Kyle's Kitchen                                    Last Updated 10/11/2007

I spent 3 days, 8 hours a day, shaping bread @Amy's Bread this week. So what did I do on Sunday? Sourdough baguettes for more shaping fun and a naturally leavened version of Semolina w/raisins and fennel seed.

At Amy's they make ficeles that are about 30 inches long, pre-baking. Each ficele starts out as an 8.64 ounce of dough. Because my oven isn't that wide, I went with 6.5 ounces.

Each piece gets stretched into aabout an 8 x 4 rectangle.

The top gets folded down, just past half way.

The bottom then gets folded up to overlap the top.

Now it time for thumb fun! With the right hand the dough is pulled over the left thumb, moving from right to left. This is after the first pass.

After the second pass, you use the heal of your hand to seal the seam.

This is what you end up with.

Do it 5 more times and this is what you end up with.

I let them sit for 5-10 minutes at this point. It lets the gluten relax so rolling the baguettes is easier. At the rolling out point, bench flour is not you friend. In fact, I keep a damp paper towel handy to keep the board damp and create the necessary friction.

If you can apply even pressure with the palms of your hands, and work from the center out...

I use the back of a half sheet pan, and parchment, to get them onto my stone. They are too long fo my peel.

Not too bad. The first batch I shoulda baked a little longer, the second maybe a little shorter, but hey, the playoffs are on!

The crumb is reasonably open and the crust has great crackle.

I had a little excess starter, so I tried a wild yeast version of Amy's Semolina w/ raisins and fennel seeds. The crust had a little more crackle to it.

The dough fermented for 4 hours and the loaves proofed for 2 1/2. The crumb was a little more moist than the original sponge version, and not as cake like. I think I'll stick with the original version.