Recipe Review - Baguette, traditional - MWOC p 242

[Tasty]

I decided to give this recipe a go so we could enjoy it with some soup and to use up some wheat grains I had. I didn't have fresh yeast so used half the amount in dried yeast. When kneading the bread, I realised I had forgotten to put put the flour I milled from the wheat grains and so added it afterwards and kneaded it for longer. I could tell it wasn't looking right at this point but continued anyway hoping that there might be a miracle  . It is quite a long process and I didn't have any more yeast to start again.

Anyway, it didn't rise as much as it should. It says in the book 'Near the end of the rising period, preheat the oven to 240C; place baking tray on the lowest level' and later ' Place baguettes in the oven, carefully pour a cup of water on the hot baking tray on lowest level...' so I did this. Got hubby to pour water in the tray as he was in the kitchen at the time and the baking dish broke to pieces instantly!! This is probably due to the fact I used a ceramic/porcelain baking dish so I would advise on using a metal one. I'm not sure why you wouldn't put the water in at the same time as the baking dish. Anyone have any advice?

So as a result of all these things, the baguettes didn't work out - didn't rise enough so dense. Will give them another go soon now that I have some more yeast.
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[judydawn]

Not a good experience for you Tasty but thanks for the review to prevent others going down the same track.  I always use a metal dish for water when making bread.

[Tasty]

So I gave this another shot. It worked better in that the dough started rising quite a bit even after only 5 mins in the fridge. Once divided into balls though, it is not easy to roll and 'cracks' in a long line in parts. The end result was nicer but still not good. Not sure if it's the wholemeal flour I'm using rather than white or the fact I leave it to rest in 50C oven or what. Hmmmm. Might go and compare to other baguette recipes to work it out.

[Tasty]

So here is a photo of the second attempt. They don't rise much and are too dense still

[cookie1]

They would be lovely with soup Tasty. You could dunk it.