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The pain au levain with whole-wheat from "Bread" that I blogged about a few weeks ago, is quickly becoming one of my favourite levain breads. Here's one that I baked yesterday afternoon:

I'm always amazed by the fact that these levain breads only contain three ingredients: Flour, water and salt. It's fascinating how three so simple ingredients come together and, given enough time, produce delicious loaves. This loaf has a subtle and mild taste, and I usually eat it plain in order to fully enjoy the flavour.

In my last post, I wrote about a new rye starter that I made. The initial motivation to get a new one going, was to see whether there would be any significant difference in flavour compared to the stiff, white starter that I've had for about a year. The rye starter is incredibly active, and I've been keeping it on a 1:10:10 (starter:flour:water) diet, with feedings spaced roughly 12 hours apart. The resulting loaves taste pretty much like those leavened with the white starter, so I guess one of them will eventually be cut loose... We'll see. Anyways, below is a multigrain sourdough that I baked with the rye starter (no commercial yeast):

It's approx. 20% whole-rye (all from starter), 10% buckwheat and the rest bread flour. Multigrain soaker contains the usual suspects (i.e. flaxseeds, quinoa seeds, oat bran, rye chops, sunflower seeds). I gave the dough a 2 hr. bulk followed by proof overnight in the fridge.

I also baked some croissants over the weekend:

It's been a long time since I had a go at these, and I've definitely felt the cravings for buttery, flaky croissants for a while. I used the straight dough version from Suas' ABAP, and let the dough ferment 45 mins. at room tempertaure before I degassed and retarded the dough in the fridge overnight. Lamination (three single folds) the following morning, and makeup and final proof the following afternoon. A nice evening snack and splendid petit dejeuner the next morning :) They turned out alright, but rolling and shaping still need practice.

Finally, a humble carrot cake:

A very moist, soft carrot sponge and cream cheese filling made this an enjoyable dessert! Three pretty large, shredded carrots went into the sponge batter (baked in a 15 cm cake ring), but I think even more could go in there to give it a stronger flavour of carrots. The most enjoyable bit was actually making small, cute marzipan carrots :)

100 % sprouted grains? 'Sounds great and interesting', I said to myself and printed the Recipe of Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads a couple weeks ago. This weekend I gave it a try.

I sprouted my grains as indicated. They all had cute little white tails and were pleasant to chew. I would have better kept them as a addition to my breakfast cereals instead of trying to make them into a bread.

"grind the grains into a pulp as fine as possible. If the grains warm up to much, let them rest for ten minutes and continue when cooled. A meat grinder works even better" - That's what Reinhart wrote. I should have been an english native to know what exactly a food processor is. I tried everything, and everything failed.

my kenwood mixer . . .

the mixer which normally fixes everything, the legendary bamix . . . The bamix addon grinder . . .

even the kenwood grater . . .

and last but not least, in desperation, I tried it with a passevite.

I fought about an hour, ended up with my bamix. All the other things blocked because of this doughy/grainy mass. My bamix just got very hot, so I decided to call it for good, even though there were still some whole grains. I added yeast, honey, salt, water and Vital Wheat Gluten, then fermentation, shaping, proofing, baking, cooling, slicing.

The result of this struggle? My bamix is somewhat weird. The exchangeable blades are very hard to remove and to put on again. (I hope my mom won't find out.) I washed kitchen equipment for about an hour. And I've got a bread which is jar-muscle-excercise. It is light, but the grains . . . Flavorwise, it's just bread. seriously, I had much better whole grain breads. I don't notice an exciting difference trough the sprouting and because of the considerable amount of yeast added, no other interesting flavors emerged. Even my family noticed a "lack" in flavor compared to other breads I bake.

You wan't to see pictures?I know the bread looks decent, but before you try it: Think about what gear you've got.

Salome

Getting home an hour earlier than expected + The best blueberries I've had in years in the fridge = 

The recipe is from "The Best Recipe" by the "Cooks Illustrated" folks. These are "Lemon-Blueberry Muffins." I made 3/4 of a recipe. (That's the real "math.")

And for the rest of the "crumb shot" obsessed:

It was hard to decide what to have for dessert - fresh out of the oven muffin or a slice of ....

My wife's Plum Cake (inspired by the recent postings about this).

I went with the muffin. There's always bedtime snack.

David

Thanks to all the good advice I received here I finally managed an entirely staisfactory sourdough loaf. The full story is at my blog, but the bare essentials are that I made a 60% hydration dough with 100% strong Manitoba flour. The starter was 10% at 100% hydration. I stretched and folded during about three and a half hours bulk fermentation at a hot room temperature, then formed the boule and let it rise for an hour or so before putting it in the frdige overnight. I baked from cold, into the hottest oven I could manage. And the ugly looking scoring was achieved with a pair of scissors, snipping the dough four times.

Thanks again.

Background:

I first read about Jean Luc Poujauran in 1994 in Linda Dannenberg's book "Paris Boulangerie-Patisserie". At that time, he was already an established member of the younger generation of French artisan bakers that included Basile Kamir, Gerard Mulot, Pierre Herme and Eric Kaiser. He owned a very successful little bakery with its ever present bright blue antique delivery van parked in front on rue Jean Nicot in the 7th arrondissement in Paris. In 2003, he sold his bakery to dedicate himself to a wholesale business supplying bread to over 100 of the best eating establishments in Paris like Pierre Gagnaire, l'Atelier Joel Robuchon, La Regalade and Le Comptoir.

I have had the good fortune to taste Jean Luc Poujauran's signature Pain de Campagne at a few of those restaurants. I will never forget the time my wife and I had dinner at La Regalade and as soon as we sat down, our waiter presented us with an assortment of house made saucissons and pate de campagne, a crock of cornichons and a wooden cutting board with a loaf of Pain de Campagne from Poujauran. It was an absolutely perfect way to start a meal.

Another time, on one of the coldest day in February, we ate at the restaurant Le Comptoir and after a wonderful dinner, for the cheese course our server set on our table a tray of assorted cheeses so large that the far end had to rest on the neighbouring table. But the best was a basket of Poujauran Pain de Campagne to go with it. We enjoyed the best cheese course we ever had while marveling at the brave souls who sat outside eating at the sidewalk tables, wrapped in blankets supplied by the restaurant and warmed by a couple of portable heaters and the wonderful creations of chef Yves Camdeborde. It was an absolutely perfect way to end a meal.

   Jean Luc Poujauran with Pain de Campagne

Since discovering TFL about six months ago, I have acquired a wealth of bread baking know-how from its members through various posts and have felt bold enough to attempt to replicate Poujauran's Pain de Campagne based on his own published description as well as my taste memory.

According to Poujauran, his Pain de Campagne is 100% organic and made with high extraction stone ground flour, neutral PH non-demineralized osmosis filtered water, Sel Gris from Guerande and a natural Levain which has undergone a double fermentation. The dough goes trough a slow mixing and folding process and a long 18-24 hour fermentation. The loaves are shaped by hand and baked on Lava Rocks.

  Poujauran's Pain de Campagne

   Poujauran's Pain de Campagne Crumb

Ideas and Notes:

I decided to follow Poujauran's description as close as possible starting with all organic ingredients.

I decided on a flour mix of higher gluten white flour and stone ground Whole Wheat flour with a touch of Rye flour. I selected Bob's Red Mill flours because I have found them reliable, easily available in the DC area and they fit the established criteria. I added some Malted Barley Flour to help the browning of the crust because unlike most flours BRM White Flour does not contain any.

I did some research and found that Deer Park Spring Water has a close to Neutral PH, goes through double osmosis filtration and is not demineralized.

I was able to buy a bag of Sel Gris de Guerande which is an Atlantic grey sea salt produced by evaporation in the western coast of France in the Guerande area which also produces the much more expensive Fleur de Sel which are salt crystals that form on the surface of the salt ponds and are skimmed off the top.

I settle on the use of a liquid levain with 2 builds to minimize the sour effect of the starter. I use mature 100% hydration white flour levain for the 1st build at 1:2:2 ratio and let triple in volume at 80-85 degrees for 4-5 hrs before the 2nd build. This amount of plain white flour is not included in the flour mix. The final build uses a portion of the flour mix.

I followed the slow mixing and folding and the long extended retardation.

Formulation:

Flour Mix:

-370 Gms BRM Organic White Flour

-100 Gms BRM Organic Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour

-30 Gms BRM Organic Stone Ground Dark Rye Flour

-1/8 Tsp BRM Malted Barley Flour

Liquid Levain 2nd build (100% hydration):

-30 Gms Liquid Levain from 1st build

-60 Gms Flour Mix

-60 Gms Deer Park Spring Water

Dough Mix (70% hydration):

-150 Gms Liquid Levain

-440 Gms Flour Mix

-290 Gms Deer Park Spring Water

-9 Gms Sel Gris de Guerande

-1/8 Tsp Instant Yeast

Procedures:

1- Mix Liquid Levain w/ Flour Mix and Water and let rise at 80-85 degrees until triple (4-5 hrs) before use.

2- Blend Flour Mix with Water using flat beater on slow speed for 2 mins and autolyse for 30 mins.

3- Mix Dough, Levain, Salt and Yeast using Dough Hook on slow then medium speed for 2 mins until dough comes clean from the side of the bowl and let rest for 10 mins.

4- Stretch and fold dough manually every 45 minutes for 4 times total.

5- Cover and refrigerate for 18-24 hrs. Dough should almost double in volume.

6- Flatten and pre-shape dough into round shape and let rest seam side down for 1.5 hrs.

7- One hour before baking, preheat oven to 475 degrees w/ baking stone and cast iron skillet filled w/ lava rocks.

8- Gently shape dough into Batard shape and proof on couche for 1.5 hrs.

9- Flip Batard on parchment and slash 2 times lengthwise. Mist oven and slide parchment on baking stone in oven. Pour 1 cup boiling water on Lava Rocks.

10- Lower oven temperature to 450 degrees and bake for 15 mins.

11- Remove Cast Iron Pan, rotate Batard, reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees and bake for another 30 mins.

12- Turn off oven and cool batard in oven w/ door ajar for 15 mins.

13- Transfer Batard to wire rack to cool.

   Shaped Batard on couche

  Poujauran's Pain de Campagne (My Version)

  Grignes detail

  Crumb detail

Assessments:

The dough had a nice balance of elasticity and extensibility and had very good oven spring. The cuts opened nicely and the crust was deep mahogany color with an enticing aroma of warm molasses. It had medium thickness with a nice crunchiness. The crumb was light tan color with fairly open and irregular holes. It tasted medium soft and slightly chewy with roasted nut flavor. It tasted sweet with a definite tang but not sour, reminiscent of an English style Stout. Overall, I was pleased with the results but wish that the crumb would be a little softer and a little less chewy like the original Poujauran version. Oh well, it is a work in progress and I will update with future tweakings when available.

Happy Baking!

Don

After so many searches for a good chocolate bread i took Hamelman's formula for french bread.

Replace 15 gms of flour with cocoa powder. Add 15 gms brown sugar (the best u can get) and finally, 120 gms 53% dark chocolate.

Didn't change the instruction. So far it's the best one i ever ate.

The second bread is another one from hamelman's book, Golden Raisin and Walnut Bread, which i love and did more then once.

But that unic combination is something i ate in east europe. So instead of the Walnut and the Raisin i put 5 gms dry basil and 50 gms Sunflower seed.

Ron

just posting some pics from last nights bake with my new oven. my new oven is off the chain. oven temps can reach set temperatures sooooo much faster compared to my older oven. in a addition to, i now get to play with the convection. im excited!

below is a underproofed 100% sourdough. it was getting late so i decided to bake early...

dough was autolysed for 40 mins + 2 stretch and folds every 30mins, refridgerated over night..

This is my first blog entry here on TFL so here goes:

It started out like most weeks. I knocked out a couple loves of basic white bread on Monday.

My scale arrived from Amazon.com on Tuesday along with my new solder sucker and I was anxious to try it out but didn't want to get too much bread on the counter so I decided to wait. Wed completely got away from me and I didn't even cook dinner (McDonalds to the rescue) so along came Thursday and I decided to convert my usual recipe from cups to weight.

I also made a large batch of Portuguese sweet bread using a recipe from this thread (holds99)

On the upper left is the basic white loaf, all the rest is from the sweet bread recipe. (Note, I did not double the recipe. It makes a bunch of dough.

I baked a loaf of basic white again on Friday, using some Seal of Minnesota Flour that one of the grocery stores in my neck of the woods decided to carry in #50 bags (for $16.00) and it was FAB.

I usually use walmart brand cheep AP. I would post pics but we ate the evidence. Will post pics of the next loaf. I had about 20 percent more rise and the crust and crumb rival Wonder Bread! It didn't make it past breakfast the next morning.

So Saturday rolls around and my daughter (20yo) decided she wanted my wife's French Onion Soup. And she wants it in a bread bowl. (I love a challenge)

So I have been wanting to try a version of Ruchbrot (from this thread)

What I came up with was this:

650g Whole Wheat Flour

150g Rye flour

200g AP flour

650 ml water (100° f)

2-1/2 tsp yeast

2-1/2 tsp salt

--1 egg for wash--

______________

Mix everything together in a large bowl. knead everything together into a smooth dough. Let rise until doubled. Form the dough into small boules. Preheat oven to 450 ° f-475 ° f. Wash with the egg to help seal the crust. Let rise until almost doubled and bake for about 25 minutes until done. Internal temp of 195° f

I let them cool and sliced the tops off, pulled the guts out and filled. They held up beautifully, No leaks at all. even after 6 hours, no leaks.

Oh, and did I mention the bread was YUM, Earthy, Hearty, and robust.

From Rose Levy Beranbaum's book 'the bread bible'.  This was my first attempt at making this boule.  I loved the idea of a bread full of sliced almonds and figs and wanted to make this little boule after seeing the photo in RLB book.  I thought it would make a lovely bread to serve with cheese and wine.  The crumb is dense and studded with sliced almonds/on top slivered and dried figs.  I did all my mixing by hand and chose the 'Ultimate full flavor variation'.

It tasted very nice except it was a little on the salty side for me.  Also I think the photo in the book does not give a good shot of the crust under the slivered almonds which I think keep the crust light....which I do not care for such a light crust!  The almond slivers start becoming very dark during the bake so you have to cover it with some foil as instructed.  My almond slivers are much darker than they appear in the photos.  This boule would make a pretty plater centerpiece and go well with cheese and wine.  It has a whole fig in the center and when cut is supposed to resemble a heart!  I just picked a large fig!     

Sylvia

The “Miche, Pointe-à-Callière” from Jeffrey Hamelman's “Bread” is one of my favorite breads. I've made it a great many times. But I have a confession to make: I've never made it with the proper hydration level.

It started out by my finding one of the very rare errors in this marvelous book. Hamelman's ingredient list in the “Home” version of the Final Dough calls for “1 lb., 6.4 oz (2 ¼ cups)” of water. Now, 2 ¼ cups of water weighs less than this. I initially assumed the volume measurement was correct, and I used 1 lb., 2 oz. of water. You know, this made an outstanding bread. It did have more oven spring and a higher profile than expected, but the crumb was nice and open with large holes, and it tasted great, so I kept using my “corrected” formula.

Now, “Bread” has been such a reliable book, I always doubted my solution. Finally, I compared the ingredient quantities in the 3 listings Hamelman gives with the baker's percentages he gives. It turns out that the error was really in the volume measurement, not the weight. The home recipe should call for 2 ¾ cups of water, which is 1 lb., 6.4 oz.

So, today, for the first time, I made the Miche at the 82% hydration called for in Hamelman's formula.

At the higher hydration level, this dough is not just slack. It is truly gloppy. Hamelman says to mix it 2 to 2 ½ minutes (in a professional spiral mixer) to get “moderate gluten development.” I mixed it in a Bosch Universal Plus for 17 minutes to get something less than “moderate” gluten development. Hamelman then calls for 2 or 3 folds during a 2 ½ hour bulk fermentation. I implemented the “stretch and fold in the bowl” approach and did 30 folds at 30 minute intervals over 2 hours, then I let the dough proof for another 45 minutes. (This is much like the method McGuire uses in his “Pain de Tradition,” as Shiao-Ping has shared with us. Since the Miche, Pointe-à-Callière is also a McGuire bread, according to Hamelman, using this method seemed entirely reasonable.)

I “shaped” the miche by dumping the dough onto a heavily floured board and folding the edges to the center. I made 6-8 folds. The loaf was then transferred to a linen-lined, floured banneton and proofed for 2 hours and baked with steam.

I am cooling the miche overnight before slicing. 

Miche profile

This miche still has a higher profile than those pictured in Hamelman.

Miche crumb

The crumb is about right, but, interestingly, I've gotten more open crumbs on previous bakes using somewhat lower hydration. My hunch is that the difference is related to how I did the bulk fermentation.

David