Next, a Sourdough Baguette

I started my sourdough baguette around noon to give the dough time to develop, and went with 100% AP flour and hydration of 70%+ — I’m not really sure exactly what it was, but it was too high. My dough didn’t have enough structure to proof in baguette shape without sagging sideways. It might have been too much water and it might have been the flour. You can see that my loaf is flatter than I would like.

Recently I have been using both Central Milling Tipo 00 flour and Caputo Pizzeria flour — both of which are just great, but I ran out both. Sort of like the cobbler’s kids shoes. So I had to use Trader Joe’s AP white flour, and while there isn’t anything wrong with it, it definitely is not as nice to work with as the artisan flours.

The bread has a subtle sourdough tang, the crust was crunchy and thick, and the crumb was moist with a nice elastic texture. But I have never been able to get a nice caramel brown exterior with I use the Trader Joe’s flour.

Next up I am going to try a more adventurous whole wheat loaf with an overnight soaker for the whole wheat flour. For now I am going to keep dividing my starter for baking and continue leaving it outsides. It’s never hot here (pretty much in the 60’s year round), so I don’t really think there is a risk of having the starter become too acidic as long as I am using it most days — and for now, it is continuing to develop the stronger sourdough tang that I like.

Time to get a supply of nice flour in the house.