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A Sourdough Riff on Baguettes de Tradition

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When I’m pinched for time and want baguettes, I turn to Baguettes de Tradition that are a same-day baguette that I learned how to make a few years ago from reading Jeffrey Hamelman’s book, “Bread.” This simple baguette recipe only requires a few hours from mix to bake and is perfect for when I want baguettes for dinner. My only complaint about these is that since they’re baked on the same day, they don’t have nearly the amount of flavor as when I use the Pointage en Bac method of slow rising the dough overnight. Still, they’re perfect for dipping or using as sandwhich loaves.

This afternoon I was trying to figure out what I wanted for dinner and remembered that I had some BBQ pulled pork in the freezer, then realized that I didn’t have any sandwich loaves. Not that I needed an excuse to bake some bread, I thought I’d make some baguettes.

At first, I was going to make Baguettes de Tradition, but then I also remembered the starter in my fridge and that I had just fed it a few days ago! So, I pulled it out and it looked like it had peaked, but only recently. What luck! I was excited because I knew that the starter would add tons of flavor to the dough! And yes, I used it right out of the fridge but dissolved it in 90°F to wake it up. Here’s the formula and recipe:

Formula

Flour100.00%
Water76%
Salt2.00%
Yeast0.25%
Total %177.33%

Final Dough

Bread Flour154g
Kamut Flour205g
AP Flour564g
Water666g
Salt21g
Yeast2g
Unfed Starter (weight is 20% of the total flour)205g
Total Yield1818
6 X 300g Baguettes

It can be a little dicey using unfed starter. My experience is that it should not be so old where it smells cheesy and sour. At that point, it’s very acidic and the bacteria have essentially taken over. A telltale is that’s it’s fine to use if the level of the starter in my container is still well above the original line and hasn’t subsided all the way back and the starter itself is still bubbly. That means there’s still plenty of yeast activity.

I used a flour blend that was as follows:

Flour from the starter10.00%
Bread Flour15.00%
Kamut Flour20.00%
AP Flour55.00%
Total %100.00%

I used a tiny bit of commercial yeast to boost the yeast activity as I want to favor rising. With the amount of starter I use, there’s going to be plenty of flavor. But you can certainly skip it.

Using a sourdough starter alters my normal process for Baguette de Tradition because I follow the Tartine Basic Country Loaf process which includes a fermentolyse and a bassinage when I add the salt. Here’s the process:

Mix. Sift then thoroughly mix the flour in a large bowl and set aside. In another bowl, measure out the starter then add all but 50g of water and break up the starter till it’s completely dissolved. If you’re using starter fresh out of the fridge, make sure the water temperature is warm (85°F-90°F). Mix the flour and the liquid until everything is together and forms a shaggy mass.

Autolyse. Since we’ve included the starter, it’s colloquially called “fermentolyse.” Rest the mixture for 30 minutes to an hour.

Yeast, and Salted Bassinage. Sprinkle the yeast all over the top of the mixture. Dissolve the salt in the reserved water, then pour it over the top of the dough (make sure you use a spatula to get all the salt). Using your hands or a mixer on low spead, fold the new ingredients into the dough until they are fully incorporated.

Bulk Fermentation. You can transfer the dough to another container for bulk fermentation or just let it sit in the mixing bowl. During the first hour, fold the dough three times, every 20 minutes, then let the dough bulk ferment to about 75% expansion. With baguettes, you don’t want to go to double and in fact, you want to bake them just a little short of fully fermented. I know it sounds a little bass-ackwards, but this was a technique I learned about from the baker who won the annual Best Baguette in Paris. He claimed the slightly under-fermented dough springs better in the oven.

To letter-fold, pull sides of the piece and

Divide and Pre-Shape. Once bulk fermentation is complete, pour out the dough onto a lightly flour workspace. Pull it into a rough rectangle, then divide the dough into six even pieces. The recipe here calls for the pieces to be 300g. Letter-fold the pieces and roll them up like a jelly roll. Bench rest for 15 minutes.

Shape and Final Fermentation. Shape the pieces into long logs, then transfer to a couch or baguette pan for final fermentation. Poke test the loaves and if the indent comes up and immediately, it’s too soon. If it comes up slowly, but a small indent remains, then they’re ready to bake.

Bake. Score the baguettes then bake at 450°F. Bake with steam the first 10 minutes, then remove the steaming containers and bake until the crust is a deep golden brown. Mine took about 22 minutes to get to that point.

Cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting. Or you can do the Chad Robertson way and just cut it fresh out of the oven. 🙂

Pain de Campagne: More Than Just Country Bread

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Pain de Campagne or literally “country bread,” originated in France going back to medieval times. Baked in communal ovens and meant to last for several days or even weeks, it was made from a blend of different flour, usually white, wheat, and rye, and always fermented with a natural starter. It was literally the daily bread of common folk.

But with the introduction of commercial yeast, the making of the traditional country bread declined in favor of the convenience commercial yeast brought with it. Baguettes and other types of bread took precedence over the lowly country bread. But in the 1970s, naturally fermented bread saw a renaissance among home bakers, not just in France, but all over the world.

The Tartine Basic Country Loaf formula from “Tartine Bread” by Chad Robertson

Then Chad Robertson published “Tartine Bread” in 2010, and it transformed bread baking across the US, providing the inspiration for both professional and home bakers to return to their roots and rediscover the beauty of artisan bread baking. His in-depth discussion of his Basic Country Loaf (which is simpy Pain de Campagne) captured the care and passion that went into creating a finely crafted loaf of bread.

But at least for me, Tartine Bread wasn’t just a recipe book. It articulated and affirmed a belief I had formulated since I made my first loaf of bread over 40 years ago: that making bread by hand was so much more than mixing ingredients to produce a loaf. It was a lifestyle choice. Like Jeff Spicoli said in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Surfing’s not a sport, it’s a way of life, it’s no hobby.” So it goes with baking artisan bread.

Think about the time and devotion to the task that making even a single loaf requires. Think of the investment of time and resources spent on developing the skills to consistently produce bread. There’s nothing casual about it, even for someone who wants to casually make a loaf or two. I think this is where most people new to baking artisan bread get discouraged. They peruse online forums and read books like “Tartine Bread” and think, “Holy s$%t! That takes dedication. Maybe it’s more than I’m willing – or able – to commit!”

Of course, one can take a casual approach to baking and still make delicious bread. For thirty years, my only aim with baking bread was to create something delicious with little attention paid to aesthetics. My family and friends loved the taste of my bread and that was all that mattered to me. But when I started baking in earnest, I had an archetype in mind that I wanted to aspire to.

And to get to that point meant going down a lot of rabbit holes, experimenting with different techniques and ingredients, taking courses, researching the science behind yeast and bacterial metabolism, and most importantly, baking a lot of bread to hone my skills as a baker. And I realize that I’ve gone off on a tangent. But as the title of this entry says, at least for me, making Pain de Campagne is so much more than just making country bread.

Speaking of experimenting, the beauty of Pain de Campagne lies in its roots where it was produced out of necessity. As I mentioned above, different blends of flour were used, white flour for structure, wheat for taste, and rye to boost fermentation. I have no idea what the ratios were, but I imagine they varied based on what was on hand. Plus, considering that recipes and starters were handed down from generation to generation, I’d imagine that the makeup of the loaves varied considerably from bake to bake. And that variability is why country bread is such a great bread to learn to bake sourdough with. It’s easy to experiment with different things.

One thing I’m experimenting with right now is a technique I learned from a blog post called, “Don’t Be a Bread Hostage” by Martin Philip of King Arthur describing how he used unfed starter – or discard – right out of the fridge as opposed to building a levain. He learned the technique from a friend of his and in this video, says that is how he makes his sourdough at home.

I was a little incredulous about this when I first read it, but it makes a lot of sense. Even if a starter is way past its peak, it doesn’t mean that the yeast has died. It’s just dormant until it’s introduced to a new source of food. Normally we wake up the yeast in a culture by creating a levain, then using the levain at the peak of the yeast’s activity. All we’re doing with a levain is introducing a food source.

When we use a starter right out of the fridge, and mix it into a dough, all we’re doing is introducing the yeast to a new food source. So, instead of waiting for the yeast to wake up and get to peak activity, we just let it wake up within the final dough. What I found with this technique is that bulk fermentation is much slower than if I use a peaked levain – lasting from twelve to sixteen hours. But the advantage of this is that I just mix everything together, do three folds every fifteen minutes in the first forty-five minutes, then let the dough rise until it has doubled.1

Here are the formula and final dough:

Yield: 2 X 1 kilo loaves

Formula

Flour100.00%
Water80%
Salt2.00%

Starter will be 10% of total flour

Final Dough

Bread Flour (I recommend at least 12% protein content)824g
Whole Grain Flour (I use Kamut)220g
Water824g
Salt22g
Unfed Starter110g
Total Yield2000g
2 X 1000g loaves

You can do the calculations above by copying this Google sheet into your own account.

Mix. Mix all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, including the salt. In a separate bowl, dissolve the starter into all the water, then add to the dry ingredients and mix until you form a shaggy mass with no large lumps. If you used a stand mixer mix your dough, transfer the dough to a suitable container.

Bulk Fermentation. Overnight. In the first 45 minutes, do three sets of stretch and folds every fifteen minutes. Don’t freak out when you’re folding the dough, especially with the first set. This is a high-hydration dough. By the third fold, the dough will have developed a lot of strength – you will feel it.2

Divide and Pre-shape. Once the dough has almost doubled (see footnote below), pour it out onto a well-floured work surface. This is a high-hydration dough, so you don’t want it to be sticking. Divide into two equal pieces about a kilogram each and pre-shape into boules. Place the boules seam side down, sprinkle a little flour on top of each, then cover them with a tea towel and let them bench rest for 15-20 minutes.

Shape and Final Fermentation. Shape the boules into whatever shape you want then place them in bannetons. Cover them and put them into the fridge for 8-12 hours. My advice is to check them at six hours to see how they’re progressing. When you do the poke test, the dough shouldn’t spring back too quickly, and the indentation shouldn’t fade all the way.

Bake. Bake at 450°F for 20 minutes with steam (if using a Dutch oven, cook covered for 20 minutes), remove steaming container or uncover if using a Dutch oven, then bake for another 20-25 minutes uncovered or until the crust is a deep golden brown. Personally, I take it to brown as I like a well-caramelized crust. Cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting (though it’s better to let the bread cool for a couple of hours.

  1. In Martin Philip’s video, he mentioned letting the dough double. But if you use a very mature starter, be VERY careful to monitor the progress of your dough because a mature starter is highly acidic, and acid will break down gluten. The first time I used this technique, I let the dough get to double and it was overproofed! Also, he mentioned that he let his dough go for 12 hours. Bear in mind that that’s just a guideline. Expansion is more important. I’ve learned to check at about 8 hours, and I will divide and shape when the dough reaches about 70%-75% expansion just to be safe. ↩︎
  2. If the dough hasn’t done much by the time you wake up, don’t worry. Give it another stretch and fold to move the yeast to a new food source. You will soon see progress. ↩︎

It’s Simple as 1:2:3

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A little overproofed and a bit mishapen due to the loaf being longer than my Dutch oven, but it still turned out great with a nice, fluffy crumb.

When you get into any hobby or craft, it so easy to dive down deep into the minutiae and explore every aspect of the craft down to the nitty-gritty. I can’t tell you how many rabbit holes I’ve gone down in my pursuit of bread baking knowledge. I’ve read countless books, blogs, and academic papers. I’ve experimented with a bunch of different techniqes and even taken classes.

All that knowledge is great and I encourage everyone to learn about different techniques and methods. Even delve into the food science part of it. All it does is help you become a better, more adaptable baker.

And speaking of techniques, I finally tried a technique that I kept forgetting to try, and that’s the 1:2:3 method. Basically, it’s measuring the amount of starter, multiplying that by two to get your water, then multiplying the starter amount by three to get your flour amount. For salt, multiply the flour amount by 1.8% (0.018).

This is what it looks like in real numbers:

Starter165g
Water (2x starter weight)330g
Flour (3x starter weight)495g
Salt9g
Total Loaf Weight999
Assuming you’re using a 100% hydration starter, the recipe above will create a 71% hydration loaf.

BTW, I have a calculator available for this. I know, it’s just 1-2-3, but the cool thing about the calculator is that you can set different starter amounts to achieve the loaf weight you want without having to work it out on paper.

As for processing, we don’t need no stinkin’ processing. Just kidding… Once you have your ingredients measured, throw them all together in a bowl and mix them. That’s right, no autolyse. You can if you want, but it’s really not necessary. I used a stand mixer and mixed until the dough started climbing my hook (about 4 minutes).

Bulk ferment until the dough has expanded about 50%-75%. For me, that took about three hours in an oven with the light on. Fold every hour until the dough has built up strength. It only took two folds for my dough to develop good strength. After that, I gently shaped the loaf (no preshape) into a batard, then put it in a banneton and let it rest overnight. Bake it like you normally would.

That’s the process I used in a nutshell. But honestly you can use whatever method you want. For me, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.

Circling back to education, as I mentioned above, acquiring knowledge makes you better. The more you know, the better you can adapt to different conditions and situations; the better you can recognize and identify issues that may come along. Especially with baking bread, as they say, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and it’s important to at least be aware of the different approaches available.

The reason I’m saying this is because I’ve seen so many folks who’ll latch onto a particular method or technique or belief and become so parochial and dogmatic about it that they close themselves off from learning anything else. But bear in mind that bread has been baked for thousands of years and in all sorts of conditions and environments. Don’t get so fixed on a particular method. Try different things out.

What I love about this 1:2:3 method is its simplicity. I’ve got my own recipes that I just know by heart, but a method like this makes it super-easy for anyone, especially new bakers, to execute. And think about this: You can apply this method with a poolish or biga. Those are just preferments, but prepared in a different way. The link to the calculator I made for this also allows you to specify the hydration of your starter. So, for instance, if you’re using a 75% hydration biga, it’ll calculate the correct amount of salt. You can still use the 1.8%, but the calculator, does it more accurately, considering all the flour that’s used in the recipe and not just the starter X 3.

Here’s Something a Little Different: Brisket-Style Smoked Tri Tip

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Now and then I like to share things I’ve cooked other than bread. But they’re also great to go with bread! This time it’s brisket-style barbecue Tri Tip steak. Tri Tip is predominantly a US West Coast cut, and more specifically, it tends to be a California cut. But if you can find it outside of California, it’s a great cut that can be cooked in a variety of ways.

The traditional way of cooking Tri Tip is over a hardwood pit using indirect heat for the first part of the cook then searing the outside in a sort reverse sear method. This is a method I’ve used for years. But since I got such a great deal on the last two Tri Tips I purchased, I decided to smoke one like I would a brisket to see how it would turn out. As you can see from the picture above, it turned out fantastic!

Here are the steps:

Preparation

Tri Tip is a rather lean cut of meat, but invariably, it will be encasd on one side with a thick layer of fat. So before you do anything, trim the cut, removing the hard fat and silver skin. If you do leave some fat, make sure you don’t leave more than 1/8″.

Next, you should brine the steak for 12-24 hours. With the steak above, I dry brined it with my homemade rub. In the future, I think I will wet brine in a marinade. The reason is that Tri Tip has a loose muscular structure, and even though good cuts have marbling, because of that loose structure, the fat leeches out during a long cook. Wet brining should help bolster the moisture in the meat.

Barbecue!

Like any barbecued red meat, it takes time to cook. For this cut, I used my Traeger pellet smoker:

  1. 2 hours on the “Smoke” setting (it’s about 160)
  2. Turned up the smoker to 180℉ and cooked until the internal temperature of the meat read 160℉. By this time, the meat formed a beautiful bark! (~3 hours)
  3. I removed the meat from the grill and wrapped it tightly in butcher paper and turned the temperature up to 225℉.
  4. Returned the meat to the grill then barbecued it until the meat had an internal temperature of 200℉. (~6 hours)
  5. I immediately transferred the meat (still wrapped) to a jumbo ziploc bag, then let it rest for 30 minutes in a cooler. Normally I’d rest it for a couple to a few hours, but it was dinner time and I was hungry! 🙂

As you can see, it was a pretty straightforward process. That’s the beauty of barbecue! In the future, I will definitely dry brine the meat overnight and even inject it to bolster the moisture. The only issue I had with this cook was that even though the meat came out super-tender and moist, I would’ve liked it to be a lot more juicy. Tri Tip has less fat than brisket, so I believe you have to make up for the lack of fat with some other liquid.

That first night after cooking, I just ate it straight with some BBQ sauce and some veggie on the side. But since I still had a bunch of meat left over, it made some great sandwiches the next day!