Comments on: Pain à l’ancienne Baguettes

By: Stiff Dough ball in the autolyse stage

Stiff Dough ball in the autolyse stage — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:35:05 +0000

Hey there! Nice recipe btw :3 I fell in love with your breads

I want to ask (just started few minutes ago), in the autolyse stage, is the flour+water=stiff?
I did not expect it to be so stiff that I can’t even make it into a smooth ball, though I knead it enough to form into a decent (semi-rough looking) ball..

I followed the recipe divided by two (2 cups of flour + 1/2 cup 3 tbsp water) and it seems the cold water is not enough for the flour (I even added few spoons of water to make it workable).. Is it normal? Or is it that my measuring cups fail me? Thanks!

By: cs0815

cs0815 — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 12:05:14 +0000

Thanks so much for posting this recipe… turns out awesome. After using the original recipe a few times, I have started using 100g of whole wheat flour; also, I’ve added some grains (actually, some spent malt from brewing). Turns out great.
Thanks so much!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:34:06 +0000

I have just made this bread (first time ever breadmaking attempt!) and SUCCESS! I have to say I did not have high hopes, thinking for some reason that my first attempt at breadmaking was going to be a sad, sad disappointment. But just took them out of the oven and sampled and oh my gosh, they are excellent!! Honestly, just as good as fancy bakery bread, if not better (if I do say so myself!) Can’t believe it turned out so well!! The inside is all chewy and just dense enough, with lots of air holes.. perfect texture! Husband is impressed and amazed, as I don’t think he had very high hopes either, haha. Will definitely be trying more of your bread recipes soon! THANK YOU!!

By: Zom

Zom — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:40:33 +0000

Unto this bread I perpetuated the following crimes: failure to measure water, flour, salt, or yeast accurately; shorting the autolyse to a mere 8 hours; pounding the gluten ball into submission while my toddler flung rye flour willy-nilly both in and at the bowl; leaving it to a final rise for 2 hours and then shoving it in the fridge for 4; shaping it higgledy-piggledy; and neglecting to add in a bake pan full of water. The result? A gorgeous, soft dough (albeit without your admirable crumb) transformed into tender loaves unrivaled even by the bakery up the street. This. Is. The. Best. Bread. I. Have. Ever. Made. Imagine if I actually followed your excellent instructions properly! THANK YOU.

By: C

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:45:51 +0000

I made these and they looked beautiful! but they were really tough – any ideas on what went wrong? I followed your directions but is that too much kneading? I do it by hand not a machine. Thanks!

By: A Marathon « A Peine For Your Thoughts

A Marathon « A Peine For Your Thoughts — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:04:48 +0000

[...] technique and why it is just so revolutionary in the world of baking, so go see the post done by Apple Pie, Patis and Pate if you are interested in all the gory [...]

By: Matt P.

Matt P. — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:49:08 +0000

First, I should say that this particular baguette recipe yields fantastic bread. The crumb was excellent, the inside airy, moist, with just enough gummyness.

David C., even though my bread came out fantastic it may very well have ended up in disaster if I didn’t trust my instincts. That cold mass of dough and water that spent 12 hours at 40* F remains exceptionally cold after adding water, yeast, and kneading. This factor combined with the slightly lower temperature from it being so cold outside resulted in yeast that was very reluctant to yield fermentation and thus resulted in a very slow rise. The rise was so slow in fact that after folding and allowing to rest at room temp for several hours I decided to put it back in the refrigerator overnight. The dough continued to rise very slowly but enough so to pick up on ferment step 2 and 3 to finish the bread. The final product was acceptable. On my second attempt I allowed the cold dough to come close to room temp before adding the yeast and water. By doing this the rising process is much closer to that in the instructions. It should be noted that because this dough has so much moisture in it that after preshaping it tends to flatten out, it requires a lot of attention during the final rise before baking to yield an attractive baguette. I must say that this baguette has been the closest thing to what one would call a baguette in France.

Oh by the way, when he says the dough will be “like gum” when adding the water and yeast he isn’t kidding. You seriously have to keep working it until all of the water is absorbed and a nice smooth dough is formed. Yes it will be sticky but its contents will be distributed in a homogeneous manner. By the way if you need photos i’ll take them this time when I make the bread.
Hope this helped a little. Good Luck! Matt

By: David C.

David C. — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:34:06 +0000

Hey there,

Thanks for the great recipe idea. The first round was hard enough to pave a village with, but I’m trying again as I write this, and I’m hopeful. Next time you bake this, would you mind adding some photos of what the dough should look like during the second kneading (ie, just after you add the yeasty water)?

And just as a friendly aside, neither autolyse nor autolyze are pronounced auto-lees. Rather, it’s ˈȯ-tō-ˌlīz, as in auto-lies (as in, he lies about his bread successes all the time).

By: Beatrice

Beatrice — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:11:15 +0000

sorry! my name is Beatrice`and not as I mistakingly typed it!
I hope that the author of the recipe (is it Jude?), or someone else who is making this kind of sourdough rye baguettes, will give me the answer to this question that I’m tracking already 12 months without success. To make a loaf or a “batard” is no problem, the baguette is.
Last night I refreshed my levain sourdough with only flour without water and put a tsp of honey, one hour later my sourdough had rised to the top of the container and spilt over ! I never see something like that. Can somebody tell me why ? this is not mentionned in the recipes of Kaiser levain liquid or other recipes to make sourdough. The more I go on with my experiences the more I learn new facts and I found that the making of the bread is amazing and I’m almost obsessed with this subject.

By: Beatice

Beatice — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:46:11 +0000

It’s one year that I’m trying to make a French Baguette à l’ancienne ou Tradition, but with some rye flour mixed in it:I discovered this Baguette in Montpellier last year. I born French and I know what is a good bread. I learned throught the Internet and books in english and French. But I never reached what I wanted.I got the crust ok but inside is always too much like a loaf and not like an airy baguette.The falvour is good and everybody like it with olive oil on it French cheese or butter. I have a sourdough in my fridge since last December, I refresh it every 4/5 days when I make a new attempt. This sourdough is based on 50% Rye 50% water. It’s pretty liquid but smell good and make bubbles, seem to be ok.
After I read your recipe I prepared the “pate”of all purpose flour with the water and it’s in the fridge for already 24 hours. I would like to mix it with my sourdough and make a sourdough rye baguette.The question is how many grams of sourdough to mix to the “pate” should I still add 50gr of water and 5grs of instant yeast ?
I read about a sourdough baguette on the Fresh Loaf forum and got completely confuse with the recipe using 2 starters…
I now live downunder in Sydney and will be very grateful if you can help me to finally achieve my dream.