okay, there are a couple of ways to do this so whatever works best for your shop, run with it. any of the MOP’s work with great results. NOTE: keeping a mother can be a pain in the the rear. refreshing it every morning and feeding at the same time each night. and if someone forgets to feed it at night, its watery, and you might not have enough to make dough for the next day. it can turn into a real nightmare(belive me) so if you are not making bread today FOR today, i would either make a preferment, or mix it straight and give it a day or two in the walk-in. three days is pushing it. all yeast is dry active.
Baguette w/ white starter Y:8 1# loaves
0-8 oz. white starter(mother)
0-1 oz yeast
3-0# water
4-8# hi gluten (might need a extra ounce or two depending on starter)
0-1.75oz salt
add mother, water/yeast, flour, salt
mix until developed
proof in sprayed bus tub, cover and put in warm place until doubled
portion 1#
benchrest, floured and covered w/ plastic for about 10 min, shape
i use a book fold, which is, flatten dough out (dont press all the gas out) to a square-ish shape, grab top edge and bring to center of dough and press in along the top edge of dough, turn dough 180* and repeat. then bring top half over the two seams, and seal with the back of hand. (make sure the seal is nice, otherwise it will blow out). set aside to relax.
proceed with the rest of the loaves. now you should have 8 batard size loaves, from here stretch to length of full sheet tray. we put ours on parchment sprayed liberally, 3 to a tray. once you finish a tray, spray the tops with pan spray, plastic on top, date/time, and put in cooler.
the next day, proof on top of oven until doubled. peel plastic off, four slashes, 425* until done. we cook ours about 90-95% done because the bread can get too crispy for some people. traditional french baguettes are very crispy, but this doesnt translate well to a sub roll so under cook just a touch. also, we lightly flour the tops of our dough because the dough will be slightly sticky, and the knife will pull on the dough instead of slice it. looks a little more rustic as well. we use a very sharp serrated knife for this.
and here is the recipie that i use in my shop. i dont want to have the headache of tending to “mother” so i use a straight dough method with plenty of time in the fridge to develop flavor. its not quite as sour as a dough using a mother, but a darn fine bread nonetheless. i bumped the yeast up a little in order to hold for two days in the cooler. ive baked them after three and they worked, much more than that i think you might be pressing your luck
Baguette straight: Y: 16 1#loaves
6-8# water
0-3oz yeast
9-10# hi gluten
0-3oz salt
same MOP as above, but when doing 16 at a time, only preshape about 8 at time, keep the other eight portioned waiting for you.
sponge method: from straight dough formula take 8 oz of water and 1/2 oz yeast dissolved. mix in by hand 8 oz hi gluten until fully saturated (no dry flour). put in a 12 qt cambro, cover and leave out overnight. do this about 10pm. next morning put sponge in bowl, add remaining water with remaining yeast, remaining flour and salt. mix accordingly. again, this takes a bit of forethought, and sometimes i cant remember what i did yesterday!
good luck! let me know how it works
