5 Tips: Shaping Baguettes

hi it's martin i'm in the studio today with five tips for shaping baguettes okay five tips for shaping baguettes tip number one is simply practice in order to shape more beautiful baguettes you have to practice you have to put your repetitions in it's just like learning to play the piano or juggling or any other hand skill which is improved through practice and coordination so you've got to practice in tips two and three i'm going to give you methods which will help you to set that foundation and you're going to be well on your way to shaping beautiful baguettes tip number two for shaping baguettes it's pre-shaped before we make our final shape we have an intermediate step which we call pre-shape the more beautiful and regular our pre-shape is the more beautiful a final shape will have let me show you how to do it [Music] okay so i've divided these pieces into about 300 grams and let's give appreciate i'm padding gently to the gas and then i'm going to fold to the middle and seal if you see a large bubble just pop it so you see how i kind of brought this sides together sort of went like that and now i'm just going to start at the top and i'm going to roll down and press to seal roll down and press to seal and that looks good to me this is a tube or cylinder pre-shape let's do another one press to deflate slightly find any large air bubbles you can see that this piece isn't quite regular but that's okay we're going to fix that so again fold to the middle go to the top and it's basically a process of just kind of rolling it down i felt this sticking for just a second so i just drag it through a little bit of flour and what i'm trying to do here is really maintain sort of square walls if i can have square walls i'll have a roof which is beautiful and straight windows will go in easily to use sort of an architectural or building analogy so do you see how this is regular the more tubular this is the more beautiful and even my final shape will be okay tip number three for shaping baguettes this is what i'm going to call fold and roll i'm going to show you first how to fold and then how to roll and i'm going to demonstrate using a napkin so you can see very clearly what the folding steps are and then in tip number four we'll go to shaping the shaping of a baguette has two sort of sections the first phase is what i call sort of the origami phase and then the second is the actual rolling so for the origami phase i'm going to take this edge that's away from me i'm going to bring it two thirds of the way down we're basically making a letter fold press to seal edge that's closest two-thirds of the way up and then if you want to sort of identify for yourself what the middle portion uh that midline of the baguette is you can tap to do so and then you just bring this edge that's away down and seal you can either do that with the palm of your hand as you see bakers do or if you want you can also if it seems easier you can use your hand working with it as a paddle you can just take your fingers and you can press to seal and then you roll okay step number four for shaping baguettes in step two we saw a pre-shape in step three we got our method so step four let's shape a little bit of flour on my surface just a super super thin thin sheen of flour here and sometimes i like to have some a little bit out of my workspace up here a little bit and that way if as i'm shaping i need a little bit i can go up there often my hands might need a little bit or maybe the dough piece needs a little bit so i can sort of flip it up there okay so this is my tube pre-shape it's been sitting on the bench seam side down and the seam side is the side that i want on the interior of the baguette it's not the show side so if it was resting on the bench like that i just flip it over there's my seam okay so i pat to degas that will remove any large bubbles and i begin with what my letter fold right so about two thirds of the way down tap to seal if you see a large bubble you can just pop it turn this around and i'm trying to be regular i'm trying to maintain these square sides right trying to maintain that because like i said before if i have a square floor and square walls i'll have a nice roof and the windows are going easy you know so maintain that squareness so now about two thirds of the way down press to seal and if you want to have a sort of divot in the middle so you know where to divide the baguette there's my middle and now all i have to do is bring that to the leading edge and i'm done you can either do that as i showed using the palm of your hand to seal the heel there or you can use your fingers i'm a fan of using my palm so that's what i'm going to do so i bring this forward to the leading edge and i just press to seal and i basically have my tube so that was the folding portion and now i go to the roll and when i go to the roll i start in the middle and i just go back and forth and then i move my hands to the sides and then as i get to the points i taper just a little bit so back and forth and then hands applying soft pressure moving back and forth and as i get to the edges i just apply a little bit of taper and i look for the seam seam is there and i put it seam up on my koosh or my lid there's the seam let's shape i'm going to pat gently to remove any large air bubbles i get a sense of whether or not the dough is sticking to the bench the bench feels good it's got a light layer of flour and i can begin shaping so remember start with the letter fold sew that edge about two-thirds of the way down and then this side about two-thirds of the way down i'm trying to maintain this square presentation straight sides if i can maintain this straight aspect that'll translate into the final baguette and it'll be nice and even then i just need to bring this edge to the leading edge so bring it down press the seal and if your palm begins to stick a little bit just go out and grab a little bit of flour and that small sheen of flour on your hand that light sheen will be enough back and forth until i have a little bit of a divot here and then to the edges and press to taper baguette should have a nice seam and that will be the side that i put up when i put it on the couch so i place these on my flowered couch or linen seam side up between each dough piece i make a little bit of a pleat okay tip number five for shaping baguettes this is simply patience be patient with yourself be forgiving enjoy the mistakes if you make a baguette and it looks like a snake that swallowed an egg it's okay i've made a lot of those you'll see some of that along the way but often nobody else will notice but you so be patient with yourself enjoy those mistakes and happy baking you

Channel: King Arthur Baking Company

Views: 123,236

Keywords: baking, king arthur flour, flour

Id: ba2DHI299PU

Length: 9min 42sec (582 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 24 2021