It’s summer and we’re organising a small party – what’s the obvious choice for food? Right, BBQ. What’s the obvious choice for bread accompanied by a nice BBQ? Right! Baguettes! But this wouldn’t be savesourdough without sourdough, so instead of baking the classic baguettes, I created my own formula based on Mr. Hamleman’s “Pain au levain with whole wheat”.

As you can see, the result is quite lovely, it has a beautiful texture inside (although I personally like more holes) and it’s not white bread.

Baking steps

The sourdough has been prepared 12 hours before mixing in the final ingredients. I used a stiff 100% wholewheat starter with a bit rye. The final ingredients contained 600gr of bread flour and more rye. The total hydratation level was 65%.

Scoring didn’t went that well, but the baguettes now contribute to the “ancienne” look and feel. I should have simply stretched some dough balls, that would have been more than sufficient.

If you’re interested in the full formula, just drop me a line here. It’s the same recipe as Mr Hamelman in his excellent book, “BREAD: A baker’s book of techniques and Recipes“, “pain au levain with whole wheat flour”. The dough has been retarded for several hours after the initial mixing because we needed to go and buy the vegetables for the party! No problem at all since the book even recommends it.

After some hours, the dough has been placed in full sun outside (remember, nice wheather) to take off the chill and then I proceeded with preshaping. I think proofing was 2 hours tops – maybe a bit underproofed. Things to remember for next time!