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I can’t find the “Challenger Bread Pan” on your site
Sorry for the confusion - that pan can be purchased from the manufacturer, Challenger Breadware.
I also bake baguettes, pita bread, pizza, ciabatta, bagels & more on this fibrament pizza stone (15x20):
Here’s a photo of a pizza-stone baguette bake:
I plan on making this recipe this week. I don’t have yecora rojo but do have: hard red, hard white, turkey red, red fife, spelt, emmer, einkorn and rye. Any suggestions on which might be a good substitute? Thanks!
Yum!
I’d avoid the last three (emmer, einkorn and rye) to approximate the gluten strength of yecora rojo. Maybe skip spelt too, at least for your first go at the recipe. I could see the baguettes stretching wildly during the transfer to the couche or the oven, from just 20% spelt.
That all makes sense. So among the other four wheats, any one in particular for flavor and gluten strength? (It does make me want to get some yecora rojo!)
I think any of those would work well. Hard red spring wheat has the strongest gluten of the four, but I’ve had good results with warthog even, which is probably weaker than any in that group.
I used it when doing a little experiment looking at the impact of shape on the openness of baguette crumb. I used the exact same dough to make two demis and one batard, and baked everything at once. The tube shape of a baguette doesn’t have a heavy center area and heat penetrates the center of a baguette much quicker, which seems to mean airier crumb. Open the post and swipe to see crumb photos.
I thought I had overproofed the dough on these baguettes as it was very fragile, thin and stretchy with no bounce-back, and hard to shape. But to my surprise they looked and tasted great! The chewy texture is exactly what I like in a baguette. I ended up using 15% red fife and 85% bread flour (~13% protein). I had to retard the bulk fermentation overnight so the bulk was much longer than the recipe. I will definitely do these again. Thanks for the recipe!
Those look great! And I love when dough seems sad and then comes out awesome.
How does one determine the “puffy and aerated” proof described in this recipe?
I find proofing one of the hardest things to judge.
I substituted whole wheat and some einkorn for the Yecora Rojo.
Nice taste but denser crumb than others.
Thanks.
Is there any reason the bulk fermentation (after the stretches) couldn’t be done overnight in the fridge? I’m trying to figure out a schedule for this!
I think that would be fine. I prefer a room temp final proof just because of fridge space/large tray, but I’m sure I’ve refrigerated baguette dough during the bulk fermentation and enjoyed the results.
We love those baguettes and has become our go to. Last night I made them a little smaller (230gr each) and turned them into shrimp and catfish poboys - they were soooo guuuuud
Woah, what a dinner! Those po-boys look amazing. Fantastic crumb on the baguettes too.
The recipe above has been updated to include Hearth Baker instructions and a short video of the entire demi baguette process.
Preheat the Hearth Baker to 500°F for 30 minutes.
Flip two demi baguettes onto pre-cut parchment paper, score, and slide (using a peel or upside down baking sheet) everything onto the hot base of the baker.
Bake 15 minutes lid on and 5 minutes lid off (longer if you want them darker).
Thank you Melissa.
Great use of the hearth baker simplifying the steam component of baking baguettes quite a lot.
HI - if I need to bake them at about noon but don’t want to get up at like 4am, would it be ok to mix the dough the afternoon before and let maybe sit 2hrs at room temp and then put in the fridge overnight and continue a couple hours at room temp in the morning? has anyone tried that?
Absolutely, the refrigerator is your friend in breadmaking and sleeping. The precise timing is by feel and experience – sometimes you refrigerate a dough and find it takes many hours to warm up and start rising again the next day, and other times you find the dough rose really high in the cold refrigerator. This all depends on what stage in the first rise you put the dough in the refrigerator, how warm the dough was, how cold your refrigerator is, and what kind of dough you have (a wet whole wheat lean dough rises much faster than a dry white flour dough with butter and eggs).
Thanks much - I’ll give it a try!
