I decided last month to try and revisit making baguettes again. I had not made any in quite some time and my shaping and scoring skills were not up to snuff.
I decided to follow David Snyder’s famous recipe from The Fresh Loaf.com and baked them several times with a few modifications (because I just can’t help myself :)). I’m still not happy with my shaping and scoring so no pictures here…but the crumb came out excellent just like you want with a nice open honeycomb and crispy light crust.
Next I decided to add some additional % of whole grains and see if I could achieve a similar crumb and flavor but bake them a regular loaf using my brotforms. I used freshly ground whole wheat sifted 2x as well as freshly ground Spelt also sifted 2x. I added black and white sesame seeds which really tasted great.
I used the same timing and method as described in David’s post. The bread tastes great and was amazing grilled with some Havarti with dill cheese.
The crumb was disappointing. I’m not sure why it was not more open. I may have handled it too roughly but I’ve always found it odd that when making baguettes I’m able to get such an open crumb, but if I use the same dough for a regular loaf it’s rarely as open.
In any case, the increased amount of whole grains in this bake really brought the flavor up a notch in my humble opinion.
Here are the formulas for anyone interested:
mookielovesbread 
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