The Song of the Bread

Servia scored this loaf rather nicely.

This week I had two, count them two, unsuccessful attempts at Pain de Campagne. However, each unsuccessful loaf provided (1) a vital learning opportunity and (2) some good food.

Loaf 1: The Song of the Bread.
Having read a lot of writing on bread, one of the things that comes up is the mythical crackling of the perfect artisan crust as the baker removes it from the oven. It supposedly has something to do with the quick change in temperature as the bread comes from the hot oven into the cold air and is reputedly the mark of a perfect loaf for some bakers. I have never had a loaf crackle as it comes out of the oven until two days ago. I accidentally left it proofing for a little too long so the bread flattened out and had pretty much no oven spring (and no irregular holes). However, for the first time ever, when I took the bread out of the oven, it began to sing. I heard a veritable orchestra of crackling crust! It was amazing. Then I opened up the bread and realized that I had forgotten the salt #epicfail. Anyway, although it was overproofed, it was light and airy and it made fantastic croutons (thanks, Servia). I realized not only that I had proofed it too long butthe lack of salt meant that the bread proofed even faster than it would have otherwise. Oops.

Singing crust

Bread overproofed...it flattened like a pancake

Crust & Crumb

Crumb shot

Loaf 2: Shaping Method and the Poke Test
I couldn't let this loaf go. I wanted to perfect it, so I tried again. I still did not manage. I realized that my only effective shaping method is the one I have been practicing on my beautiful loaves of Tartine bread. The problem is that I think my Pain de Campagne loaf might be too delicate/not high enough hydration for this kind of handling. Anyway, a combination of that and a my incorrect assessment of the poke test (and resulting in overproofing) caused a very strange crumb. The bread was light and had a moist, creamy texture, but the crumb was aesthetically displeasing. I will try this bread again over the next few weeks until I perfect it. I am determined to make it work. Sadly, this crust did not sing.

Crust...moving forward.

Servia scored this. managed a nice ear.

Really strange crumb

Note: the poke test is a test to determine whether the bread has finished it's final proofing. If you poke the bread and it rises back up quickly, it's not done. if it rises very slowly, it has finished proofing. I still don't quite understand the magical point in this test where you know whether the bread is re-rising slow enough. I think I misread it though.

My uncle and aunt surprised us by coming into town bringing a variety of California wines and extremely impressive viticulture knowledge. I have already started to attempt to siphon off some of their expertise and I will try to relate what I am learning in future editions of Wine Snob

Pain de Campagne: My Midweek Bread

Pain de Campagne

This is my most recent bread: Pain de Campagne. It's not aesthetically perfect, but it was flavorful and light (all the water cooked out of it).I wanted the holes in the bread to be larger and more irregular like they used to be when I baked it at my alma mater. I will try another loaf next week or the following week. Today I have to start another country loaf from Tartine Bread (I am making one as a thank-you gift for a friend who helped me resurrect my computer last week and partook of my second, quite successful attempt at the recipe).

The main problem that I ran into with this country loaf was that it got so big. It was so big it wouldn't fit under my broth pot and the edges got slightly squished. This is probably because my shaping technique is still not good enough and I did not develop enough surface tension for the final proofing (I tried to make a boule instead of a bouton d'ore). I also added an autolyse to the recipe (only 15 minutes) to see if that might make the kneading easier (which it did), but I am worried that this essentially worked as an extension to bulk fermentation and the baker's yeast. Thoughts?

Crust

Crumb

Another attempt will be coming soon. However, this one tasted fantastic, so I shall consider it a medium-grade success.

Paleontology: Whales in Egypt?

Egyptology News just posted this piece about how the largest whale skeleton in the world has been found-- in Egypt. I had no idea that Egypt used to be an ocean, but apparently palaeontologists have discovered 37 million old mangroves and whale and shark skeletons. Very cool. I have been reading The Alchemist at a pace of about 5 pages per day when I need to relax for a few moments. Just outside of the oasis in Egypt the main character finds a shell and realizes there must have once been an ocean there. It's very cool that the same ay as I read that moment in the story such a massive find has once again confirmed this fact.

As a note, I made a pate fermente for Pain de Campagne tonight. I am hoping that it turns out the way that I remembed from baking it at my alma mater. I will post results.

Whole Wheat French Bread

I was back up at my Alma Mater for the last week. While I was there, Corinna asked me to show her how to make bread. She only had whole-wheat flour and had not created a starter, so I picked an old favorite of mine and converted it for whole wheat bread.

This is the original recipe, from Bread Cetera, which I made many times over my senior year in college, and I even made a loaf for the president of my Alma Mater (and he emailed me and said he liked it!).

The recipe Corinna and I used went as follows (although this is a slight modification based on our results):

Ingredients

Pâte Fermentée

• 2 cups, 1 tablespoon whole-wheat flour
• 0.8 cup water (warm)
• 1/8 teaspoon instant yeast

Final Dough

• Pâte Fermentée, all, chopped into walnut-sized chunks
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1.5 cups water (warm) *
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1.5 teaspoons honey

*more water may be added if necessary. Water should be warm, but not hot.

Directions

1. 12-16 hours before baking (usually on the previous day) mix together the water and yeast (water should be around 80 degrees F, but not so high that it will kill the yeast) and then pour that mixture into the flour to make the Pâte Fermentée. Mix until incorporated. Then leave the Pâte Fermentée out for 1 hour before storing it in the refrigerator in an airtight container (so that it does not dry out).
2. After the 12-16 hours, take out the Pâte Fermentée, divide into walnut-sized pieces, and let warm for 1 hour.
3. Mix the final dough ingredients together, mixing the flour, salt, and the Pâte Fermentée first. Separately mix the yeast and water and pour it over the flour mixture (again, the water should be warm but not hot). Then add the honey and mix it in. Once all the ingredients are hydrated, put the dough on the counter.
4. Knead the dough for 15 minutes. This is NOT your traditional form of kneading. It involves folding the dough over and slapping it on the table. Steve B. from Bread Cetera explains the process as follows: "The idea here is to stretch the dough and then fold it over upon itself, trapping air within the dough in the process. When the hand mixing is begun, the dough starts out rough and sticky; resist the urge to add more flour. As the mixing proceeds, the dough becomes more cohesive, smooth and much less sticky. In Bertinet’s words, the dough begins to “feel alive”. Just 10-15 mins. of hand mixing in this fashion will produce a smooth French bread dough with just the right amount of development for a loaf with good volume, a tender crumb and a nuanced flavor" ("Musings on Mixing"). I would highly recommend watching his video before attempting this [1]. To keep your hands from getting too dough-covered during this process do not flour them-- instead douse them frequently in cold water. You can do the same things with the tools you might use to scrape the dough out of the bowl or off the surface on which you are kneading. You can oil the surface with a neutral-tasting oil to prevent it from sticking.
5. Oil a bowl. Make the dough into a ball and place it in the oiled bowl, and, covering it with a clean cloth, place it in the warmest part of the house (around 75 to 80 degrees is ideal) to rise for 1.5 hours.
   
6. At the end of this first rising, the dough should have approximately doubled in size. Divide the dough into two pieces, one about 1/5 the size of the other. Let them sit for 20 minutes.
7. Flour a bowl or proofing basket.
8. Taking a dowel or the end of a very long wooden spoon, roll a plus-sign shape (+) into the larger piece of dough. Rub a little oil along the edges of the indentations. Then, place the smaller piece of dough at the intersection. Then place fingers at the edges of each of the little raised parts caused by the indentations and push them in toward the middle and flip the dough upside-down into the bowl for the final fermentation. **
9. Let the dough rise for 1 hour under a clean cloth.
10. During the final rise, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. If you have a baking stone, make sure it heats for 30 minutes before you sprinkle it with flour and place the bread on top. Otherwise, prepare a floured baking sheet. Also, fill a non-glass heat-proof container with water.
11. After the final rise, turn the proofing-basket or bowl upside-down to put the bread on the stone or baking sheet. Place the water-filled heat proof container on the rack farthest to the bottom (the baking stone or sheet should be on the middle rack).
12. After ten minutes, remove the pan with the water. Bake for another 15-20 minutes. When done, the crust should be hard to the touch and dark brown, and if you were to lift up the loaf of bread and knock on the bottom it should sound hollow.
13. Do not cut the bread until it has cooled for 10 minutes, preferably on a cooling rack.

** This process can be avoided if you want to make a boule or a batard-shape instead. For a nice lesson on batard shaping, see the Bread Cetera video.

The bread itself turned out a little denser than I had hoped and not quite as sweet (so I added more honey to the revised recipe). I think the less open crumb may have been because we degassed it a bit too much when added the honey as well as I made a significant mistake in the last step of the rising process [2]. However, the bread turned out well and I recommend it, as well as encouraging feedback.

Endnotes

1. When Corinna and I did this I found that the dough was much drier and tougher than I had anticipated and was very different from the white-flour version of the same bread which, at this stage, is very sticky and wet. As such, we added a significant amount of water (I changed the recipe I used here in an attempt to account for the extra water). If the dough is too dry, you can add water during this process. Note: Do not add flour at any point during this process. Even if the dough is really sticky, it is ok.
2. Corinna realized that I had forgotten the honey so we did not incorporate it until preparing the bread for the second fermentation. Furthermore, I shaped the bread without giving it the 20 minute resting period. I increased the second rising time to 1.5 hours to compensate, but I think that the bread had been degassed too much and that is why the crumb was less open than I had hoped.