"HUTCHNDI" > wrote in
news:rbsce.60$%44.14@lakeread06:


> With my freeform baking, I had been using more stretch and folds, the
> very wet dough gaining firmness with each step. By the time it was
> divided and shaped and formed it was pretty stable and keeping its
> shape. I really didn't know what was necessary with baking in a pan, I
> kind of thought all the steps were to help keep the boule from
> spreading and turning into a pancake like my first 10 or 20 loaves. So
> I didn't spend so much time preparing the dough.
>


The bakers I've spent time with in France use a long strip of canvas
dusted with flour to keep boules from getting flat. The baker will lay a
boule down on the canvas, pointing side to side, lift the canvas next to
the boule, lay down another boule, lift the canvas, and so on. The
canvas pooches up between boules and encourages them to hold their round
shape. Also, the boules are only an inch and a half in diameter, and
have plenty of gas bubbles in them to reduce their mass, so there isn't
much dough weight to flatten them. The baker shoves the boules toward
each other to keep some pressure on their sides so they don't flatten
out.

Then, he slides a big paddle under the array of canvased boules, lifts
it, sets it in the oven, and slides the paddle out. In 15 or twenty
minutes, he removes the baked loaves from the oven, lets them cool a few
minutes, then takes them off the canvas. The result is beautiful long
skinny loaves of French bread, nicely oven-sprung, very crusty and
golden-brown, with huge crumb holes.

Of course, the bakers duplicate their formula and process perfectly for
every batch of bread, or else they'd quickly lose their customers.

Such bread dries hard if kept more than 4 hours without eating it.
That's why the French buy lunch-time bread in the morning, and supper-
time bread in the late afternoon.


If you want similar bread, do your stretching and folding early in the
process, let the mass rest about 10 minutes, then form boules that are
long and skinny instead of short and fat. If your dough isn't too wet,
they might hold their shape better as they rise. And hey, you can also
go down to JoAnne's Fabrics and buy yourself a strip of heavy canvas.
I'll bet it's cheaper than bread pans.

Gonorio