Notice Bridget weights 15 oz of flour but switches to volume measurement for water, 1 + 1/2 cups.
Why did she do that?
It's easier.
But so is scooping flour with a measuring cup.
One loose scoop of flour shaken off to be flat on top, in Denver dry as it is, weighs generally 5 oz. So a little bit less is 4 oz.
An American cup holds 8 oz. water. So flour in Denver is just about half the weight of water.
1 + 1/2 cup of water is 12 oz. of water. In baker's percentages that turns out to be 80% hydration.
Bakers are odd mathematicians, they consider water to be 100% and all other ingredients added for the ratio. 12 ÷ 15 x 100 = 80. This tells us the dough is rather wet, but could be even more wet. Opposed to a stiff dough. When Bridget formed her first dough I was surprised how stiff it looked. You can use this formula to contrast with other recipes and compare wetness, the stickiness, the softness with other doughs. You'll notice right off they're all using grams.
This is why I start with the full amount of water into a bowl. Then add the yeast to the full amount of water in the mixing bowl and let it bubble a bit. But not always. It's not necessary. Then, minding the weight of water, I loosely scoop flour to estimate its weight. For very wet dough I'll scoop double the amount of flour as water. Then with each extra increment of flour the percentage drops to estimated 90, then estimated 80, and so on.
So then, the way I would do what Bridget did is I'd add 1 + 1/2 cup of water, the yeast, and 3 cups flour and mix it. Then I'd add flour incrementally to desired wetness not to exceed 1/2 cup more flour.
The air bubbles in baguettes are put there manually by forming the dough.
Bridget does this while the dough is rising. She forms a boule right in the bowl that other bakers do outside the bowl. Other bakers put air in the dough during kneading. This is Bridget's version of that. More air is put in while forming the baguettes when the edge of a rectangular piece of dough is folded beyond the (imagined) center line, then the opposite side is folded past the center line, then folded in half and the new edge smashed shut with the butt of the hand. Each fold is manually putting air between layers. It's flattened, but there is still some air inside there. This is a crucial step in making wide open crumb.
I really like the way Bridget incorporates a small amount of whole wheat flour and sifts out the bran. That's very clever. I never thought of that.
That bran is the reason why 100% whole wheat loaves come out like bricks. The tiny particles slice through gluten strands as the bread rises so those loaves never do fully rise. Getting rid of the larger particles helps prevent that. And whole wheat bread, especially milled yourself is a w-h-o-o-o-o-l-e 'nuther ballgame. It's something you've never tasted because commercially milled wheat is separated by high tech industrial process and the portions added back, but not returned to 100% restoration. Wheat germ has fat, and fat spoils, and that's bad for mass marketing, so part of that is left out. How the industry gets away with claiming 100% whole wheat is a matter of legislation. It's industry talk meaning 100% of the types of particles are returned but not to precisely 100% original proportions. While wheat berries milled at home will have the entire grain turned into powder. Still, with a fine sieve, you can remove some of the bran as Bridget shows, and that's just awesome. It will affect color and improve flavor and contribute character.
This is the best most useful video I've seen on this subject.
Okay. Say you don't care for baguettes. Bridget said her loaves are too short to be baguettes due to the size of home ovens. She said, "these are batards." That means "bastards" in French.
Ha ha ha ha, Bridget said a bad word.
Open Google translate and ask for "chopsticks" in French. The answer will be baguettes. Little sticks. Baton also means stick, as you know from Baton Rouge, "red stick." You'd think baguettes would be called batons, but there you go, this is France here. They're funny. They call their bread charming things like chopsticks and bastards.
This same idea can be used for Vietnamese French style rolls, Bánh mì, an even shorter version.
11 comments:
I love good bread but don't have the personality to make it. so, I always seek out good bakeries near where I live. Unless you're in the northeast, Chicago, SF, it's really tough to find an Italian bakery. But a good French bakery will do. The French Gourmet in San Diego is close and here in the Twin Cities is a local chain called Turtle Bakery which is also good. I freeze bread to keep it handy. Also freeze nuts and eat them right out of the freezer, fresh and no need to thaw.
Did you know that Chris Kimball is gone from the latest episodes? ack.
Does Jon Snow know about this post?
Dickin' Bimbos, Chris Kimball got the boot from Cooks and opened up Milk Street. You should check it out.
Despite the universal dislike of the French by the Vietnamese, best bread in Asia is made in Vietnam. They make decent baguettes and bâtards
A boule in the bowl
A bird in the hand;
A start if you please
To good eatin', man!
))) slam ((( *looks up on snow +bread*
Oh. Very interesting.
Just now saw Kimball on Milk Street on t.v., and read a page online put up by America's Test Kitchen explaining and defending what happened. Apparently Chris Kimball did what I heard of what at least a dozen hairdressers did.
OK, fine! Three hairdressers. Three incidents involving a dozen hairdressers.
Started their own business and take proprietary information, important lists and such, and try to take employees.
Actually, in anger with the owner, attempt to destroy the business by walking out all at once and taking their customers with them.
I always thought he started America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Magazine and that he was the heart and soul of it, but apparently I was wrong. Or only half right.
One time at breakfast (we met for breakfast out quite a lot) my dad asked me how a founder and owner of a business can be kicked out from it.
I told him as business grow and take on more people they change in ways the founder could not have anticipated and to continue they must change even further, adapt as they go, in ways that the founder is not helpful. The founder has his original vision and resists changes that don't fit it. Often over very silly changes. He becomes unsuitable for growth. He's satisfied with putting receipts in a shoe box for example. He compromised at points, ceding power for growth, taking his company public and such, big loans for projects that make new business partners from bankers. Original owners isolate themselves from certain aspects of their own business, preferring certain aspects and handing over other aspects to other teams of people, and then sometimes, often as not, the original owners become anchor to progress.
My dad could not accept that answer. He just couldn't see it.
But what Kimball did was different from that. I like him a lot but he does have a creepy aspect to him.
Chip: This was a good article outlining what is going down... Of course, it was written a year ago.
I am going to guess both sides have some arguments with merit. But there is no winning bringing a case like this to trial. There is too much uncertainty and risk. These kinds of disputes are better settled privately.
The French also taught the Mexicans breadmaking.
I lived for a while in a part of the country where you could nor find good bread. It was all limp crust whether French ,Italian or rye. I learned to make my own. A dozen loaves once a week, frozen for when needed. They were hard crusted baguettes, or batards as noted in the post. The French use a specific flour that's not sold here, there's several web pages that give instructions on how to replicate the flour.
I buy bastards at the local market. Woman asks "What do you have there?"
"A couple of bastards" says I.
I thought "baguette" derived from the French for "little bag." The "u" is introduced to keep the "g" sound hard much like the Italians insert an "h" in spaghetti.
We should ask bags in case he's ever dated a French woman.
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