Picture of the baguettes from "Tartine Bread"

Okay... who am I that I should even have the audacity to correct Chad Robertson. But when I see a recipe in a book that's obviously wrong - I don't care if the author is a world-renown baker and I'm just a peon baker of a relatively unknown micro-bakery - I'm going to point it out.

So what got this bug up my ass about the baguette recipe in Tartine Bread? There are a few things I found in the recipe that seem off. The first issue is that the total yield of the recipe far exceeds what you actually need to make 2 to 3 baguettes as suggested in the book. Furthermore, the amount of yeast used in the poolish seems a little much for the amount of flour and water. And finally, the hydration seems awfully low.

By themselves, these issues aren't really that bad. I have no doubt that the recipe will yield some very tasty baguettes. But altogether, they make the recipe seem a little off to me.

Here's the recipe from the book:

Leaven 400g
Water 500g
Poolish 400g
All-Purpose Flour 650g
Bread Flour 350g
Salt 24g
Total Yield 2324g

Before the recipe, he writes:

Makes 2 or 3 baguettes

When I originally read that, I immediately thought that recipe amounts would be pretty small. But when I saw the amounts he was calling for, I immediately said out loud, "No friggin' way!" Then that made me analyze the recipe even more.

Right-sizing the Recipe for Home Baking

I know, I know. Who am I to correct a master? But from everything I've learned about making baguettes, 40cm demi-baguette dough should weigh about 220g. Standard 60cm baguettes are about 330-335g apiece. The amounts listed in the recipe would make 10 demi-baguettes or 7 full-size baguettes! Even if we scale out 400g pieces (as he mentions his are in Tartine Bread), that is enough dough to make more than 5 of those! So that must've been a typo. Furthermore, if you look at the pictures in the book, there's no way that the dough pieces are 400g. But look, if you read the book and follow the recipe, just know that it'll make more than 2 or 3 baguettes.

In light of that, here's what I've been able to glean from the recipe in the book.

Overall Formula

Flour 100.00%
Water 64.00%
Salt 1.70%
Yeast 0.00%
Total Percentage 165.70%

Preferment (Both Levain and Poolish)

Note that the flour from both the levain and the poolish contributes ~14.25% of the total flour apiece. So for the final dough, you'll need about 230g of each of the levain and poolish. I just combined the two for my calculations.

Preferment Flour %* 28.6%
Hydration % 100%
Preferment Flour Weight 229g
Preferment Water 229g
Preferment Required 459g
NOTE: Both starters use AP flour

Final Dough

Flour 575g
Water 286g
Salt 14g
Preferment 459g
Yield 1330g
4 X ~330g loaves
6 X ~220g loaves

This yield is much more sensible for a home baker. I realize that many folks don't have a baking stone and can't make full-size baguettes. Not a problem. The final dough weight of 1330 will make 6 X 220g 40cm baguettes, which is about 15". If you have 15" baguette trays, these will fit right on them!

As far as dough development is concerned, Chad Robertson uses the same process for his basic country loaf, which involves 6 folds over a 3-hour period after mixing.

An Issue with the Poolish

Another anomaly I saw in the recipe is that the poolish is made of 200g AP flour, 200g water and 3 grams of active dry yeast, or 2.25 grams instant yeast. His instructions state to let that stand for 3 to 4 hours at room temp or overnight in the fridge. Based on my experience, that's way too much yeast. That poolish will be ready in less than two hours, even in cold weather. An overnight fridge rest will have exhausted all flour. I would say use 0.5g instant yeast, or 0.75g active dry.

Hydration? Hmm...

You'll notice that the overall hydration is 64%. That's not a bad thing, but it does make a stiffer dough. I have to admit that I'm a little dubious of the openness of the crumb with a hydration that low. However, Hamelman's Poolish Baguettes in Bread are only 66%. I guess there are many ways to skin a cat. But that said, everything I've learned about baguettes is that in general, they're at least 75% hydration.

Believe me, I don't want to come off as being some know-it-all, and I'm not the kind fo actively look for fault in someone's approach just to make myself feel better. That's absurd behavior. But being a home-based baker myself, I wanted to point out a few minor anomalies I found. Especially with the dough yield, I just couldn't imagine making a baguette from almost 1200g of dough! 🙂

As for the dough itself, I see no problem with it. In fact, the high amount of preferment that's used will make the dough much more extensible, despite it being such a low hydration - at least that's what I'm thinking will happen. But there's no better way to find out than to make these! I've never even considered using both a levain and a poolish together. I'm excited to see how it will turn out!

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