20100510 Sourdough Pain de Campgne
This was a simple white bread with small amount of whole rye flour. The first time I made a similar loaf was coincidently around the same period last year. Since then, I’ve acquired many new skills and made some progress in making artisan breads. I felt that I’ve grown in the past year, as a learner, from an infant to a toddler, who is now on her feet confidently and curiously exploring in a giant Breads-R-Us. Thank you again to those of you who have helped me up and walking along this wonderful journey.
I don’t bake very often. Therefore, I like to take advantage of every opportunity in each bake to experiment with new things. Some of the things I try are new techniques I’ve learned; and some of the things simply come out due to the situation. Like this time, I wanted to get rid of some of the previously built starters that were not used due to cancelled bakes. They must have been sitting in the fridge unattended for months. I decided to use them as is and complemented them with a trace amount of instant yeast and a longer fermentation. Luckily, since I’ve had my proofer, I’ve been able to manipulate the fermentation process at will. Mixing of the dough was done exclusively by machine as usual. Gluten was fully developed and oven spring was superb as I sealed all the vents during steaming. I used the method David (dmsnyder) had shared with me to flour the brotform. I rubbed rice flour into it and I got the Sbeautiful patterns I’ve always wanted on my loaf. I also found Mr. Lepard’s oil-your-work surface technique a very practical alternative to dusting the counter with flour as it eliminates the clean up of mess afterwards.
The crust turned out very crackly but was a bit too dark. I think I need to lower the oven temperature sooner next time. The crumb was light, springy and fluffy and had a very, very mild, almost undetectable tanginess, which my family enjoys.
A summary of the formula and procedures is as follows:
Here are some pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41705172@N04/sets/72157624044659700/show/
Comments
Your bread is beautiful in every sense and wonderfully photographed. Very artful if I do say so. You have made great progress in the last year. I always look forward to seeing your creative efforts.
Eric
Congratulations on a great bake, Yippee. Everything looks perfect. Must have been delicious too.
Don
Great looking bread!
You have displayed so many beautiful bakes. I also love your colorful recipe writeups!
Sylvia
Beautiful looking bread Yippee!
Larry
for your kind words!
Yippee
It looks like you mix the bread flour and the water and then autolyze. Then you add the starter and rye and then the rest of the ingredients. Do you let it rest after you add the starter and rye for a few minutes before you add the salt and yeast or do you just add the starter, rye, salt and yeast all at once and then finish the dough. Seems like that additional rest might do it some good.
Other than that I agree with the others that your bread came out looking fabulous. Good job!
The first two steps were done separately and the autolyse of each group took place simultaneously. This allowed the starter to inhibit the activity of amylase in the rye flour before it comes in contact with the bread flour. In the meantime, gluten was building up in mixture # 1.
# 1, 2, and 3 were then combined after the above autolyse was complete.
Thank you for your compliments.
Yippee