My miche take for the family
This 2+ kg miche is for an upcoming family gathering. Eighteen of us - most of 3 generations - will be getting together at the Central California beach town where my generation vacationed with our parents in the 1960's and '70's. There are lot's of wonderful memories of those Summers.
The formula for the miche is from the SFBI Artisan II workshop I took last December. I have described the formula and methods here: This miche is a hit! Since then, many TFL members have made this bread and seem to have enjoyed it as much as I. That includes brother Glenn, who has promised to bring along a matching miche.
The only modification of the original formula for this bake was to use half WFM Organic AP flour and half CM Organic Type 85 flour.
The crust has lots of lovely crackles.
No crumb photos, since I'm taking it intact to the gathering.
I also baked a couple 1 pound loaves of the San Francisco Sourdough from AB&P today. The formula can be found here: Crackly Crust & Shiny Crumb: San Francisco Sourdough from AB&P
I think the "group photo" puts things in better perspective.
David
Comments
Lovely baking, David. You got really good volume on that miche. It stands up so nice and round. Sometimes it is definitely more satisfying baking with large amounts of dough. Is it possible, because of their larger mass and higher water content, that they take longer to 'set up' and therefore achieve greater volume? I know the folk at the SFBI say there are flavour implications for larger amounts of dough.
Best,
Syd
You asked ...
I think its a simple matter of gravity. At any point in the loaf's interior, there is more mass to lift if the loaf has a greater amount of dough above it. That's why it's easier to get a more open crumb with a bâtard than with a boule of the same weight.
David
So, a nice round loaf and a couple of dinner rolls, eh?
cheers,
gary
Wow, David, they all look great. How long did the big one bake for?!
Hope you have a wonderful-summer-family-reunion!
:^) from breadsong
The miche bakes for 60 minutes at 450F then is left in the vented oven for another 30 minutes.
It's interesting that the instructions are to bake a 1 kg and 2 kg miche for the same 60 minutes. The difference is that the 1 kg miche is left in the vented oven for only 15 minutes.
When we baked these at the SFBI using deck ovens, they just left the loaves on the deck with the oven doors open for the specified time.
David
Thanks David, and also meant to say: love the "S"coring...!
Beautiful loaves! (Pity we're not allowed to see the crumb...:p) I second what Syd said about the volume. You're the master of large miche! Since reading your post while ago where you compared different sized miche and said larger one tasted better, I've been telling myself I'll challenge and bake a large loaf (mine regular ones are 500g dough size) myself one day, but haven't been able to gather the nerve to do it. But one day.....maybe......? Or I might try scaling it down to fit my nerve......? :p
But meanwhile, I think I'll try your SF sourdough in the near future. I had a look at your original post (wonderful crumb photo!) and have one question. Can I ask which bread flour you used for that loaf? Or the protein percentage if you remember? I understand US flour is slightly different from UK flour, but I'd like to choose the nearest one to yours among my regular 'bread flours.'
Thank you.
I use flour that has 11.5-11.7% protein.
David
Hi David,
As usual these breads look exceptional, wonderful baking.
At our friends' house for dinner on Saturday night, our hosts presented a quarter portion of a spelt miche purchased from the foodhall of the city's leading department store. The whole loaf had cost £17.00!!! It came in a lovely presentation box....and it was burnt , with a black crusty base several mm thick. Quite a contrast to your beautiful loaves.
Lumos, I'm thinking if you mixed 10 to 20% plain flour into a strong flour such as Marriages, or maybe 10-15% into Shiptons, you may have something approximating to the strength of flour David has here. Does that seem about right to you? I would think that 20% figure is the absolute maximum.
Very best wishes
Andy
At that price for the burned spelt miche, I must assume the "presentation box" was constructed of rare and beautiful woods with good hardware and is suitable for subsequent use as a jewelry box or cigar humidor.
David
Thank you David and Andy,
Yeah, 11.5-11.7 % is quite a bit lower in protein than UK bread flour, isn't it. Glad I asked!
I usually mix about 20-25% plain flour to strong flour (my regular ones, Waitrose Organic) to French style artisan breads, so I'll do the same for this, too.
Gosh, if US bread flour's protein level is that low(=not much higher than UK plain flour), how low the protein level of AP flour is? I've always thought AP flour is slightly stronger than UK's plain flour (=10-11.5% or so?), but maybe it's because of gluten quality which makes AP flour suitable for breadmaking?
There is no standard definition of the protein or ash contents of American flours. In particular, "AP" and "Bread" flours overlap a lot from mill to mill. The AP flours I use run around 11.5 to 11.7 percent protein, but this is at the high side of the range. King Arthur Flour's AP is 11.7 percent. Their "Bread Flour" is around 12.7 percent, as I recall, and their "High-gluten" flour is over 14 percent protein. The high-gluten flour is milled from hard Spring wheat, while the AP flour is milled from hard Winter wheat.
The high-gluten flour is generally reserved for rye breads, bagels and enriched breads. I rarely use even bread flour for lean breads, although some like the extra chewiness it lends the crumb.
I'm convinced you need to get to know each flour you use. The specs just give you a starting point regarding what performance you can expect. I have used 3 different AP flours that perform close enough to each other that I don't have to make adjustments in hydration or mixing between them, which is not to say there is no difference, for example in dough extensibility/elasticity. Protein content is clearly not the whole story.
I have no experience with UK or French flours.
David
Hi lumos,
it is indeed all in the "quality" of those insoluble gluten-forming proteins!
Although, I thought UK Plain flour usually hovers just above the 9% mark, which is very different to US grade of "AP".
BW
Andy
I'm so flour-protein obsessed, I have a list of protein levels of all the flours I've ever used for bread making in past few years. :p According to the list, the plain flours I have used myself all have protein level of about 10-11.5%, sometimes even higher;
Waitrose organic 11.3% (Was told by a miller of Marriage's, who mills all the Waitrose brand flours, that its specification is almost identical to their own brand flour)
Leckford Estate 11.8% (Leckford uses the wheat they grow on their estate and blend it with some Canadian flour)
Dove's 10%
Allison 10.3%
I haven't used the following, but according to their website...
McDougalls 10.4%
Homepride 10.3%
I have tried making bread with 100% plain flour (both Waitrose's organic and Leckford) when I first leared US based TFLers use AP flour and some AP flour had very similar protein level to Waitrose plains, but it didnt' work at all. The dough just felt like extremely wet ciabatta dough and shaping was very difficult and slashing was almost impossible! I tried with 50% strong and 50% plain, too, but still it was very, very soft dough. A miller at Shipton once told me it's 'quality of protein' you should look at, rather than the level of it, and that experience really told me what he meant.
I'm still dreaming of a day when UK millers start telling us what gluten level their flour has on the packet..... I try not to be as demanding as to want the ash level, too, but at least gluten level....please......