Natural Sourdough Black Olive Mini Baguette (Quick Half-Day Version with High-Quality Baguette Shaping and Scoring Guide)
Because I keep natural yeast, I always adapt delicious bread recipes to make them suitable for natural yeast. This allows me to enjoy healthier, more natural bread—just as I intended when I began maintaining it—and to utilize excess starter. I usually increase the proportion of natural yeast, but when I don't have time for lengthy natural yeast bread-making processes, direct methods are very convenient. Though the result may not have the richness of a 36-hour fermentation, it is still incredibly flavorful. For a quicker dry yeast version, check here: http://www.xiachufang.com/recipe/100149258/. As for why my baguettes are so short—well, the whole world knows the reason by now...
Ingredients
Steps
Chop the black olives into peanut-sized pieces and set aside.
Combine all ingredients except for the salt. Stir with chopsticks until some dry flour remains, then add the chopped olives and mix evenly. Finally, add the salt and mix. Adjust the water gradually according to your flour's absorption. Knead lightly until no dry flour is visible. (Image shows the dough during the folding process.)
Place the dough in a greased container and cover with plastic wrap to ferment at room temperature. After 30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 minutes, fold the dough each time with oily hands. For folding method, refer to the image. (I had to draw it out because there was no one to take pictures—exhausting!). After folding, wait until the dough has risen to 1.5 times its original size. If it's not yet there, cover and continue proofing.
Divide the dough into three equal portions, sprinkle some dusting flour (not included in the recipe's measurements) on the kneading mat, and shape. There are several ways to shape baguettes; follow the method shown in the image to the right for my approach.
Preheat a baking stone at 230°C (446°F) on the second-to-last rack for 40 minutes. During the final 10 minutes, place an empty baking tray on the bottom rack, which will be used for pouring hot water later (detailed in subsequent steps). Meanwhile, prepare a sheet of parchment paper, dust it with flour, and grease it to prevent sticking. Place the shaped dough on the paper, dust with flour, and prepare for scoring.
Traditionally, scoring is done after the second proof, but I find it easier to score before the second proof. After the second proof, the dough is usually sticky and loses its structure, so scoring beforehand allows the slashes to open naturally during the second proof. When scoring, hold the blade at a 45-degree angle to the dough and make cuts almost parallel to the baguette's length. Each slash should overlap the previous one by about 1/3 its length (personally, I prefer overlapping by 2/3). Refer to the diagram for illustration. The first two scoring methods are correct; the third one—not so much.
Here are a few images of the scoring on mini-baguettes I've made previously. Remember to slash longitudinally—never crosswise. (I'm still improving my scoring skills, but this is the proper method.)
Since the flour quantity in this recipe is small, the dough will be small and short. Here is a scoring example from the dry yeast version.