not so cheap 'baguette a la tradition' which is
defined by law in France) - sometimes many more. The point is these
will all be variations on the 'type' which is more than just shape.
The same applies to many other established 'type', caibatta, sangak
bread from Iran http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIfpsxRk_-4 (baked on
gravel) or any classic food or dish, there are things you can vary and
there are others you can't - or else you just say I made a nice bread
which I like, I might even have started from so and so type but where
I have arrived now isn't that 'type' any more.


Mike
Some bread photos:http://www.mikeromain.shutterfly.com

on the question of baguette cut. I never saw recipe with cuts across
the length of baguette (with scissors) unless you are referring to
fancy cuts such as epi or this one like crocodile's back. Surely the
usual point of any slash on loaf is to allow the 'muscle' you have
shaped into the loaf to expand, pump up freely and in nice even
fashion. To do that you cut along or diagonally to the direction of
the fibres of the muscle (to follow the analogy), effectively you are
dissecting off the skin the same way an anatomical demo would go, not
chop the muscle into little bits across its main fibre direction.

On your pics Mike. I think a baguette crust should when fresh be
first predominantly crunchy, crispy rather than chewy as you says
yours is. Looking at your pics I see that the edge of slashes are
rounded which tells me either you are using a flour too strong for the
'type' and/or you are using too much steam. I have seen the same
effect both in my own bread and commercially when people try to make
baguette with hard spring wheat, Canadian or whatever. Personally I
found in order to avoid this I had take foil covering off my baking
tray after 12 minutes as opposed to 30 minutes with a French flour.
Also from the way slashes look like wounds to me rather than a
liberation of the internal force of loaf that maybe they are over-
proofed? Whether a good approximation of French flour can be obtained
simply by using a mixture of a hard/strong flour and plain I am not
sure, I tend to think really also nature of gluten can be different,
even I have baked with English grown French variety wheat and result
is not the same - but I guess you have to go with what you have
available ...

yours
Andy Forbes

ps
I agree with Vince that short of tasting each others loaves, pics are
good - if people are here genuinely on this list to learn more and
improve their own baking, not just squabble