16 % Whole Multi-grain SD Baguettes – txfarmer’s Method only 40 Hours

It has been a while since we did our Hemp Bag take on Empress Ying’s 36 hour baguettes. The last time the hemp seeds made for some pretty dopey baking according to Hanseata. She is rarely wrong when it comes to seeds and especially ….eeerrrr…. baking with them. They were delicious baguettes but lacked full depth of flavor and tasty character of a bread that has at least 15% whole grains in it.

Luckily EY (Empress Ying) has already set the standard for multi-grain baguettes here like she has for 36 hour baguettes galaxy wide here: They are terrific!

http://weightloss-slim.fit/node/21809/36-hours-sourdough-baguette-increased-whole-grain-how-much-too-much#comment-230831%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3E%C2%A0Of course I didn't find her perfect post until after my bake was done so all of the good things I learned from it were not used :-) Her experiment starts at 20% whole grain and moves up to 40% and she increases her hydration as the whole grain rise with 80% hydro for her 20% whole grain version.

I kept my hydration at 75% for this 16% version but would have used 78% had I thought properly even without her post. I know it sounds like a lot to expect from a doofus like me but my apprentice has been testy of late and asleep at the oven much of the time.

My whole grains were different than txfarmer’s too. We used spelt, rye and whole wheat. Our 36 hours was different than hers too and wasn't even 36 hours either. We just can’t seem to stick to any kind of schedule since we retired. Instead of a 12 hour autolyse, we did a 6 hour room temperature one with the salt.

After the mix of levain and autolyse came together, we did 8 minutes of French slap and folds because my apprentice loves the sound of the dough smacking the marble - makes her go insane and start barking very loudly until things quiet down. After a 15 minute rest we continued on with (3) S&F’s every 30 minutes for the next hour and a half. We allowed the dough to ferment for an hour before we retarded it for 20 hours instead of 24. We then took it out of the fridge with the intent of baking it but after 1 hour of warm up, pre-shape, final shape (16” long) and into a rice floured basket for final proof, we only let it proof for an hour and then chucked it into a plastic trash can liner and into the fridge for another 14 hours of retard.

EY said that she thought it could stand some more hours of retard and Ian just gave it 30 so we though a total of 34 hours of retard instead of 24 might be OK if the bread gods were too drunk on godliness to notice.

After the 2nd retard was done we let the dough, still inside the trash can liner sit on the counter for 3 hours before firing up Old Betsy at 500 F for a 45 minute pre-heat with 2 of Sylvia’s steaming bread pans on the bottom rack with the stone on the rack above.

The baguettes were upturned onto the parchment lined peel, poorly slashed 4 times each, this type of massacre should be illegal by the way, and slid onto the stone with a ½ cup of water thrown into the bottom of the oven as we closed to door to make sure the steam was maximized. We immediately turned the oven down to 450 F and let the bread steam for 10 minutes.

The steam was removed, the oven turned down to 425 F convection this time, and the baguettes were baked for another 15 minutes. The baguettes were turned 180 degrees every 5 minutes for the last 15 minutes to make sure they baked evenly.

When we test them for temperature they were already at 210 F so we took then out of the oven and put them on the cooling rack. They were very crispy (and stayed that way), blistered, nicely browned and we could hold them up by the ears – well at least 1 of the 2 we could. The slashing was still primitive - practice isn't helping much - but no giving up is allowed :-)

What surprised us was the crumb was not as open as we wanted and thought we would get after our last baguette bake and the even our last boule bake for that matter. Well you can’t have everything, every time like Empresses do unless you know what you are doing and do it :-) Maybe starting off with 8 minutes of French Slap and folds was not the right thing to do.

Do you think it would help if we followed txfarmer’s directions exactly? Possibly! Well, tell that to my apprentice!These baguettes do taste great, much better than plain white ones or even ones with hemp seeds in them with our taste buds. Can’t wait to have some bruschetta tonight.

16% Whole Multi-grain Baguettes

Starter	Build 1	%
Rye Sour Starter	15	3.75%
Rye	10	2.50%
WW	10	2.50%
AP	50	12.50%
Spelt	10	2.50%
Water	80	20.00%
Total Starter	175	43.75%

Total Starter
Hydration	100.00%
Levain % of Total	20.40%

Dough Flour		%
AP	360	90.00%
Whole Spelt	13	3.25%
Dark Rye	14	3.50%
Whole Wheat	13	3.25%
Dough Flour	400	100.00%

Salt	8	2.00%
Water	275	68.75%
Dough Hydration	68.75%

Total Flour	487.5
Water	362.5
T. Dough Hydration	74.36%
Whole Grain %	15.90%

Total Weight	858

dabrownman's Blog
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Hey you may not have gotten the maximum open crumb but with so much whole grains I think you achieved a very nice crumb and as you said they taste great. Nice baking. I bet if you try this one again and ajust slightly you will get the perfect crumb. It took me 4 tries to get it and that's with AP flour so I would not mind these results with your mixture at all. I was planning on trying to add some whole grains into my next baguette bake. I just received my flipping board and my new couche so I will try again next week I'm sure.

Great job as usual. Enjoy.....Cosmo is dreaming of Limoncello baguettes as I write this....

Regards,
Ian

holes txfarmer got with 40% whole grain? Amazing holes! She is the master. Next time I will follow her formula and method exactly - if that is possible :-) You know how much I like simple recipes when it comes to food - especially bread! I thought for sure with a 20 and a 14 hour retards this bread would have risen as much as could - so we suppose it did.

Hopefully you will find a decent limoncello to make Cosmo happy! He deserves it! Only you would even think about putting it in baggies :-) I'm having a Diet Squirt with a decent limoncello mixed in right now in fact. It was hot today again.

Got topping for the bruschetta marinating in the frige. I hope the retard time woks out better for this concoction - I'm pretty hungry and would not like two food failures in one day. I might have to have another Squirty limincello otherwise.

Thanks for your kind remarks.

As I said it took me 4 tries to get her baguette recipe down so don't give up hope. The first time I made it I dropped a baguette off the tray onto the oven floor....needless to say the cats learned some foul language that day.

The challah I'm mixing up now is very wet....I figured when I added the shredded coconut it would absorb a lot of the coconut water, but doesn't seem to have mattered much.

Should be interesting to see how this one bakes up tomorrow.

coconut is very old and dry like mine, It won't suck up much water because it is full of coconut oil that repels water. You will have a wet dough after the bake maybe :-)

That does make sense, but the last time I tried using coconut flour, coconut milk and shredded coconut it ended up too dry and dense. This is coconut water and just a little coconut shreds and is extremely wet.

I am going to try and bake this in a bundt pan so we will see what happens tomorrow.

And...I like those baguette baskets! Those are cool.

extra large 16" long batard basket we got at Goodwill for a buck on dollar Thursdays. We also use fit or baguettes by putting one baggie on one side of the bottom, putting a floured towel in to separate it from the next one and then loading in the other baguette next to it. It holds two baggies that are just the right size and are exactly the largest length our stone can handle. We love it for its multi use capability.

Hehehehe.... (expressing laughter in written words doesn't work), you are hilarious, DA!

those baguettes are beauties, DA! as to open crumb, yes, it is crucial to follow Txfarmer's method to the letter. furthermore, baguette shaping that is adopted by Txfarmer is a very gentle, tuck and seal kind of shaping, not the conventional method used commonly. her shaped and proofed baguettes are so slack and bubbly, you'd wonder how they would end up as baguettes, but they do.

Next time, and there will be a next time, we will up the hydration to 80% and the whole grains to to 20% like Empress Ying does and follow her methods carefully. I used the standard Hammelman KAF baguette shaping (that took me forever to get somewhat close to what it is supposed to be) and now you want me to learn a gentle, tuck and fold technique with no Royal video to learn from and follow? I think that is cruel and unusual punishment and I don't see how that will help my slashing much either :-) I'm moving up to longer bladed Japanese Samurai Steel for a cleaner, deeper cut if I don't lose a finger in the process :-)

Wondering how they would end up as baguettes is the same way I felt when making Pierre Nury's Rustic Light Rye. You stretch them out and just let them plop on the parchment any which way and in the oven they go - no slashing. They puff up beautiful in the oven - if you follow the directions. Next time we will get better holes or maybe the time after that.

Thanks for the hints Khalid