First try at a miche
Yesterday I tried my hand at a miche after reading so much about these loaves on this site. I must admit that I had to restrain myself from dividing it into three loaves as I was wondering what a three person household was going to do with an almost four pound loaf. I tried Hamelman's Pointe-a-Calliere (page 164 of Bread.) I had to make a few modifications. I was planning to do 85% whole wheat flour, 15% AP, but ended up with around 60-40 because I was lower on whole wheat flour than I had thought. Since I was baking in my clay oven which has a fairly narrow door, I found that the dough had grown so large that I had to make an oval rather than round loaf, and again because of the oven, I took it out after 45 minutes instead of the full hour since it was already quite cooked and would have turned into a cinder after any longer. But I did follow the instructions to wait a full 12 hours before slicing despite my usual impatience in these matters. And after all that? Wow. That is a delicious bread. It is very hearty. A slice with a bit of peanut butter makes a substantial meal. But will we eat the whole thing? I guess it depends how long it remains fresh, which I've yet to see.
Comments
Especially coming from your WFO, it looks delicious and, great job getting it in the door! Any extra would freeze up nicely.
Sylvia
The profile is spot on and the crumb looks great. Nice job w/ the wfo!
Larry
That is a very nice looking Miche. As Larry said it looks perfect.
Eric
Well I certainly appreciate these comments, especially from master bakers like the three of you. -Varda
Your welcome, vhaimo, but I consider myself very much to be a novice home baker. I'm just here learning all the time.
Sylvia
thanks but....
Very Nice miche, Vhaimo! Crumb look typical of a point callier's. To make an authentic point a callier ,you may want to opt for high extraction flour for this recipe, its worth the $$.
Khalid
Khalid, do you have a recommendation for a high extraction flour? I would like to try it. I don't mind paying more for the appropriate flour, but I hate paying shipping costs. I suppose that may be unavoidable - I can get King Arthur AP, Bread, Whole Wheat, and White Whole Wheat in the supermarket, but really nothing else. Thanks. -Varda
VARDA, Well, since i cannot source high extraction flour myself, i can't be of a help here. The closest flour i have found to a high extraction flour is the indian wholewheat flour (Chakki ATTA) with extraction of 90 - 96%. You may want to check out your closest asian food store for this. You'll have to sift the flour some.
However, you can make your own High Extraction flour, few TFL members do. If you start with 100% extraction , i.e. Wholewheat flour, Pass your flour through a fine strainer couple of times until you see little or no specks of bran. Then, take the bran, mill it through a coffee blender, and return 10 percent of the bran to the flour.
This of course wouldn't come close to an authentic high extraction, but may be your best bet. You may alternatively just add white flour to your wholewheat in 9:1 ratio. you will still have bran specks, so it is technically not high extraction flour.
Hope this helps,
Khalid
Khalid, I'll take a look and see if I can find the Chakki flour locally. It seems that I need a stand of wheat in my back yard, and then a mill to get the right flour mix. Thanks a lot for your suggestions. -Varda