The idea of my formula came from bethesdakers’ Butternut Squash & Sunflower Seed Baguette. One comment to his post mentioned about sundried tomatoes and I thought to myself, hmmm… chilies and sundried tomatoes, I love it! The chilies would give it an extra kick and make this baguette a big more interesting. I used Bird’s eye chilies (pictured below); they are dynamites; so if you want to try this formula, use the chilies sparingly unless you love the heat. My daughter took a bite of this baguette and immediately she said, “Mum, it tastes like Italy!” I aimed for an overall hydration of 73 – 74% and towards that end, about 50% of the roasted butternut pumpkin was taken into account as hydration. With this level of hydration, I was going for nice open crumb rather than nice “grigne”on slashes. 
[color=red][u][b]My formula[/b][/u][/color]
A very slight hint of chili with sundried tomatoes is a great fit. Roasted pepitas add to the nutty fragrance. I serve the baguette with Yoghurt cheese balls marinated in chilies, garlic and rosemary. And once again, yoghurt and the heat of chili balance out. 
[b]Baguette served with Yoghurt Cheese Balls marinated in chilies, and [/b][b]Chili Peppers filled with feta and basil[/b] Enjoy!
[color=red][u][b]My formula[/b][/u][/color]- 320 g starter @75% hydration
- 720 g bread flour
- 370 g water (divided into 150 g and 220 g)
- 260 g roasted butternut pumpkin puree (roasted with chopped up chilies and 2 tbsp of oil and salt and pepper to taste, then pureed with 150 g of the formula water and 30 g honey; let cool for use)
- 3 Bird’s eye chilies, chopped
- 85 g sundried tomatoes, chopped
- 80 g pepitas, lightly roasted
- 18 g salt
A very slight hint of chili with sundried tomatoes is a great fit. Roasted pepitas add to the nutty fragrance. I serve the baguette with Yoghurt cheese balls marinated in chilies, garlic and rosemary. And once again, yoghurt and the heat of chili balance out. [b]Baguette served with Yoghurt Cheese Balls marinated in chilies, and [/b][b]Chili Peppers filled with feta and basil[/b] Enjoy! Shiao-Ping
Replies
Look soooooo good.
Will have to use regular chillies...the 2 youngest members of the family have not developed tough tongues yet.
Munching on a piece of your 'epic' bread...mmmm....lovely. Had to bake a loaf last night as I didn't have enough fridge space. Baking the other 2 now. Thanks for a superb recipe.
Shiao-ping,
This is a recipe I'm just going to have to try! What a lovely presentation and your pictures are awesome! My daughter is coming to visit in June and she's a vegetarian so this will be a perfect project for us to bake together. Thank you for sharing your recipe...would you also share the yoghurt cheese balls w/chili's recipe?
Toni
They were shop bought, but you can try making your own. If you get a mixture of ricotta cheese and natural yogurt (say, 1:1) and drain it overnight on a sieve or 24 hours. Next day, you add salt and pepper, and whatever herbs combination you like, roll small portions into balls, put them in a jar with olive oil and chili chopped up (or even garlic will be nice). The herbs they use is primarily rosemary. If you find your natural yogurt is still too watery the next day, you can use more ricotta cheese vis-a-vis yogurt.
Hope your daughter enjoy this bread.
Shiao-Ping
Thank you for both of these recipes...I have a month to try them out before she arrives. Maybe by then I'll have figured out how to upload pictures to this site as well!
Toni
Looks great!! How was the texture??
after stretching and folding i have noticed that it gets very difficult to rolls the dough into baguettes what is the best way to rolls the baguettes after it is filled with all air bubbles.
one more thing is that my baguettes comes flat,i have read u dont need to mix alot but sometimes i have also read that for bread to form nice open crumb and the gas bubbles to get caught into the dough the gluten has to be formed enough please guide