I've been working on baguettes and similar white-flour based French
breads. Oh, there are so many fabulous photos and incredibly detailed
recipes online. You can almost hear the crust crackle right off the
web shots.

Here are a couple of them:

http://www.chewswise.com/chews/bague...tz-recipe.html

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/162...uette-formulas

So, I have been going against my usual free-wheeling baking and
playing with (gasp) weights and recipes (There! I've said it!) and
been unhappy with the results. Why I have not been successful, I am
not sure, unless these two particular recipes that I have been playing
with are, themselves, flawed in some way that my gram-challenged mind
just does not see.

Ok, I said to hell with it this weekend and just made dough in my
usual way...my sight and touch. As both of the above recipes called
for, I used both a well-refreshed starter/levain and yeast. I happened
to have fresh yeast in the house (thank you, Bread Faeries) and used
that. I mixed the levain, yeast, flour, water and salt in the Kenwood
with the dough hook a bit, then plopped it into a large bowl and did a
few stretch and folds over the course of an hour. Then into the fridge
overnight.

This was a relatively high hydration dough. It could not be handled
without oiling, flouring or moistening the hands or cradling it with
flour on the mat. Messy, but shapeable. 65% - 70%, I'd say.

I got goofy and carried away in all the shaping, though. I say this,
as I injudiciously made long thin loaves for the most part,
necessitating that they go at an angle on the baking stone. Only two
fit at a time. Damn shame I wasn't thinking well enough in advance to
have tucked some of the loaves back into the fridge. No real harm done
other than my slashes did not blossom out as fully as I would have
liked on some of the later loaves. And that damn oven just wasn't wide
enough and a few loaves have an interesting curve or two.

Oh, I also made a couronne and a couple of epis - never played with
those before.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2564880...7623433991586/

Boron