Sourdough Baguettes – Different Approach

Time to try making Sourdough Baguettes again. This time I’m going to try a different approach. I’m using Joshua Weissman’s recipe and method described here

This is a couple day process. I’m actually running it in parallel with my normal sourdough bread AND a batch of sourdough croissants!! Wow… look at all the baking going on!

As a side note I’m wearing my Swedish Chef shirt. I had a woman mention it and she said “I don’t understand what he’s saying”. I told her it was Swedish but if she tried saying it out loud she might get the gist. after a brief pause she said “Oh my!” Ha!

Anyway… Day 1 is simply feeding my sourdough starter. I did that last night.

Day 2 initially begins by taking the 100% hydration starter and making a 50% hydration stiff Leaven.

Stiff Leaven Recipe

• 28g Bread Flour
• 20g Whole Wheat Flour
• 24g Sourdough Starter (100% hydration)
• 28g Water

To calculate that the stiff hydration level you add the gram weight of the flour plus half the gram weight of the starter: 28g+20g+12g=60g. The water weight is 28g+12g=30g. The flour gram weight is the constant or 100%. The water is half the weight of the flour so the hydration is 50%.

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The stiff Leaven is put into the box to prove at 80°F for a couple hours.

About an hour before it is ready I began to autolyse my dough. Basically just mixing the water and flour together to introduce the to each other and then let sit for an hour to let the water soak into the flour.

Dough Recipe

• 732g Bread Flour
• 313g Whole Wheat Flour
• 778g Water (90°F)

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Once the stiff leaven has doubled break it apart and spread over the autolysed dough. Sprinkle 20g of salt over the dough, dimple and add another 100g of water to the mix. Incorporate by hand squishing it all together. It’s a sticky mess!

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Once the water is mixed in dump on the counter and perform “Slap ‘n Folds” for a couple of minutes. It should only take 1-2 minutes before the dough is cohesive and not sticking to counter. Put back in bowl and let rest in box (80°F) for about 15-20 minutes to relax.

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After the last Slap ‘n Fold place the dough back into the proving box for another 2 hours. Perform Stretch ‘n Folds every25-30 mins for the first 75-90 mins.

Once that is done seal the bowl airtight and place into fridge for 18-24 hours to cold bulk ferment.

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We’ll see what this dough looks like tomorrow!!