After a few successful loaves of Tartine country white bread, it was time to attempt Chad Robertson’s Tartine Bread baguettes. As any baker will attest, the baguette is a tricky loaf. To achieve smooth, crackling crust and a holey crumb, the dough requires careful handling. Creating the long, skinny, symmetrical shape isn’t easy with a wet dough, and a thin, shattering crust won’t develop without generous steaming during the first few minutes of baking.
Robertson’s baguette recipe suggests a (novel to me) technique to generate copious steam: saturate kitchen towels, and place the wet towels on a half-sheet pan on the oven’s floor. Except that it doesn’t work: in my oven, the towels dried out and caught fire (see photographic evidence at right).
I don’t know if my towels weren’t wet enough, or if I was supposed to fold the towels flat, or if I was supposed to use terrycloth towels. I do know that my entire house filled with smoke, requiring me to open all the doors and windows in August, to run the central air conditioning on “vent” for 45 minutes, and to throw out two charred towels. The sheet pan needed a thorough scrubbing with Bar Keep’s Friend.
The baguettes turned out okay, though. The crust was a bit too thick: it could have used more steam.
Bouillie 
Funny, I just get burnt towels that are forgetting to snag the towel off the oven door when I go to pour water in the steam pan… I’ve been working on baguettes for months, but I think I’m working with a less wet dough than you are here. The crust almost always comes out great; still working on getting the perfect invisible seam.
They’re not boulangerie-quality yet, but they are better than the whole foods ones.
Are you using Reinhart’s ABED baguette recipe?
Yes, the french bread, not the lean bread. “Knead three minutes and put up” is easier to do late at night than stretch and folds.
A half-sheet with a silicon mat plus a cheap cookie sheet with water poured on it gets pretty good spring and a crust I like. Adding too much yeast produces a substance not unlike new orleans french bread.
I’ve made the recipe before, but IIRC, I cut it into small sandwich loaves. Will have to revisit that one.
Hey:
So sorry about your fire.
Try soaking a stone in water..
like a pizza stone or a “Romertopf stone bakeware” over night..
then place it in the oven before you bake .
it should release steam nicely..
My romertopf made beautiful breads
http://www.romertopfonline.com/clay-bakers/06102/
or just place a pan of water on the bottom rack.
I usually generate steam using a big cast iron skillet….it preheats along with the oven, then I pour in hot water and create beaucoup steam. I sure won’t be trying the wet towel method again!
Check Julia Child’s The Art of French Coooking on baking baguettes with a brick and also on troubleshooting thick crusts… Less salt and less humidity in the rising process usually helps.
Wow, glad you’re okay and it was only an inconvenience. I hate the lingering smell of burned food.