Ok. Back on the effort for the better baguette. Trying this time around the Tartine style baguette with leaven and polish. Really gigantic baguettes. simple and easy but I need to cut the initial dough into 6 even chunks instead of 4.

The poolish just seemed to launch these loaves into hyper rise. No sooner did I shape them then they began to rise like crazy. They were slated to rise for 2 and 1/2 hours and 45 minutes in I had to do a quick oven heat up and get them baked. Sadly they look terrible. I strayed from the baking recipe and added spray water directly to the dough once in the oven. Not a good idea for this dough. I think that this resealed my fairly deep slashes on the loaves. Next time no direct spray. The only steam I need is the mini cast iron pan in the bottom of the oven.

Even with the short rise they still had oven spring. Since they were so big my baguette pans were too small. Slid these directly on to the pizza stone.

The crumb is pretty light and airy. Not nearly as dense as the Ramleaven bread. Crust is fairly thin and good and crispy.

Good start overall. Just need to work on the look now.