King Arthur Flour's Wheat Baguettes

After building up my confidence with my first attempt at baking a yeast bread, I was ready to try my hand at something a little more difficult and adventurous.  I once again browsed the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook and settled upon wheat baguettes.  I know that baguettes are traditionally made with white flour but I thought it would be interesting to see how a whole wheat baguette would turn out.

On Friday night, I worked on the pre-ferment, which called for:

• 1 cup traditional whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup cool water
• Pinch of instant yeast

I mixed all of these ingredients together in a small bowl, covered it and let it rest overnight in the fridge. 

I was supposed to let it rest at room temperature but I didn't read the recipe closely.  The pre-ferment rose a little but not too much.  I hoped for the best and decided to work with it anyway.

The next morning, I combined the pre-ferment with the rest of the ingredients.

• 3/4 cup and 2 tbsp of cool water
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 1/4 cups unbleached bread flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon yeast

I mixed all the ingredients together by hand and I actually ended up adding a few extra tablespoons of cool water to help the dough stick together.

I put the dough in a bowl and covered it with a lightly greased saran wrap.  I let the dough rest for four and a half hours and gently deflated it and turned it over once each hour.

I floured a cutting board and placed the dough on the board. 

I divided the dough into three pieces and shaped each piece into a slightly flattened oval. 

I covered the dough with a greased plastic wrap and let them rest for fifteen minutes.  When the dough was done resting, I got to work shaping my dough into baguettes.  This involved several steps and Bret took step-by-step photos of me while I rolled the dough.

First I folded the dough in half lengthwise.

Then I sealed the edges with the heel of my hand

I flattened the dough slightly and then repeated these three steps again.

  

Finally, with the seam side down, I gently rolled the dough into a 16-inch log.

I placed the three logs onto a greased baking sheet.  My baguettes were definitely all different shapes and sizes! 

I covered them with a lightly greased plastic wrap and allowed them to rise for thirty minutes.  Afterwards, I put them in the fridge to rest overnight. 

On Sunday, after spending the day at the Charles Square Farmers' Market and then watching the second half of the Pats game with my girlfriends, I finally came home to my baguettes.  I took the baking sheet out of the fridge and let the baguettes rest at room temperature uncovered for an hour and a half.  During the last half hour, I preheated the oven at 425 degrees to make sure that the oven was really hot by the time I was ready to bake.

I put the baguettes in the oven for eighteen minutes.  I was relieved to find the the baguettes had risen and that my mistake in refrigerating the pre-ferment hadn't killed my dough!  At this point, the baguettes looked absolutely gorgeous but not quite crusty enough.

Following the recipe, I loosely tented the pan with aluminum foil and baked it for another five minutes.  I then removed the baguettes from the pan and put them straight on the oven rack.  I shut off the oven and cracked the oven door open a few inches.  I let the baguettes sit in the oven until they were completely cooled.

The entire place smelled like a bakery and I couldn't wait to take the baguettes out!

We cut the medium-sized baguette right away and I slathered a piece with cloumage cheese and a bit of maple pumpkin butter.  It was absolutely divine - crusty on the outside but soft and chewy inside.   

I wish I felt guilty admitting this but Bret and I completely polished off one whole baguette that night.  It was just so good!  My three baguettes took forty-eight hours to make from start to finish but well worth it!

So far I've been really happy with my baking attempts.  What do you think I should try to bake next?