Baguettes Whole Wheat Recipes

Steps:

• Combine the dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. With the machine running, add water until a ball forms, about 30 seconds. (Start with 1 1/2 cups water; you may need a little more or less.) Then process for an additional 30 to 45 seconds. Put the dough ball in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit until risen, 2 to 3 hours.
• Cut the dough into 3 pieces, and using an absolute minimum of flour to prevent sticking, form each into a rough log. (You can make one large boule, or a ciabatta-shaped loaf or whatever else you like.) Cover with a towel and let sit about 20 minutes. Then shape into long baguettes; support their shape by letting them rise in baguette pans or a lightly floured piece of canvas. Set the oven to 465. (If you have a pizza stone, leave it in there.)
• The loaves will be ready to bake in 30 minutes or so. Slide in on a peel or in baguette pans. Slash or cut the top of the loaf. Bake, lowering heat if necessary to prevent browning, until the loaves read 210 internally (not more), 20 to 30 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Steps:

• Levain/Starter
• Prepare your 115g of starter by mixing 25g starter with 45g water and 45g flour. This is approximately a 1:2:2 starter preparation, but other builds are fine too. Mark your jar with a rubberband and let it sit overnight or until at least doubled.
• Saltolyse
• Mix the flour, water, and salt together in a bowl. Cover and let sit about 1 hour.
• Fermentation and Gluten Development
• Add the ripe starter to the dough, stretching, folding, and gently squishing the starter into the dough.
• Cover and let the dough rest for about a half hour. Then do two rounds of coil folding or dough rolling, one lamination, and one final round of coil folding. Separate each of the four rounds of gluten development with a 20-30 minute covered rest. Here are videos showing how to coil, roll, and laminate dough.
• When the dough has expanded by about 65%, end the bulk fermentation. For the ambient temperature in my kitchen, this was five hours after adding the starter to the dough. Alternately, you can stop the bulk fermentation a smidge sooner and refrigerate the dough overnight to deepen the flavors before moving on to the next steps.
• Preshape
• Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and divide it into four pieces, about 225g each.
• Roll the pieces into four balls and cover them with a large bowl or slightly damp towel.
• Let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes.
• Shaping
• Prepare a linen couche or a couple of tea towels by rubbing flour into them and making four channels for the baguettes to lie in.
• Lightly flour your counter and flip a dough ball onto the flour. Shape your dough into four demi baguettes. You can watch a video of this technique here or follow these instructions: Stretch the dough into a small square. Fold down about an inch of the top of the square, pat the seam down, then stretch out and fold in the sides by in about an inch. Repeat until you have a tube, then roll and pinch the two edges of the tube.
• Transfer the baguettes to the channels in the couche, laying them seam-side up, and cover with the sides of the couche or a tea towel.
• Final Proof and Oven Prep
• Let the dough proof at room temperature for 30 minutes, while you prep your oven.
• Put a stone, steel, or baking sheet on your oven's middle shelf, and put an aluminum pan with a pinhole poked into it on the oven shelf under the stone or steel. This creates a drip system for steam. When making the pinhole, test over your sink that water drips through it about 1-2 drops a second.
• Preheat your oven set-up to 500°F for 30 minutes.
• Baking
• When the final proof and oven preheat are complete, flip the baguettes onto parchment paper (two per parchment works well).
• Score the baguettes 2-3 times on the diagonal as shown in this video.
• Boil a cup of water (a glass pyrex in the microwave works well).
• Using a peel or upside down baking sheet, slide the parchment sheets onto your hot stone. Immediately pour the cup of boiling water onto the aluminum tray below and close the oven door to trap the steam.
• Bake for 15 minutes (rotate 10 minutes in for even browning if needed).
• Turn off the oven, prop open the door with a wooden spoon, and leave the baguettes inside for an additional 10 minutes.
• Baguettes stale relatively quickly, so if not eaten in a day, wrap them to keep them from hardening and toast them before eating to re-crisp the crust.

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water in a large bowl, let stand 5 minutes.
• Add 3 1/2 cups of the bread flour, wheat flour, semolina and salt to yeast mixture; stir with a whisk until well blended.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.
• Knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes); add enough of remaining bread flour 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent douogh from sticking to hands dough will feel tacky.
• Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top.
• Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
• (Test by pressing gently into dough. If indentation remains, the dough has risen enough.) Punch dough down, cover and let rest 5 minutes.
• Divide into thirds.
• Working with one portion at a time (cover remaining dough to prevent drying), roll each portion into a 16-inch rope on a floured surface.
• Place ropes on a large baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal.
• Cover and let rise 40 minutes or until ropes are doubled in size.
• Uncover dough.
• Cut 3 slits in top of each rope.
• Preheat oven to 425°F.
• Throw water onto floor of oven (avoiding heating element).
• Place baking sheet in oven.
• Quickly close oven door.
• Bate at 425°F for 30 minutes or until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped.
• Remove from pan, and cool on wire racks.
• Cut each loaf into 12 slices.

Steps:

• Combine the sourdough with the water and allow to sit until the sourdough relaxes and begins to dissolve, about 20 minutes. Beat in the whole-wheat flour and one cup of the bread flour, cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise until very bubbly and light, six to eight hours depending on the warmth of the room.
• Beat in the salt and another cup of flour, again cover and let rise until double in size, five to seven hours.
• Transfer the mixture to a kneading bowl or food processor fitted with a eel blade and knead in the remaining flour, a third of a cup at a time, until the dough is smooth, shiny and elastic. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
• Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal. Divide the dough in half and roll each half into a thin snake about one-and-a-half inches in diameter. Place the snakes, well separated, on the baking sheet, cover lightly with a dampened tea towel or plastic wrap and allow to rise until double in size, about one to one-and-a-half hours.
• Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Make several shallow diagonal slashes across the loaves with a razor blade and put the sheet in the oven. Being careful not to get burned by the steam, throw about a quarter cup of water onto the oven floor and shut the oven at once.
• Bake the bread for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the baguettes are crusty and well browned. Cool on wire racks.