Request for pictures of BBA's pain de campagne

I'm new to artisinal bread baking, and I have made pain de campagne in Bread Baker's Apprentice twice. It didn't come out the way I was expecting either time. Fairly dense crumb, chewy not crackly crust. It doesn't taste bad, in fact, the next day it's really good, but it's not what I was expecting. I followed the instructions very closely, so maybe it actually came out the way it was supposed to and I just didn't know it. So could someone try the recipe (p. 195) and post pictures so I can see how it turns out for someone else? I would post my own pictures for diagnosis, but I don't have a digital camera. I'll have to get one once I start making bread worth bragging about.

Thanks!

Abby

I had actually planned to make it sometime in the next two days....So I will most definitely post my results!

I have never made it either though....so lets see how we go :)

I took another taste of my most recent effort, after it had a chance to cool properly, and it has more of a crust than it seemed to have straight out of the oven. It's really a very tasty bread. But my crumb is pretty small, and I'm wondering if that's the way it's supposed to be. When it rose, it spread out rather than up. Thanks for taking up my request!

AbbyL

If it helps with the oven spring, next time you make it you might try folding once more during the bulk ferment. I've noticed that if you do that, the stronger gluten that you develop holds the shape a little better and doesn't spread out as much during proofing or oven spring. I still have a bit to learn since my bread today kinda did spread, but it's been getting better.

Oh, and for crusts, i found something that helps though it may be that i've been doing it wrong this whole time and just recently figured it out. If I'm steaming the bread, as soon as it starts to take on color, I take the steam pan out (at least I did today). All the breads i've made where i let it steam longer had thicker/chewier crusts, so maybe this might help you too, unless you're already doing it. then you're doing great.

Good luck!

-Cyrus

Pardon my denseness, Cyrus, but I'm still using novice-dom as my excuse! Do you mean that after I've combined the preferment and the rest of the ingredients and it's all rising in the big bowl, I should take it all out of the bowl at some point in the process and stretch it out and fold it in on itself once? Then put it back in the bowl and let it double again?

I have been steaming the bread, but I've left the steam pan stay in the oven throughout. I'll try removing it after the initial steaming as you suggest.

I've made the quick ciabatta that's on the favorites list, a couple of times. It looks pretty ridiculous, very spread out with bubbles bulging out every which way, but it has a really gratifying crust and it tastes great. Any suggestions on taming the shape, or should I accept it as the way it's supposed to be?

Abby

That's exactly it. Sometimes 1 fold halfway through the rise, or 2 folds equally spaced, helps, depending on how strong your dough is / you want it to be, but it's exactly as you said. Mix, rise, pull out & fold, then let rise some more. Oh! I tend to not flatten / degas the dough completely when I fold it, but i still don't know if that helps or not.

I was keeping steam pans in the oven for the full bake too and found that breads took longer to bake and crusts were definately harder / thicker than people were used to.

Taming a wet dough like ciabatta is hard. I don't know how you get it into the oven (if you slide it onto a stone or if you place it on a pan first), but if try to tuck some of the edges of the dough underneath, it might build some tension across the top of the dough and maybe help a bit. No promises though! Ciabatta usually come out looking spread out and bubbly.

-Cyrus

As I've said, I don't have a heck of a lot of technique at this point. To get my ciabatta dough onto a hot stone, I plop it the best I can onto a piece of parchment atop the back of a pan, and slide it onto the stone. It still feels kind of dangerous, getting from here to there. I'll try tucking in the edges of the dough. It might not end up looking pretty, but the bread tastes great and the people at my dinner table will be glad to eat it. AbbyL

Beth, thanks for the suggestion about Floyd's Daily Bread. I'd like to try starting it tonight, but tomorrow is a work day. Instead of combining the poolish and leaving it at room temperature overnight when I won't be able to get back to it until 5 or 6 in the evening, wouldn't it work if I started it when I get up at 5 am tomorrow morning and let it sit for the next 12 hours? Can I complete the rest of the process within 4 hours?

Abby

I've never tried it that way, but give it a shot!

Would it work if I started the poolish at bedtime and got back to it 18 hours later? Should it stay at room temperature (pretty cold room) all that time?

Abby

Cyrus, thanks for the suggestion for shaping ciabatta! Yesterday I followed your suggestion to create some surface tension by folding in the corners, and I got my best looking ciabattas yet. Great rise, big evenly-distributed holes. It was pretty enough to post pictures of, except for the lack of a digital camera and the fact that the bread no longer exists.

Abby