And, to add insult to injury I was left with 8 loaves of ciabatta that looked nothing like the intended baguettes. What a disaster.
As ever the original recipe can be found on the BBC Food website here, but it's also below with my notes and photographs.
For a full disclaimer, I made this recipe twice. The first time - the one I should be judged on - ended up being ciabatta and 100% didn't fulfil the criteria required for the challenge. However, I didn't like the thought of being beaten by Paul Hollywood so tried again, solely for my own peace of mind, and I failed... again...
Note to self: baguettes are the worst.*
*not really. I just have no intention of trying to bake them ever again!
Ingredients:
Olive oil, for greasing
500g/1lb 2oz strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
10g/¼ oz salt
10g/¼ oz fast-action yeast
370ml/13fl oz cool water
Method:
Lightly oil a 2¼ litre/4 pint square plastic container with olive oil. Apparently it’s important to use a square tub as it helps to shape the dough. I bought mine for the ciabatta challenge last year from Asda for £2, and I imagine it will still be relatively easy to find now.
Put the flour, salt and yeast into the bowl of a freestanding mixer fitted with a dough hook. Make sure you don’t put the salt directly on top of the yeast too: I like to separate mine with a well of water.
Add three-quarters of the water and begin mixing on a slow speed. As the dough starts to come together, slowly add the remaining water, then continue to mix on a medium speed for 5-7 minutes, until you have a glossy, elastic dough.
Tip the dough into the prepared tub.
Cover and leave for 1 hour, or until at least doubled in size.
Dredge a linen couche with flour and lightly dust the work surface with flour. I didn't have a linen couch, or even know where on earth you could buy one from on short notice so I panic bought this baguette tray from Amazon. I'd have preferred to buy the Lakeland one but as it only accounted for 3 baguettes I didn't think that would be such a good purchase!
Carefully tip the dough onto the work surface. Rather than knocking it back, handle it gently so you can keep as much air in the dough as possible. This helps to create the irregular, airy texture of a really good baguette. The dough will be wet to the touch but still lively (what an odd description!).
Divide the dough into 4 pieces.
I LOVE THIS TOOL. Lakeland's dough scraper is worth every penny and is such a useful piece of baking equipment: if you fancy making baguettes or something similar then I'd wholeheartedly recommend investing!
Shape each piece into an oblong by flattening the dough out slightly and folding the sides into the middle. I copied Flora here on the show (still on iPlayer here) and sort of pinched the seam together. This picture is from my first attempt, but when I tried again I made sure I tucked the other sides in too for a neater finish.
Then roll each up into a sausage – the top should be smooth with the join running along the length of the base. Now, beginning in the middle, roll each sausage with your hands. Don’t force it out by pressing heavily. Concentrate on the backwards and forwards movement and gently use the weight of your arms to roll out the dough to 30cm/12in long.
If using a linen couche, lay a baguette along the edge and pleat the couche up against the edge of the baguette. Place another baguette next to the pleat. Repeat the process until all 4 baguettes are lined up against each other with a pleat between each. Or - like me - just place them on the tray.
Cover the baguettes with a clean tea towel and leave for 1 hour, or until the dough has at least doubled in size and springs back quickly if you prod it lightly with your finger.
I reached this stage identically with both attempts. However, the first time my dough didn't rise properly at all by the time I needed to put it int he oven, and the second time (pictured below) it rose enormously only to then shrink in the oven. I don't understand!
Preheat the oven to 240C/220C Fan/Gas 9 and put a roasting tray in the bottom of the oven to heat up. When the baguettes are risen, remove them from the couche and dust lightly with flour. Slash each one 4 times along its length on the diagonal, using a razor blade or a very sharp knife. Transfer to a large baking tray. Fill the heated roasting tray with hot water, to create steam, and put the bread into the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the baguettes are golden-brown and have a slight sheen.
Cool on a wire rack, and then serve.
For full disclosure, this is my first attempt:
They're barely risen and totally flat.
The texture was also totally wrong: while I had a solid crust on the outside, the inside was chewy, the air pockets were enormous and it definitely looked nothing like a baguette!
Take Two:
They may not look much different from above, but I promise they're a huge improvement! These ones turned out twice as deep but still didn't come close to almost bursting at the seams along the four slashes.
Admittedly, they don't look particularly well risen here, but they weren't too bad I promise... The crust was crunchy, the inside was soft, and they definitely weren't raw in the middle which is a bonus!
The texture was a million times better too. The structure was much tighter, and it actually tasted like a baguette even if it didn't exactly look like one.
Safe to say, I won't be attempting baguettes again in the near future, and I can thank my lucky stars that I didn't have to present these to Mary Berry!
Have you tried making baguettes before? Any advice on why mine didn't rise properly would be much appreciated: as annoying as it is, and as much as I'd love to sweep this under the carpet and forget it ever happened, I think it'd do me good to work out exactly where I went wrong. After all, I'm never going to develop as a baker if I don't push myself, do my research and keep striving to be better than I was yesterday.
Do let me know if you try these out: I'd love to see other people's attempts too!
[N.B. this post contains affiliate links to Lakeland products.]
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