Seed Culture. . . Barm . . . Starter . . . Dough . . . Bread . . .

# 38 - 2008

How intimidated are you by pages and pages of a recipe? Do your eyes cross when you see more than two paragraphs? Do you suffer brain fade when a glance shows you the recipe goes for a second, third page? Now, mind you the ingredient list is short.

flour

water

and eventually

salt

But the directions, the details go on and on. Oh, yes, and the time line takes it into 6 and finally 7 days. Is that the point where you shut down? That’s just not going on in my kitchen!

Around our kitchen table this month, Sher What Did You Eat brought us the bread off the cover of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. If you have ever looked at the recipe for the Poilane-Style Miche, that’s just what you’d find. Well, actually you’d start reading the Poilane-Style Miche SourDough recipe on page 243 and immediately be refered back to page 230 for a cup of barm and from there you’d turn back to page 229 for the directions to get a cup of seed culture. And about then my head is spinning.

Now I’m going to tell you the BIG BREAD BAKING BABES SECRET ( it’s also the Daring Baker’s Secret, at least for me): Start at the begining and just keep going.

THIS BREAD IS PAINT BY NUMBERS EASY AND YOU CAN TAKE A MICHELANGELO LOAF OF BREAD OUT OF YOUR OVEN. And the taste, well the taste is divinely special.

Day One:

5 minutes to:

1 cup rye flour

3/4 cup water

Mix. Leave out on counter 24 hours.

Day Two:

5 minutes to:

Add & mix to Day One with

1 cup unbleached King Arthur high-gluten flour

1/2 cup water

Leave out on counter 24 hours.

Day Three:

5 minutes to:

Toss off half of Day Two, add and mix half with

1 cup unbleached King Arthur high-gluten flour

1/2 cup water

Leave out on counter 24 hours.

Day Four:

5 minutes to:

Toss off half, add and mix half with

1 cup unbleached King Arthur high-gluten flour

1/2 cup water

Allow to double in size

between 4 & 24 hours Proceed to Mother Starter (Reinhart also calls this Barm) construction.

Day Five:

Mix 1 cup starter from Day Four with

3 1/2 cups King Arthur unbleached high-gluten flour

2 cups water

Mix well so that all flour is well hydrated.

Cover in large container

and leave out about 6 hours until it is bubbly. Mine easily doubled. This is smelly stuff. When doubled release gases, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Stays ready for action for 3 days in the refrigerator.

In the book you’ll find several recipes to use this barm or Mother Starter for baking. The BBB baked the Miche. I baked one other which I will post about in a few days.

The day before you want to bake the Miche, you make a Firm Starter using 1 cup of the above Mother Starter (Barm). You can see why I got tired of all this toss off and made Double or Nothing Bread.

Day Six:

To make the Firm Starter

1 cup of above Mother Starter (Barm)

2 cups King Arthur Whole-Wheat flour

1/2 cup water

Mix well. Knead on the counter maybe 3 minutes until all the flour is well hydrated. Place dough ball in covered oiled container. Allow to rise and double in size about 4 hours in my 80° kitchen. When doubled, refrigerate overnight.

This is a large amount of dough. Reinhart says it is too much dough for all mixers except the Magic Mill. I kneaded this by hand and found it to be one of the easiest breads I’ve ever kneaded.

Bake Day Seven:

Remove the Firm Starter from the refrigerator.

Cut into pieces, the number is not important.

You want to bring the dough to room temp so you’re looking to create surface area. Cover the pieces and leave on the counter about an hour.

The pieces will puff and feel lighter at the end of the hour.

I had to get my ladder to get my big bowl for mixing this dough.

This is stamped on the bottom of the bowl. Do you have one like it?

Final Dough:

7 cups King Arthur Whole-Wheat Flour

2 tablespoons sea salt

at least 2 1/4 up to 2 3/4 cups water

Firm Starter pieces from above

One mix, I used all 2 3/4 cups water. Another mix used only 2 1/4 cup water.

This is basically a whole wheat loaf except for the high-gluten flour in the starters and a really large amount of dough. Yet, this was a surprisingly easy dough to knead. I even did a very small window pane test. A window pane test: you pull off a small ball of dough, flatten it and then try to pull it thin enouth to see light through it like you would a window. You wouldn’t really expect to be able to this with so much whole wheat but I acutally was successful with it. No photo, as I was covered with too much dough. Have to work on that.

Oil the bowl and cover.

When the dough has doubled, you’re ready to shape the loaf or loaves.

One baking I divided the dough into three loaves and baked per the recipe. 500° oven to start, turned down to 450° for 25 minutes then 425° for the last 25 minutes. I wasn’t able to be home to take the loaves out of the oven. I believe they were over baked. The inside of the bread tasted beautiful. The crust was too thick!!

I baked again. Divided into only two loaves. Baked at 450° for 22 minutes and turned down to 400° for the last 25 minutes. Same great tasting bread, much nicer crust!!

BreadChick’s theory is it’s in the kneading. And I did knead this dough about 3 minutes less and I did have two slightly larger loaves but my theory is the oven temp was too high and too long with the first baking. And I’m sticking to it . . . for now.

I finally was really aggressive with my slasher (lame) and got what I think is my best so far.

I’m telling you this is really easy 5 minutes a day, for really impressive bread! And Kalyn it is all whole wheat!

I’ve listed our Bread Baking Babes just to the right in the side bar. Also, if you’re ready for a one step at a time sourdough adventure and a Bread Baking Buddy badge you have until 2 June to send Sher your e-mail - directions in the side bar.

And the photo in the background. Our neighbor’s cat visiting our pond.

Now, I’m going to enjoy some bread while I re-order some high-gluten flour and I want to try a new flour because who knows where the next recipe will take us.

BBB - SourDough: Poilane-Style Miche

Monday, May 19, 2008

There are twelve of us, a happy little group with a passion for bread baking. What we share is a love for fun, baking bread and doing so together. Across country, across boundaries, across the internet. We are about the new coffee klatch in our virtual kitchens, the new over the fence talk taking place on the Internet, sharing knowledge, helping each other out.

The modern kitchen table may look just like grandma’s except for that laptop sitting next to the coffee cup. Through the magic of Instant Messaging all of us are chatting over coffee at the kitchen table, baking bread. All our different houses, all our different kitchen tables, same group. You know; a bit like these communities in Eastern Europe where all the women of the village bake their bread on one day, share the communal oven, meet at the hearth, gossip and teach each other, sharing their knowledge. Some of us have known each other for different times; some of us have even met in person. Our experience with bread baking may vary but we all share a great passion and fascination for bread at the moment. And so once a month you can find us together in one of our kitchens: yakking, baking and laughing.

Same recipe, different kitchens, using local flour and sharing what we found. You can read all about our monthly recipe at the Kitchen of the Month, our individual posts to be found at our respective personal blogs.

If you would like to join us being a Bread Baking Buddy here’s how:

* You have one week from our posting date to bake the bread and post about it on your blog with a link to the Kitchen of the Month’s post about the bread.
** This month you have until Monday June 2nd to
*E-mail the Kitchen of the Month with your name and a link to your post OR leave a comment on the Kitchen of the Month’s blog that you have baked the bread and a link back to your post.
*Kitchen of the Month will do a round-up of our Bread Baking Buddies at the end of the week and send you a BBB badge for that month’s bread.
*No blog, No problem - just e-mail the Kitchen of the Month with a photo of the bread you baked and you’ll be included in the round-up.

Our Delicious Dozen

***Posting today

***A Fridge Full of Food (Glenna)

***Bake My Day (Karen)

***Cookie Baker Lynn (Lynn)

***Grain Doe (Görel)

***I Like to Cook (Sara)

***Lucullian Delights (Ilva)

***My Kitchen in Half Cups (Tanna)

***Notitie van Lien (Lien)

***The Sour Dough (Mary aka Breadchick)

*** Kitchen of the Month is

What Did You Eat (Sher)

Babes on Hiatus

Living on Bread and Water (Monique)

Thyme for Cooking (Katie)

For the Link to:

The Archives

My Photo Albums

Gadgets & Equipment

Kitchen Views

ravel
My Wine Diary Blog
infrequent entries
Cups

Daring Bakers Blogroll

AND

How to Become a

Daring Baker

Bloggers on my RSS

Bread Baking Babes have baked

Completed Daring Baker’s Challenges

Our Delicious Dozen

***Posting today

***A Fridge Full of Food (Glenna)

***Bake My Day (Karen)

***Cookie Baker Lynn (Lynn)

***Grain Doe (Görel)

***I Like to Cook (Sara)

***Lucullian Delights (Ilva)

***My Kitchen in Half Cups (Tanna)

***Notitie van Lien (Lien)

***The Sour Dough (Mary aka Breadchick)

*** Kitchen of the Month is

What Did You Eat (Sher)

Babes on Hiatus

Living on Bread and Water (Monique)

Thyme for Cooking (Katie)

If you would like to join us being a Bread Baking Buddy here’s how:

* You have one week from our posting date to bake the bread and post about it on your blog with a link to the Kitchen of the Month’s post about the bread.
** This month you have until Monday June 2nd to
*E-mail the Kitchen of the Month with your name and a link to your post OR leave a comment on the Kitchen of the Month’s blog that you have baked the bread and a link back to your post.
*Kitchen of the Month will do a round-up of our Bread Baking Buddies at the end of the week and send you a BBB badge for that month’s bread.
*No blog, No problem - just e-mail the Kitchen of the Month with a photo of the bread you baked and you’ll be included in the round-up.

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