For months I’ve been baking baguettes, with a slightly different result almost every time. I’ve tried three or four recipes–sometimes with sourdough, sometimes just yeast; sometimes an egg wash, sometimes an oil or butter wash, sometimes a weirdly awesome congealed cornstarch wash. Sometimes my loaves come out with a nice crispy crust, and then sometimes they wind up huge and fluffy, like the “french bread” I used to buy at HyVee in college.

I love the idea of testing this out scientifically–changing one variable at a time, carefully recording each test and its outcome… But I’m just not up to the task.

Last week I tried this sourdough french bread recipe for the first time. Yes, I get most of my bread recipes from Google searches. The dough came together easily and the flavor of the bread was just fantastic.

But the recipe calls for both yeast and sourdough, which makes the rise time really short but also makes the loaves massive. I baked them on a baking sheet, as the recipe suggests, and the baguettes ended up about 4″ in diameter (and about 18″ long), with a thin, wimpy crust. I posted on Instagram the picture you see here of those fat loaves.

So I wasn’t very pleased with their shape or crust, but I loved the flavor, so this week i decided to give it another shot.

This time I borrowed baguette pans from my dad and decreased the size of the loaves a little, hoping to maintain a nicer shape. I also had more luck with the cornstarch wash — it thickened up much better this time, which made it easier to brush over the loaves. And then I ended up increasing the baking time by 10-15 minutes, coating with the cornstarch wash every 3-5 minutes. See why I can’t be scientific about this? I’m changing four or five variables at a time!

But it worked!

I can’t post pictures of the nice, hollow sound when you knock the loaves or the sweet sour flavor, but just look at that beautiful crust, that perfect shape!

Good luck getting these baguette pans back, dad.

August 5, 2011

Comments

Sidonie,

Your entries and the little written asides are beyond a treat to read. Just as impressive is how well you’re capturing the beauty of crafting and cookery in every image. Really. Many of the photos make one feel alive, fresh, sharing the scent, and basked in sunlight.

Aric

// fellow foodie/craftbug here ‘n’ there

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The new Zune browser is surprisingly good, but not as good as the iPod’s. It works well, but isn’t as fast as Safari, and has a clunkier interface. If you occasionally plan on using the web browser that’s not an issue, but if you’re planning to browse the web alot from your PMP then the iPod’s larger screen and better browser may be important.

This is getting a bit more subjective, but I much prefer the Zune Marketplace. The interface is colorful, has more flair, and some cool features like ‘Mixview’ that let you quickly see related albums, songs, or other users related to what you’re listening to. Clicking on one of those will center on that item, and another set of “neighbors” will come into view, allowing you to navigate around exploring by similar artists, songs, or users. Speaking of users, the Zune “Social” is also great fun, letting you find others with shared tastes and becoming friends with them. You then can listen to a playlist created based on an amalgamation of what all your friends are listening to, which is also enjoyable. Those concerned with privacy will be relieved to know you can prevent the public from seeing your personal listening habits if you so choose.

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