Per Se Baguettes From Melissa Weller
This is the baguette recipe I used when I was head baker at Per Se restaurant. It is a classic recipe for baguettes, using only poolish for its preferment (for more detail on preferments, check out Melissa's book Very Good Bread). Poolish makes baguette dough extensible so it can be stretched and shaped without tearing. When water is added to flour, protease, an enzyme found in flour and yeast, goes to work and breaks the protein into smaller pieces. This makes the dough flow. Poolish has relatively high protease activity, and adding it to baguette dough helps to make shaping easier. And poolish is relatively easy to make and does not need to be maintained like sourdough starter. That is why a poolish baguette is considered a classic baguette, and it has become my go-to when I need to make baguettes but do not have enough time for a long fermentation.
Photo courtesy of Melissa Weller
INGREDIENTS
Makes four 300-gram baguettes
FOR THE POOLISH
½ cup (118 grams) water (70°–75°F)
⅛ teaspoon (0.15 grams) instant yeast
1 cup (120 grams) bread flour
FOR THE DOUGH
1½ cups (353 grams) water (65°–75°F)
4 cups + more for dusting (480 grams) bread flour
1½ cups (238 grams) poolish
½ teaspoon (1.5 grams) instant yeast
2 teaspoons (12 grams) fine sea salt
FOR DUSTING THE COUCHE
4 tablespoons rye flour
4 tablespoons brown rice flour
METHOD
Make the poolish: The evening before you plan to make the baguettes (12 hours before you plan to mix the dough), pour the water into a 1-quart container (ideally one with a lid). Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water and sprinkle the bread flour on top of that. Mix with a spoon until no flour is visible, cover with the lid, and set the poolish aside at room temperature to ferment for 12 to 18 hours, until it passes the Float Test (page xxxi), checking it at 12 hours, though it could go as long as 6 additional hours. (If you find that it is taking too long, set it in a warmer place, such as near the stove.)
If your poolish is ready before you are ready to use it, place it in the refrigerator. If using refrigerated poolish, bring your water to 80°F instead of 70° to 75°F when mixing the baguette dough.
Autolyse the dough: In a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the water and bread flour and mix on low speed for 2 to 3 minutes, until no flour is visible and very few lumps remain. Remove the bowl from the stand, but leave the dough hook in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic or a linen kitchen towel and place it in a warm place (about 75°F) for about 90 minutes to autolyse.
(For more information on why we are resting the dough before mixing the poolish, salt, and yeast into the dough, see Melissa's book.)
Add the poolish to the dough: As soon as the poolish is ripe, uncover the dough and add the poolish, mixing on low speed for 3 to 5 minutes to incorporate. Turn off the mixer, leave the hook in the bowl, re-cover the dough, and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Mix the yeast and salt into the dough and ferment: Uncover the dough and sprinkle the yeast and salt on the top. Return the bowl to the stand and mix with the dough hook for 2 minutes on low speed. Increase the speed to medium and mix for 4 minutes to develop the gluten.
Remove the dough hook and wipe it clean with a wet hand. Cover the bowl and set the dough in a warm place (about 75°F) for 1 hour to ferment.
Stretch and fold the dough: Uncover the bowl and use a wet hand to stretch and fold the top edge down two-thirds and stretch and fold the bottom edge to meet the top edge, so the dough is folded like a letter. Stretch and fold the sides inward in the same way.
Re-cover the bowl and set aside for 1 hour to ferment.
Divide and preshape the baguettes: Lightly dust a large work surface with flour. Uncover the dough and use a plastic bowl scraper to scrape the dough onto the work surface. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour and use a bench knife to cut the dough into 4 (300-gram) pieces.
Place one piece of dough in front of you on the work surface. Dust your hands lightly with flour and gently tuck the edges of the dough inward and form a football-shaped log with a fatter middle and narrowing ends. Set aside. Repeat forming football shapes with the remaining pieces and setting them to the side. Let the preshaped baguettes rest for 15 to 20 minutes to allow the gluten to relax.
Dusting the linen couche with a rye–rice flour mix prevents the baguettes from sticking to the couche. Rice flour is gluten-free, and rye flour is low in gluten-forming protein, which makes both ideal flours to use to dust bannetons and couche because they are not absorbed into the dough.
Shape the baguettes and proof: In a small bowl, stir the rye and rice flours together and set aside to dust the couche. Flip a baking sheet upside down and place the rolled linen couche on it. Unroll the edge of the couche by about 12 inches and dust it with some of the rye–rice flour. Set the baking sheet with the prepared couche to one side.
Dust the work surface with more flour. Use a bench knife to scoop up one of the preshaped baguettes and place it with the long side facing you. Dust your hands lightly with flour and gently press on the baguette with the palm of your hand to flatten the dough into a small oval. Pick up the long edge on the side away from you with both hands and bring your hands to the center of the dough, pushing down slightly. Repeat, folding the top edge down to the center until the top meets the bottom edge of the dough.
Dust your hands with more flour and place them on top of the dough. Applying good pressure, rock the dough back and forth to elongate it as you move your hands apart to taper the dough into pointed ends. Continue to elongate the baguette until it reaches about 12 inches after it springs back. Place the baguette seam-side down on the floured couche. Unwind some more of the couche and fold the linen up to form a wall to cradle the baguette. Dust more of the unrolled linen with the rye–rice flour mix. Repeat shaping the remaining dough in the same way.
Unwind the remaining couche and fold it over the shaped baguettes to cover them. Proof the baguettes for 1 hour.
Bake the baguettes: About 30 minutes before the baguettes are done proofing, arrange an oven rack in the center position with no oven racks above it. Place a baking stone on the center rack and place the rectangular roaster lid on the stone (if you don’t have a roaster lid, you’ll use a spray bottle later). Preheat the oven to 500°F.
Place an oven peel on a flat work surface and lightly dust it with flour. Remove the baguettes from the refrigerator and uncover them. Holding a flipping board in your right hand, with your left hand unfold the couche supporting the first baguette, pick up the couche, and flip the baguette onto the flipping board seam-side up. Flip the baguette onto the peel so that now it is seam-side down. Repeat, flipping the second baguette onto the peel. Re-cover the remaining two baguettes and return them to the refrigerator. With a razor blade held by a lame, at a 45-degree angle, or a sharp, serrated knife, score the baguettes down the center making 3 cuts, about 4 inches long and ½ inch deep.
Open the oven and remove the roasting pan lid. Place the edge of the peel toward the back of the stone, and with a series of quick jerks, shake the baguettes off the peel and onto the stone. With oven mitts, place the roasting pan lid over the dough to cover it. (Alternatively, fill a spray bottle with water and heavily spritz the baguettes.) Close the oven door.
Bake the baguettes for 15 minutes. Remove the roasting pan lid from the oven and bake the baguettes for 5 more minutes, until the crust is light to amber brown.
Cool the baguettes: Slide the oven peel under the baguettes and remove them to a cooling rack to cool. Repeat baking the remaining baguettes the same way.
FromVery Good Bread by Melissa Weller. Reprinted by permission of Knopf.
