Baguettes

• Starter
  • 100 g White Wheat Flour, 13% protein
  • 100 g Water, cool
  • 2 g Diastatic Malt Powder (optional)
  • 1 g Instant Yeast
• 400 g White Wheat Flour, 13% protein
• 270 g Water, cool
• 13 g Instant Yeast
• 10 g Medium-Grain Salt
• 8 g Diastatic Malt Powder (optional)

1. Mix starter ingredients. Ferment at least 6 hours, covered, at room temperature.
2. Autolysis. Combine flour and water in a mixing bowl until a shaggy dough forms. Rest 30 minutes, covered, at room temperature.
3. Knead dough. Mix starter, autolysis dough, and remaining ingredients until combined. Knead 6-10 minutes until dough passes the windowpane test. Careful not to add extra flour.
4. Proof once. Transfer dough to a lightly greased bowl. Roll to coat dough with oil. Proof 1-2 hours, covered, until the dough nearly doubles in size.
5. Divide, degas, and pre-shape loaves. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface. Dividing into two loaves, degas and pre-shape each baguette.
6. Rest. Transfer pre-shaped baguettes to a flat, floured surface. Rest 15 minutes, covered.
7. Shape loaves. Prepare a lightly floured surface. Transfer pre-shaped loaves to prepared surface. Shape each baguette into a 10 cm diameter baguette.
8. Proof twice. Transfer loaves to a sheet pan dressed with semolina. Proof 60 minutes at room temperature until the loaves have grown to 1.5x times their original size but still spring back when poked.
9. Arrange oven. Place one oven rack in the lowest position and one in the middle position. Place an empty sheet pan in the bottom rack; we'll use it to boil water later. Place a pizza stone on the top rack.
10. Preheat oven to 500ºF (260ºC).
11. Score loaves. With the seam side down, score loaf using a bread lame, razor blade, or a very sharp knife. Cut 3 evenly spaced diagonal slashes 1 cm deep on the surface of the loaf.
12. Bake. Place sheet pan in oven on middle rack. Pour hot water into the empty sheet pan on the bottom rack. Bake 20 minutes until baguettes' ridges turn dark, coffee brown.
13. Cool baguettes. Transfer baguettes to cooling rack. Cool 40 minutes at room temperature.

Paraphrasing French baker Éric Kayser, an exemplary baguette has no less than two qualities⁵:

1. a brown- and yellow-colored crust that crackles, and
2. a cream-colored crumb with big and small air pockets and a noticeably complex aroma.

The Crust

We achieve the crust through a common baking component: steam. Water vapor helps us achieve three things⁶:

1. Dark, crackly crust. Water vapor is more heat dense than other atmospheric gases. This facilitates a higher heat transfer to the crust, resulting in faster browning and a thicker crust that crackles.
2. Bigger pockets in the crumb. Hydration contributes to the dough's overall flexibility. This water would quickly evaporate and leave behind a rigid crust, but this process is slowed by the high humidity environment created by the steam! In short, the crust remains flexible for longer, and the dough has more time to rise and create big holes in the crumb.
3. Prominent scoring. We score the loaves to enable a higher rise. A more flexible dough will rise higher and draw attention to beautiful, prominent scoring.

The pizza stone is not necessary, but serves two functions. First is to rapidly conduct heat into the loaves from below for deeper browning. The second is to provide a very stable heat source to distribute heat evenly inside the oven. Depending on the quality of the oven, we may not need it for this second purpose.

Finally, we reduce heat midway simply to continue cooking the crumb without over-baking the crust.

The Crumb

Consider the following excerpt from Raymond Calvel as a guide, where he gives his definition of high quality French bread (emphasis mine):

A good bread -- a real quality loaf -- ... will have a creamy white crumb. The proper creamy-white color of the crumb shows that the dough oxidation during mixing has not been excessive. It also presages the distinctive aroma and taste that are a subtle blend of the scent of wheat flour -- that of wheat germ oil, along with the delicate hint of hazelnut aroma that comes from the germ. All of these are combined with the heady smell that comes from alcoholic dough fermentation, along with the discreet aromas that are the results of caramelization and crust baking. ... the grain of French bread should be open, marked here and there by large gas cells. These should be thin-walled cells, with a lightly pearlescent appearance. This unique structure, resulting from the combination of numerous factors including the level of dough maturation and the loaf forming method, is basic to the eating qualities, flavor, and gustatory appeal of French bread.⁷⁶

It's worth taking time for a plain English interpretation.

The proper creamy-white color of the crumb shows that the dough oxidation during mixing has not been excessive. It also presages the distinctive aroma and taste...⁷⁶

Overworking the dough can damage the natural pigmentation and reduce the overall flavor.⁶ One way around this is the autolysis method (also called autolyse). In short, autolysis describes the formation of gluten bonds when we mix flour and water. Since the flour and water mixture sits inert, there's no excessive dough oxidation, and we get a stronger gluten network without the oxidation.⁸ We can have our cake and eat it too.

... the [crumb] of French bread should be open, marked here and there by large gas cells. This unique structure, resulting from the combination of numerous factors including the level of dough maturation and the loaf forming method...⁷⁶

Dough maturation refers (not entirely) to fermentation time⁷. Consider the yeast fermenting in the starter and in the proofing steps. The starter method incorporates yeast into the bread dough in such a way that maximizes the effective fermentation time and flavor production.⁶ The proofing method serves two purposes. The first proof is to let the dough rest so that it's less springy and more readily divided and shaped. The second and third proofs are to continue developing a chewy gluten structure, to trap air pockets, and to draw still more complex flavor from the fermenting yeast.