Chilling Shaped Loaves
There are times when the number of loaves proofing is greater than the amount of available oven space. It happens in bakeries of all sizes, and the home environment is no exception.
Refrigeration can be a great tool for slowing activity just enough to allow the oven to recover, or for holding shaped loaves for several hours or even overnight in some instances. As with each aspect of bread making, there is a learning curve. Different doughs rise and cool (and thus, slow their activity) at different rates, and tolerate cold (what bakers refer to as retardation) in differing degrees. With these baguettes, it may be that your oven can hold only a few at a time. If this is the case, cover and chill two of the four baguettes after shaping and leave the other two to rise at room temperature. To determine when to remove them from the cold, keep an eye on the chilled loaves, monitoring their proof.
After working the kinks out of your French dough baguettes you might try a slightly more challenging version, which uses a wetter, stickier dough. More water will make handling the dough a little tougher, but it will also open the interior structure more, leaving a lacy webbed landscape of fingertip-size air pockets. Grandma might say this loaf is “full of air!” and demand a refund. And it’s the loaf that will send your baker friends into fits of envy. I present this as a “straight dough,” meaning that there is no preferment. The straight dough baguette has a flavor that is simpler, a more straightforward presentation of natural sweetness (some say it tastes like the cornflakes cereal due to the malty sweetness) and a toasty quality from the bake.