New Baguette

For over a year now I've mostly made the classic baguette recipe from King Arthur Baking Company.  Every now and again I tried a different baguette recipe, but some were better than others and I always went back to the original.  Over time, I refined that recipe and my technique to make pretty good baguettes every time.  Still, there were some characteristics I just couldn't seem to get, like bigger bubbles in the crumb and a nice ear on the cuts.

I tried a new baguette recipe yesterday and I was encouraged enough that I made it again this morning.  At first, I wasn't too impressed as I was making it and I was very unsure how they would turn out, but the oven rise and ears of the cuts were impressive and the crust was even better in today's batch since I added 1/2 Tbsp of the diastatic malt powder, which helps the taste of the bread, too.  I also used a homemade couche for the first time to proof them.  The classic recipe is a wet proof although I have tried dry proofing enough to know the cuts are easier that way though the oven rise was otherwise restricted.  The first batch of this new recipe yesterday had the bread exploding out of it's skin, to my surprise and delight.

Yesterday afternoon I also tried an interesting Peanut Butter Bread recipe from the great depression.  No butter, milk (sry!) or eggs, just peanut butter as the fat and lots of baking powder for the rise.  A pretty easy recipe I came across on the internet and while it's actually pretty good I'm not sure I'll have a need to make it again.

Back to baguette:  I also like the amount of dough this new recipe makes.  The classic recipe would yield 3 baguettes close to 300 grams so I had to make an effort to keep them short enough for the baking tray, while this new recipe is closer to 230 grams each so I can shape them as I want and still have the traditional pointy ends while easily fitting them on the 15 inch tray.

In some ways, the first batch is more what I'm looking for and the second I may have just thought about it too much though they still turned out very good.  I think this recipe is a keeper and I look forward to making it the best I can, as I did with the classic recipe.