Pane Tipo di Altamura in a WFO: A mitigated disaster
This morning, I baked two loaves of Pane Tipo di Altamura (1kg each) and one loaf of my Pugliese Capriccioso (1 kg) in my friend J.S.'s Wood-Fired Oven. The breads were baked for a potluck lunch for about 25 most of whom are Italian-Americans.
Both breads were cold retarded in bannetons after final shaping for about 18 hours.
First, the bad news. We forgot an important lesson learned last year: You have to take the hot coals out of the oven before loading bread into it. Consequently, although the oven floor was a reasonable temperature for baking bread (around 500 dF), the heat from the fire resulted in a seriously charred crust. After the loaves cooled, I took a knife to them and scraped off most of the char. What was left still looked pretty nasty, but did not impart any bitter or otherwise off flavors to the bread.
The good news - and most of the news was good: First, I got the Altamura shaping right, finally. (Thanks to mwilson for his very helpful advice after my last bake of Pane di Altamura.) Second, there was terrific oven spring, and the final loaf shape was close to the classic folded Altamura shape. Third, (and most important) the bread was fabulously delicious! The flavor was more complex than any of my previous bakes, with nutty, sweet and tangy notes. The crust was crunchy. The crumb was cool, tender and chewy.
The bread was greatly appreciated by all, including the one attendee whose opinion I value most, a woman who immigrated from Apulia as a young adult. She and her husband had a very good Southern Italian restaurant and pizzeria in town until they retired some years ago.
So, here are some photos of the Pane di Altamura. The loaf is ugly as sin to look at. You will have to take my word that it was delicious to eat.
J.S. and I have already discussed our next bake in her WFO when we will remember to sweep out the coals before loading the bread. I also want to bake Pane di Altamura with an overnight retardation again in my oven. I think the retardation enhances this bread's flavor a lot.
By the way, the Pugliese Capriccioso was also (charred but) delicious.
David
Comments
Hi David, Not one of your most beautiful breads, but I'm sure it tasted fantastic, and I certainly admire your persistence! I am a new member, but have been frequenting TFL for a couple of years already. I have learned such a huge amount from this site, and from your blog in particular. I especially appreciate how you are willing to share all of your baking experiences, both the good, and not so good. It helps all of us to learn. Thank you. marybeth/AnotherLoaf
We do learn the most from our mistakes quite often!
David
That does take bold bake to another level but the crumb looks perfect and the heart shape is gorgeous. I've heard there is a definite learning process to a WFO and sure you will master it before long.
Stu
It's a bit unfortunate that sometimes we have to learn the same lesson a number of times before it sinks in!
David
There's always a new lesson to be learned in the process, sometimes more than once for it to be incorporated. But the report of interior and flavor must be very encouraging.
In fact, I was very happy with the flavor. I basically flipped a coin over retarding in bulk or after dividing and shaping. When I make this next time, I may go for the bulk retardation.
The char was unfortunate. My wife was surprised that I didn't seem more upset. But the char could be cut away, leaving a good bit of very tasty crust and lots of delicious crumb. And then getting the shape pretty much right was also encouraging.
Even so, I think this bread will remain a bit of a novelty in my repertoire. There are so many other breads I prefer. It has been a fun puzzle to solve though.
David
Even seasoned pros make mistakes and learn from them. We just need to keep trying until we get there. Love the shape and I'm sure it's delicious.
David
Unfortunate about the char but if it tastes good, that's a win in my books!
I think the heart shape is fantastic :)
ovens wasn't anywhere near this good:-) Amazing how fast things can go from bold to black. Nice the inside was salvageable and tasty We need a WFO hidden camera invention so we can see what is going on in there!
Happy learning experiences David!
It seems like we talked about in-oven video monitors some years ago. A shame no one's done anything about it yet. It would be better for one's spine than the traditional monitoring method, for sure.
David
in a pinch.
I recently saw a video someone posted of some elder ladies from either Poland or Romania baking some large country style loaves in a wood fired oven in their kitchen. They baked it in oval shaped pans and when they took it out it was nice and black all over. They then used a large knife and hacked all of the burned parts off and they were ready to eat!
Anyway, it's great to hear you are close to your perfect formula and I'm sure next time it will look as great as it tastes.
Regards,
Ian
David, brusciate be damned...that is a fabulous Altamura...which formula did you use, you have three versions up!!
Delizioso!
Jeremy
That bake would probably correspond to the preceding date's bake, but I can't be sure. Anyway, each of the recipes represented progress relative to the preceding one.
David