Whole Wheat Miche!! 1500g Each
Had fun the other day with six, lightly baked miches. I say lightly because when your wood oven decides to drop temp in the middle of the bake, then thats whats happening and you have to surrender. I left these loaves in for 52 minutes and I'm happy with them. All were eaten and many mentions of this being the best loaf yet. Not as red of a crust as I was going for, but perhaps its closer to an old school french wood fired bake. I'm thinking of Nicolas Supiot's miche style.
Of course the oven dropped temp because these loaves were 400g heavier than my normal loaves, adding an extra 2400 grams to the stone.
Recipe was just about 3500g of bobs whole wheat
Probably 2700g water
1 hour autolyse
I think about 1500g starter
60g salt for sure
close to 300 french folds like Alfanso FromDaBronx
Bulk ferment for a few hours, some folds in there
While fire was going I weighed out 1500g loaves, shaped and bench rested for 20 min and stoked the fire. Then shaped for proofing baskets
Oven started at 800F and rested while loaves proofed for too long, close to 1.5 hours. Was shooting for 30 min.
Finally baked at around 575F for 52 min. Oven dropped to 450 I think.
middle of the loaf, sliced the next day.
When your wood-fired oven cooperates, it is a wonderful day…..but they don't always. Great baking, beautiful breads! Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays to everyone. Dont let the music get to your head ;)
I thought the miche was supposed to be a larger loaf, on the order of 2-4kg. They talked about it in this thread:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/17795/what-pray-tell-miche
Im a beginner so my jargon is not to be trusted. Happy Holidays!!
I am pretty sure there is no difinitive weight for miche. I have seen one sold that were under 1 kilo. But I agree that 1.5kg would seem to be the minimum for it to be called a miche. The thread above just says "the best ones" are larger. Here is one source:
http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/making-a-miche/
But more importantly, Poilaine's miche is around 1.9kg or as low as 4 lbs/1.8kg (but are not exact due to handcrafting):
http://www.poilane.com/pages/en/michemore_produits.php
The one thing to note is that I am pretty sure the weights discussed are after baking, which is less than dough weight. I think any large round can be called a miche if the baker wants, but "large" is a relative term. I just call it a boule at 1kg even though that is large to some people.
Excellent work, Maverick
For larger loaves, you want a lower temperature so that the inside bakes and the outside isn't burnt. Itr's no wonder the monks liked this one the best so far. Well done and happy baking
I appreciate you stopping by on my simple post.