Baguettes with Poolish and Malt

Photos Courtesy of Wild Yeast!

Baguettes with Poolish, and About Malt | Wild Yeast

Baguettes with Poolish
(adapted from SFBI)

Yield: 1050 g (three 350-gram baguettes or two larger loaves)

Time:

* Ferment poolish: 12 – 15 hours
* Mix: 10 minutes
* First fermentation : 1.25 hours
* Divide and preshape: 10 minutes
* Bench rest: 30 minutes
* Shape: 10 minutes
* Final proof: 1 – 1.25 hours
* Bake: 22 minutes

Desired dough temperature: 75F

Poolish Ingredients:

* 219 g flour
* 219 g water
* 0.1 g (a small pinch) instant yeast

Final Dough Ingredients:

* 425 g flour
* 219 g water
* 3 g (1 t.) instant yeast
* 12.7 g (2-1/8 t.) salt
* 3.2 g (2/3 t.) diastatic malt powder
* All of the poolish

Method:

1. In a bowl, combine the poolish ingredients. Cover and let ferment for 12 – 15 hours, or until the surface is creased and pebbled with bubbles.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with dough hook, combine all of the final dough ingredients except about 10% of the water. Mix on low speed to incorporate the the ingredients, adjusting the water as needed to achieve a medium dough consistency.
3. Continue mixing to a low-medium level of gluten development. How long this takes will depend upon your mixer.
4. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container. Cover and ferment at room temperature for about an hour and 15 minutes.
5. Turn the dough into a lightly floured counter. Divide into three pieces (or four, if your oven cannot accommodate baguettes 20 – 22 inches long). Preshape each piece into a cylinder, cover, and let rest for 20 – 30 minutes.
6. Shape the dough into baguettes and place them in a lightly-floured couche.
7. Proof, covered, for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes, or until the indentation left by a fingertip in the dough springs back very slowly.
8. Meanwhile, preheat the oven, with baking stone, to 475F. You will also need steam during the initial phase of baking, so prepare for this now.
9. Just before baking, score the baguettes.
10. Once the loaves are in the oven, reduce the temperature to 450F. Bake for 7 minutes with steam, and another 10 minutes or so without steam. Then turn off the oven and leave the loaves in for another 5 minutes, with the door ajar, to let the loaves dry for a crisp crust.
11. Cool on a wire rack.

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