Michel Suas' Pain Meunier - Advanced Bread and Pastry
I'm slowly working my way through the bread section of Michel Suas' terrific book AB&P and found this interesting bread with an interesting history.
Pain Meunier: (Miller's bread), the loaf has all of the components of wheat (white flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ and cracked wheat).The following brief description of this bread, taken from Michel Suas book “Advanced Bread and Pastry”, appears at the beginning of his formula for pain meunier:
“To honor and thank their millers for delivering consistent flour, bakers of old created pain meunier, or Miller’s bread. The formula was creatively designed to involve all the components of the kernel of wheat in the dough. As a result, in addition to possessing great flavor, this bread also has exceptional nutritional value."
It's a great bread and fun to make. I doubled Mr. Suas' "Test" formula and made 4 pounds of dough, divided the dough into three equal part and made three loaves. I used 2 unlined willow German brotforms and 1 plastic (green) brotform. The loaf proofed in the green plastic brotform, because of its shape, got a higher rise (photo no. 7, rear loaf) but doesn't have the character or markings that the other two loaves (front two) got from the unlined willow baskets.
I used a K.A. mixer to get the pate fermentee and grain roughly mixed with final dough . Gave it a 20 minute rest, then did a final mix using the "slap and fold" method (Bertinet) then during bulk fermentation gave the dough 3 stretch and folds at 20 minute intervals. Let it final proof for another 20 minutes (after the 3 stretch and folds), then divided, shaped and placed it into the brotforms. It final proofed for 1 hour, then I scored it and into a preheated 450 deg. F. oven with a cup of boiling water into a cast iron skillet for a short blast of stream. It baked for 30 minutes, turning the loaves midway in the baking cycle. It's a great tasting bread with great texture (tender with a nutty flavor from the cracked grain) and nice crust.
Michel Suas' Pain Meunier - Advanced Bread and Pastry
Comments
Great loaves, seems like breads from ABAP always turns out good, I have made the pain au lait with great result as well as francese, sourdough rye, sourdough ww etc.
I think that much caution has been taken to make the formulas fool proof, when you are working in a bakery pulling out hundreds of loaves everyday there is no room for formulas that are less than fool proof..
Great job, I whould be proud of myself!
Really appreciate your kind words. I too really like all the recipes that I have made from AB&P so far. It's a great book with an interesting and varied collection of formulas. Incentally, I agree with you completely re: Mr. Suas having made the formulas foolproof, with professonal bakers in mind.
Howard
Love the multi grain breads. You say cracked wheat... bulghur? When you use Bertinet's method, how long do your slap and fold. 4-5 times..or 5 minutes? I'm never really sure how long I should go.
Betty
Betty,
I thought I had all the ingredients I needed but discovered, at the last minute, I didn't have the cracked wheat that I thought I had in the freezer, so I substituted the same amount of K.A. mixed grain. It worked fine. However, I woke up this morning with such a guilt complex that I went out to Diane's Natural Foods and bought a bag of bulhhur cracked wheat for the next time I make it. Now I have the genuine item for the next go at it.
I did the "slap and fold" for about 5-6 minutes, following the technique shown by Richard Bertinet in his video, until the dough really become pliable without being too sticky. Then I gave it a couple of folds, tucked the bottom and drop it into a light oiled container or bowl, seam side down and covered it. Then 3 stretch and folds at 20 minute intervals during bulk fermentation. It's a fairly high hydration dough (66%) which, at the onset of mixing, looks similar to the sweet dough in Bertinet's video (if you haven't seen that video let me know and I'll post the link). It further transitions nicely into a firmer, lighter, gassy dough as a result of the stretch and folds (at 20 min. intervals), which really finishes developing the gluten nicely.
Hope you try it. I think you'll really like it.
Howard
EDIT: When dividing and shaping I was careful not to deflate the dough any more than absolutely necessary to get it shaped. No heavy handed shaping, just gentle shaping and pinching the seams together after placing it into the brotforms/bannetons, seam side up.
I have used Bertinet's method. I had tried it with the rye, but was afraid it would get gummy if I persisted for any length of time. I can't seem to get my rye to hold it's shape after proofing in the brotform. They proof well, but flatten to about 3" when turned out. So I slap and fold, stretch and fold. I guess I will try a longer slap and fold next time.
Thanks for the tips,
Betty
Betty,
I had a similar problem with Greenstein's sour rye. The bread is interesting and has good flavor but I found it was really difficult to work with his dough and I never really got anything near what I had hoped for in the final bread, in terms of open crumb. David Snyder has had good results making that bread. I'll go back and take a look at some of his past postings and try to see what he does that makes his loaves turn out so nice.
Since there's little or no gluten in rye I'm thinking that high percentages of rye may be a problem. I have seen where some recipes call for adding gluten but I haven't tried that. I was scanning through some of my baking books and it seems like there's a lot of recipes that hover at around 40% rye. Maybe that's because the 60% white flour ratio provides sufficient glutten to help keep the shape and keep it from collapsing after it's turned out of the bannetons/brotforms. You've got me curious. I'm going to do some more seaching.
Howard
I've done Eric's fav and Hamelmans 40%. I started out making the recipes as written with the exception of not having clear flour. I think Dave suggested I use 50-50 WW and AP, which I did. I've used just bread flour. I've added vital gluten. (this is all besides the rye flour, obviously). So, I believe my problem is all in my kneading/shaping. It's pretty sticky and I'm resisting the temptation to add more flour. I'll keep experimenting.
Betty
Nice loaves. None of the formulas from this book have yet to fail. Thanks for the recommendation (from a long time ago).
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Glad the recommendation worked out for you. I completely agree, AB&P is a real winner with great formulas.
Howard
You're just a bakin' fool.
I am told that my copy of AB&P will arrive any day now and they didn't really forget me. Apparently they have have some trouble getting copies of the thing. Can't wait...
Hope your book arrives soon. Can't wait to see which formulas you choose to bake first. In my opinion they're all winners. I've come to really like the format Suas uses for his formulas. Gotta figure out what to make next from AB&P.
Howard