I love baking bread, and baguette is one of my favorite bread. I baked my baguette twice for this challenge. First, I precisely followed the recipe given, and with some adjustment here and there for the second one.
OK. To make thing short, here is the recipe given by the hostess of the KBB challenge. It was not mentioned where she got it from. Oh...! sorry if you don't understand the language.. it's in Indonesian language. But don't worry, I will tell you what has been changed from the original recipe.
First bake
I followed the recipe as it is, and apparently, the dough rose very quick. Well, I always like the slow risen bread since it has more time to develop the nicer flavor. But, this time it was super quick... yeah, not even 30 minutes on the final proof (after being shaped and before going to the oven), it was already more than doubled. It was difficult to slice for two reasons. One because it was expand too much, and then because I don't have a proper slicer for this purpose. I tried using my sharpest knife. But it didn't work well. The knife was too thick and the dough was overproven, so it was collapsed a little bit. Well, the cooked bread was nice... with moist crumb and crunchy crust. However, since it was risen too quick, the flavor was a bit blunt. So I made a few adjustment for my second bake.
Second bake
Adjustment 1: I took care for the starter not only for 2 days as the recipe calls, but for 5 days. This is so the starter would develop more flavor. Adding water and flour every day to feed the starter.
Adjustment 2: I also amited adding more yeast for the dough, using only yeast from the starter. It definitely worked to slow down the proofing process.
With this two adjustment on the recipe, the baked bread has more rustic nutty flavor... just like artisanal bread from boulangerie in France... yum!
On the second bake, I tried using the blade from a paper cutter. Of course I used a new one and washed it clean first. It worked!
Ah ya, in France, they use couche in proofing the bread dough. I don't have one. So I used silicon paper (you can use parchment paper too), folded in between the bread to separate them.. then simply flatten it down before baking.
