April 12, 2011 - 4:59pm
Adventures in Baby Boules
One of the greatest challenges I have in baking is scaling down family-sized recipes for just my husband and me. This week I succeeded in baking mini (500g) boules with a enameled cast iron combo cooker (Le Crueset #18). An extensive blow-by-blow account and the final formulas can be found on my personal website www.artbythecreek.com, but here are some yummy pics for those who don't want to venture out into unknown territory. These are the Tartine Country Loaf with medium rye rather than whole wheat, and a chocolate, chocolate chunk, sour cherry sourdough. Thank you Shiao-Ping for your inspiration and instructions.
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They are beautiful and seem to have risen hughly.
The chocolate bread is even more chocolatey than brownies. I guess it's the sourdough. When I make it next, I'm going to add more cherries. Between these two and Txfarmer's 36+ hour baguettes, these are my favorite recipes.
-Pamela
The outside crusts look amazing .... What is your secret?
Thank you for the nice compliment.
If you want to read about exactly how/what I did, take a look at my website:
http://www.artbythecreek.com/recipes/?p=237.
In general I followed Chad Robertson's Tartine Country loaf and Shiao-Ping's Chocolate sourdough and baked them both in my enameled Le Crueset #18 combo-cooker, which seems just the right size for 500g boules. Easey-peasey.
I baked a second chocolate batch yesterday and it came out just the same. This time I increased the mix-ins to 2 cups with toasted pecans: 2/3 cups each chocolate chunks, cherries and pecans. I also left the cover on for a full 1/2 hour and uncovered for 1/2 hour at 380*
If you have specific issues, let me know and I'll try to help. Happy baking!
-Pamela
Hi Pamela,
In the winter we sometimes will bake ultra mini boules (about 180 to 200 grms)> The next day we heat the oven and then slice the top off the loaf, pull the crumb out and break pieces to be used as croutons or just onits own. We heat the bread bowl to harden the crust both inside and out( no more than 5 - 7 minutes). We then fill with a lovely winter soup or broth. The bowl is also eaten as you go.............Pete
Thanks, Pete.
I'll have to give that a try - though it might be a while as we're getting into the Arizona summer season and I'm considering giving up baking while it's so hot - maybe next December! In the meantime, I'll start looking for some tiny combo-cookers. Happy baking!
-Pamela