These baguettes are made with freshly milled Coppice Blend, a blend of 11 wheats chosen by Mark Lea at Green Acres Farm that represent his farm over the past forty years. I had about 200g of white dough left over from making pizzas last night so I let this ferment overnight in a cool room and used this as the pre-ferment for these baguettes. You can of course, make these without a pre-ferment or choose to use a biga or poolish instead.
The grain was double milled, first on the coarsest setting and then finely.
Ingredients for Coppice Blend Baguettes
200g pate fermentee (unbaked dough from a previous batch) – optional
500g freshly milled wheat
10g fine sea salt
2g easy bake yeast (If you aren’t using a preferment you can use 5g easy bake or 15g fresh yeast)
Approx 320g water (you may need more or less depending on the grain and the coarseness of the milled flour)
Method
If using a pre-ferment then add the water to this and mix well. This helps the pre-ferment fully mix with the flour. Add the flour, yeast and salt (keeping the salt and yeast separate). Mix well. Check if you need additional water and add slowly if more is required, mixing well between each addition. The dough should feel soft. Cover the bowl and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Do first round of gentle stretch and fold. Cover and let the dough rest again for 15 minutes, repeat the stretch and fold and rest procedure a further two times. Being more gentle with each round of stretch and fold. Cover and allow the dough to rise until full of air and doubled in size.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface (I used semolina). Divide the dough into two and shape into a baguette. To shape, press lightly into a rectangle and fold down top third into the middle, press the seam down gently but well. Roll down again to the middle of the remaining dough and seal again and then roll down to the end and seal. Placing the heels of your hands on the work surface gently roll the dough into a baguette, using more force at the ends to give a slightly tapered shape. Place onto a floured linen couche or tea towel and bring the sides up to support the dough. Leave to rise until fully proved. It will feel uniformly airy all over and a floured finger gently pressed against the dough will come back after 1-2 seconds but will leave a slight indent. My baguettes took about 50 minutes in a kitchen at about 18C.
Bake in a preheated oven at 220, gas mark 7, 425F for 20-25 minutes until golden and taps hollow when you knock the bottom of the loaf. If you have a temperature probe it will reach 90C. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
