Demi Baguettes With Yecora Rojo Wheat Recipes

Steps:

• Starter Build
• Mix the ingredients for the birote sourdough starter 3-4 hours before you plan to mix your dough. If you need a longer build time, use less starter and replace with more flour and water (e.g. 40 grams sourdough starter, 30 grams water and 30 grams additional flour).
• Cover and let the starter ripen somewhere warm until it is at least doubled in size.
• Final Dough Mixing
• Combine all the dough ingredients in a large bowl, including the ripe sourdough starter, and mix until everything is well incorporated, then cover.
• Over the next hour, do three sets of stretching and folding of the dough with 20-minute rests in between. After just the first round, the dough should feel cohesive with almost nothing coming off on your hands. If it's somehow very wet still and not holding together, add a 30g (1/4 cup) more flour.
• When the dough has almost doubled in size, scrape it out onto a well floured work surface.
• Shaping
• Divide the dough into five (237g) or six (197g) pieces, and roll each piece into a ball.
• Let the dough briefly rest while you flour your linen couche or tea towel where the dough will proof.
• Flip over a dough ball and pinch it into an oval, then roll it into a tapered tube. If it still feels loose, stitch the tube tighter and then re-roll it. You can see a short video of this below.
• Place the shaped dough seam-side up on the couch and fold the linen a bit to give the dough side support. Repeat with all the dough pieces and then cover with the couche or another tea towel.
• Final Proof and Baking
• Let the dough proof for about one hour while you prep your oven.
• Put a stone, steel, or baking sheet on your oven's middle shelf. If you have a large roasting pan, plan to use it over your dough and stone for steam. If not, put an aluminum pan with a pinhole poked into it on the oven shelf under the stone. 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.
• Place a sheet of parchment paper on an upside down or rimless baking sheet.
• When oven preheat and final proof are complete, boil a cup of water in the microwave if you're doing the drip pan.
• Flip the birotes onto the parchment paper and score them down the center and at a slight ~60° angle (as opposed to 90°).
• Slide the parchment sheet onto your hot stone. Immediately pour the cup of boiling water onto the aluminum pan below or place the inverted roasting pan over your dough, and close the oven door to trap the steam.
• Bake for 10 minutes at 500°F (with the roasting pan over the dough if using).
• Turn the oven temperature down to 475°F (remove the roasting pan) and bake another 10 minutes. Rotate the baguettes if needed to get even browning.
• Turn off the oven and prop open the door with a wooden spoon for an additional 10 minutes.
• The birotes can be left out for 1-2 days, after which it's best to wrap them to keep them from hardening and toast them before eating to re-crisp the crust. You can also wrap and then bag them to freeze as soon as they've cooled completely. Defrosting info can be found here.

Steps:

• NO KNEAD PROCESS
• Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl until they're thoroughly incorporated. If possible, put the dough in a straight-walled container and let it double in size. This took my dough about 6 hours in a warm lit oven. (You can see in the photo gallery that my dough more than doubled; this was a bit too fermented).
• After the bulk fermentation, continue with the instructions below, starting at the Pre-Shape and Bench Rest. Keep those steps as brief as possible and refrigerate your proofing basket quickly if you ferment the dough as much as I did.
• I recommend at least some time in the refrigerator during final proof for this no knead dough to give it some stiffness before baking.
• ACTIVE GLUTEN DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
• Autolyse
• Mix the water and flour in a bowl, cover and let the dough rest 30-60 minutes.
• Bulk Fermentation
• Add the sourdough starter and salt to the dough by folding and squishing it into the dough. Let the dough rest a few minutes if it starts to tear, then resume until it is incorporated.
• About 30-60 minutes into the bulk fermentation, laminate the dough to strengthen the gluten and increase elasticity. Do this by wetting a large countertop or table space, scraping your dough out onto it and stretching it fairly thin (see photo gallery). Then fold it back up, return it to the bowl and cover.
• Perform 2-4 rounds of coil folds or stretching and folding at 20-30 minute intervals.
• End the bulk fermentation when dough is puffy and aerated. For my doughs, this was about 7 hours after mixing in the starter in kitchen temps in the low 70s. You may find you need more or less time, depending on the vigor of your starter and your dough temperature.
• Preshape and Bench Rest
• On a lightly floured countertop, preshape your dough into a boule and let it rest for about 20 minutes.
• Shape
• Shape your dough appropriately for your baking vessel (oval, oblong, round) and place it into a well-floured banneton. This dough was fairly sweaty and almost didn't come out of the bannetons the next morning, so be generous with the flour (or bran flakes).
• Final Proof
• Many variations on time and temperature will work for a final proof. In the case of these doughs, I left them at room temperature for 35 minutes and then refrigerated them for 8 hours. In the photo gallery below, you can see how much they expanded.
• Bake
• Preheat your oven and baking vessel to 500F for 30 minutes.
• Flip your dough directly into the base of your vessel, or flip it onto parchment paper and then transfer the dough and parchment to the base of your vessel.
• Score the top of the dough. Cover it and return the vessel to the oven.
• Bake:
• 20 minutes at 500F with the lid on.
• 10 minutes at 450F with the lid on (add a baking sheet under your baking vessel if it is cast iron).
• 5-10 minutes at 450F with the lid off.
• The internal temperature of your bread should be at least 205F when you remove it from the oven. Let the dough cool for several hours before cutting.