Pain de Campagne - Second variation

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dmsnyder on 12 Sep 2008 at 19:31

Pain de Campagne variation

Pain de Campagne variation

 

Pain de Campagne variation, crumb

Pain de Campagne variation, crumb

 A couple of weeks ago, I baked a pain de campagne. The formula evolved from that for baguettes which Anis Bouabsa had shared with Janedo. It had some sourdough starter and some rye flour added to Bouabsa's original. Of course, I didn't have any French T65 flour, so I used KAF "French-style Flour," which is their T55 clone. Also, rather than forming the dough into baguettes, I made one large bâtard. The mixing method was also changed somewhat. After a 20 minute autolyse of the flours and water, the other ingredients are added. The dough is mixed using a method I learned from Hamelman via proth5, although I have since found a very similar method in Reinhart's BBA (see his formula for Pugliese.) The dough is stretched and folded in the mixing bowl with a plastic scraper for 20 strokes, repeating this 3 times over an hour. (20 strokes. 20 minutes rest. 20 more strokes. 20 mintutes rest. 20 strokes.

The critical  method I retained from the original was how the dough was fermented: After the autolyse and "kneading," the dough is refrigerated for 21 hours before dividing, shaping and baking. 

 See my TFL blog entry of August 31, 2008 for more details. (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/8454/pain-de-campagne)

 King Arthur Flour sells a "specialty flour" they call "European-style Artisan Flour." They have told me this is their approximation of French T65 flour, which is what Ansi Bouabsa actually uses for his baguettes. The European-Style Artisan Flour is a blend of Spring and Winter wheats with some ascorbic acid and some white whole wheat. It is 11.7% protein.

 This week, I made pain de campagne again. The only changes from my bake of two weeks ago were 1) I substituted KAF European-style Artisan Flour for KAF French-style Flour, and 2) I made two boules rather than one bâtard.

 The European-style flour absorbed more water, resulting in a drier dough. It was also slightly less extensible, but still more so than, say, KAF Bread Flour. 

 I baked using the same method as before. For the two boules of about 480 gms each, I preheated the oven to 500F and turned it down to 460F after loading the boules and pouring the hot water in the skillet. The water was removed after 10 minutes. After another 10 minutes, the loaves were "done," but I wanted a darker crust, so baked them for an additional 5 minutes, then left them in the turned-off oven for another 5 minutes.

 The crust did not stay as crunchy as the previous version. The crumb was about what I expected. The dough acted like a 68% hydration dough, and the crumb looked like it. The aroma of the sliced bread, 3 hours after baking, had a pronounced smell of wheat bran, and the taste of the whole wheat in the flour really came through. It was only slightly sour. The texture of the crumb was quite nice. It was tender and chewy. My experience suggests the flavors will meld by tomorrow morning, and the taste will change. I'm looking forward to tasting it.

 

Personally, I prefer the previous iteration, at this time but others may differ. Certainly, both are very nice. 

 David 

David,

The flour you used acts more like T80 maybe even T110. It is very dark and the way you describe it, the way it drinks water, it acts like it, too. It must have a very nice taste. 

For what it's worth, I now have the habit of slashing this type of dough VERY deep, almost exageratingly (oh my, is that a word???), and I find that the dough always has great oven spring and instead of tearing, will fill up the "grigne". 

I made the pain de campagne for lunch, two bâtards and they're GONE! I don't have any fresh bread for this evening (OK, there were eight people at the table and we made sandwiches). 

Jane 

 

Hi, Jane. Well, having never actually used French flours, I'll take your word for it. Next time, I may try AP flour with a bit of whole wheat rather than the European-style Artisan flour ... or something. The texture of the bread is really different. It edges toward "fluffy." Maybe I just should have added more flour, but I didn't see how much water it was absorbing until I started folding it after the autolyse. I gather the pain de campagne is being well-received chez vous. I'm delighted!
David

David,

Should I read that "Maybe I should have added more water"? and not flour?

It really is amazing how a bread recipe can come out so incredibly different depending on the brand of flour. Two different types that claim to be T65. It would definitely be interesting to up the hydration and see what you come up with... then give it another name. :-)

Jane 

Right you are! I'd be in (even more) trouble without your proof-reading! I did mean add more WATER, not flour. "Another name?" You mean it wouldn't qualify as a pain de campagne with higher hydration? Any suggestions? Following the pattern of using local river names, I could call this "San Joaquin Sourdough," I suppose.
David
I had a few slices of this bread with dinner tonight (Roasted halibut with agrodolce sauce). It was quite good. Nice flavor, but a chewy crust. It was good enough to merit a second try. I'm shooting for a more open crumb, mostly. So, I have the dough mixed and in the refrigerator for baking tomorrow evening. I used the same formula except I increased the water by 15 gms, resulting in a significantly slacker dough. (77% hydration rather than 74%) We will see.
David

Interesting that the change of flour gave you a chewy crust (which of course was one of the things I was disappointed with last week). 

I have another batch in the fridge, about to come out this morning.  

Changes to last week:

  • white starter
  • upped the rye content to 100g of the 500g
  • autolysed (well, alright, just soaked....) the whole caboodle yeast salt and all as the salt didn't combine properly last time with the bowl folding, and I had pieces of bread slightly saltier than others.  I dissolved the salt in the water this time, and mixed the yeast into the flour.
  • I was very busy so it was more like an hour between folds. Still three foldings and then into the fridge.
  • edited to add:  dough was dryer than last week, I kept the same hydration for the sake of this experiment, but the 100% rye is more absorbent,and there was more of it.  

 Lynne

Okey dokey - this version is very like yours up there ^^ David,

  1. Oven spring - more than with rye starter. But still too wet to cut well with my knives, I cut too straight down, and too shallow, so although the split spread, it also broke through along the seam at the back.
  2. My gas oven heats very  unevenly.  Although I turned the sheet around twice, it still got very dark on one side.  More like your colouring David :)  Too Dark and crunchy for me in actual fact, I think I want something between the two extremes I have got so far.
  3. Crust cracklier than with rye starter - it sang as it was cooling.
  4. I wanted to get it into the freezer quickly and clear the decks, so as I only made one larger loaf it wasn't completely cold and was very hard to cut cleanly (as you can see from the crumb pictures!)
  5. Where it sprang along the seam it has also lifted inside creating a strange flappy bit.
  6. Crumb is much less open than with the rye.  Probably as I said because it was less "wet" although it had the same technical hydration.
  7.  Tastes very mild, almost no flavour of the rye at all, that is very strange to me.  Either I up the rye, or I could try a half and half starter? 

Lynne

Pics:  edit: humph.  changed the pics as the thumbnails don't open as bigger pics... :(

 

side one nice and russety

 

just dark?  looks burnt to me...

 

the grigne is supposed to be on the top not the bottom

 

near the end- crumb

nearer the middle - crumb

 

Hi, Lynne. Your crumb looks lovely! I hope to get a crumb like this with today's bake. The bursting is probably due to a combination of a weak spot created when forming the bâtard and your scoring. Next time, try scoring deeper and angle your blade 45 degrees to the surface of the loaf. You are trying to create a weak spot to direct the expansion of the loaf upward. It does look like your oven heat is very uneven. I would rotate the loaf once or twice during the bake to try to get it to color more evenly. BTW, I sliced the second loaf from the bake pictured above last night. The crumb was significantly more open. The only possible reason is that I must have shaped the second boule more gently. There is a lesson there.
David

You know how sometimes the slash is good and then it isn't another time?  As I put the knife to the dough, I knew it was wrong... not firm enough, not the right angle, I was nervous of deflating too much if I re-slashed again, but I guess I should have.

 Oven... the shelf for the oaf was smack in the middle of the oven, I'm going to try lowering the shelf  even further.  I did rotate twice as it happens, but I think it was a combination of uneven heat, and just baking slightly too long.  Although I tried out a new flour today Oatmill from Allinson ( I posted about this separately) (I doubt you will have this exact flour, but you might have similar) and had the same dark on one side effect.  

 Lynne

 

Lynne when I place my bread very close to the back wall of the oven, the heat reflects from the back wall onto my loaf and I get "uneven" heating like what your loaf is showing. This may not be the case for you but I thought I'd chime in here with this info.

Rudy
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My TFL Blog Page

Hi Rudy, the loaf was diagonally on the tray - you would expect the bit at the back near the wall of the oven to be the bit too dark wouldn't you?  But no, it was the other side...

 Very odd... 

I can only think it is just  that with the high heat, the flames at the back of the oven are quite high, and therefore the back is simply hotter.   Gas has always been more unreliable as to where is hot and where is not compared to electric.

Interesting, because with the flour I use and very often when I add T80 or T110, the crust softens fairly quickly. I'm just used to that fact. But you mentioning it makes me reflect on flour quality and caracteristics. I just received Local Breads (how could I not buy it since everyone talks about it and those books are so much cheaper here, don't know why! I paid €18) and I really enjoy his descriptions on his work methods, tools, flour and the differencec over seas. When I looked at his recipes, they were interesting, but what sort of struck me was that as an at home "artisan baker" since I have access to all the great flours, I can make a unique bread every day without trying to duplicate European breads with different ingredients, see what I mean? I also found it very interesting to learn than millers in the States are taking all that in to consideration and are now producing higher quality flours (no additives, gentler treatment, etc). But I suppose it costs a lot more, no? I don't know if I'm being very clear, but I find the whole "bread evolution/revolution" and the combined N. American/European efforts fascinating.

Oh, and reading the American books that talk about French bakeries and bread, I understand now why Americans think French people eat great bread every day.That's essentially what the authors are leading to believe. But OH how it is far from the truth! Many people do, but the majority DON'T. They are satisfied with bad quality industrial bread.You have Wonder Bread, we have the industrial baguette. Our is prettier, but not better quality!

And so what I was saying about changing the name is that these small modifications essentially change the bread. As Leader was saying in his book, bakers use water, flour and a leaven but do so incredibly different things with them. These small changes  make new breads. So, your new name sounds lovely to me! It won't be a pain de campagne. If we follow that reasoning, Pierre Nury's rustic rye whould be a pain de campagne and it's not. Oh and about him, now that I can read about him, I didn't realize he was in Auvergne. We have been there several times on holiday and we LOVE it! Peaceful, beautiful and you eat well. It's a bit hickish in culture, but great for holidays. 

Jane 

Hi, Jane. All American bread book authors who give formulas for European breads have to struggle with the differences in flours. This process is more openly referred to in "Local Breads" than in most books. Leader talks about experimenting with various flour combinations before settling on the one he recommends, for example in his formula for Pain au Levain. Certainly, King Arthur Flour has made attempts to replicate French flours. And they are significantly more expensive than their "regular" flours. Now that you have "Local Breads," and assuming you are still on your explorations of rye breads, do look at Leader's Polish and Czech ryes. I have made the Polish Cottage Rye, Light and Dark Silesian Rye. They are all very good, yet different. I have not visited the Auvergne. The image I have of it is that it is a remnant of the "old France" before the de-population of rural villages and decline of the small family farm. It's been 4 years, I think, since our last visit to France. Way too long.
David