To David Snyder. 

Thank you for encouraging me to go BIG.

This is the biggest single loaf I ever made, and it is as big as my oven can handle.

Hamelmans Miche Pointe-A-Caillere, made with Bacheldre ... Unbleached White flour.

** Added: a picture of the flour I used, at the end of the post **

Dough weight: 2300g

Baked weight: 1935g

Diameter: 32cm

Height: 9.5cm

Cheers,

Juergen

Here the picture of three flours:

Left is Waitrose organic stoneground white bread flour

Middle is Bacheldre Organic Stoneground Unbleached White, this is the one I used for the miche above

Right is Shipton Mill Organic Stoneground Wholegrain Wheat

I have recently converted my White Liquid starter into a stiff one, with a 50% whole wheat flour  - 50% AP flour flour mix. I browsed through the bread books, and found that Hamelman’s Miche point a calliere appeals to me, in addition to be a favorite of mine. Miche it was, therefore.

David Snyder has blogged about his Miche too, so I was thrilled to return to this favorite recipe. Although I had no high extraction flour, I decided to use a mix of 45% freshly milled whole wheat, 45% bread flour, and 10% All purpose flour instead. I followed Hamelman’s recipe to the word, except the High extraction flour.The dough was a breeze to work with, despite being sticky at the beginning. 

The flavor of this bread is that of a typical Miche, Fragrant, chewy, and sweet-sour. I have baked this Miche boldly to benefit from the concentrated flavors in the crust. The crumb was slightly moist and chewy.  All in all, this bread is a winner.

Khalid

I wrapped up my classroom sessions for the Master Food Volunteer program this past week. It's been a rewarding experience and I'm looking  forward to participating in the demonstrations over the next 12 months. There will be a chance to teach some lessons in bread baking as long as I can develop a lesson plan that can be presented in an hour or so format that won't get deep in the weeds and lose the interest of the class.

I took the opportunity to show my classmates and instructors what could be done with some active dry yeast when I brought in my copy of Floyd's Rustic Loaf. With a little bit of resizing into grams for the formula and reshaping into a boule, I managed to get the attention of the class at lunch time.

Hello Everyone,

It’s been a long time since my last post, but I have not stopped baking. It comes and goes in waves for me, sometimes I do more and sometimes less, but I always make bread. And I look into TFL daily!

Last week I was on spring break and my son was home with me because his university’s break corresponded to mine this year. I used the opportunity to the fullest to bake for him as he is a very athletic 19-year old who can pack away tons of carbs very easily and he adores my breads (unlike my daughter who can live without them quite easily). I had several doughs going on at different stages for 10 days – my kitchen felt like a laboratory at times (especially because I also made yogurt and some cheese). A few of these breads were given away as gifts.

Here’s what I made:
1. Three different types of baguettes: the 36 hour one from Txfarmer and two recipes from the excellent German bread site Pötzblog: the Bouabsa one (which is somewhat different from the formulas I found on TFL) and a formula by Jean-Pierre Cohier (France’s best baguette in 1995 and 2006). They all had excellent taste and I was semi-happy with the shapes, but am still hoping to achieve a more open crumb. Baguettes are a challenge, for sure!

2. I bought the Tartine book already some 8 months ago and these are finally my first attempts: a white and whole-wheat boule (crumb is of the ww one). Wonderful breads.

3. Txfarmer’s sourdough croissants. I had wanted to give these a try for the longest time and finally did it. I followed her detailed instructions pretty much to the letter, paying attention to all of her advice and had no problems with the recipe (thanks Txfarmer!). I used bread flour like she recommended and the rolling of the dough went very well. I thought that all of my weight training came in handy in this effort! :) They were devoured by my kids!

4. Two yeasted sweet breads filled with frangipane – absolutely delicious. I had to make these for a special event and they disappeared very quickly. Perfect with a cup of coffee or tea.
I also made Chapatis for one of our dinners.

5. Second round of Tartine breads: one with with prunes and roasted hazelnuts, another one with caramelized onions and bacon pieces, and the third with olives. They were all really good.

6. Hamelman’s Whole-wheat multi-grain in two shapes and the Potato Focaccia from the Tartine book.

7. As I said above, my daughter doesn’t like bread all that much so I made 40 of these meat pies for her school lunches.

8. Last but not least, a batch of French Macarons: the pink ones have a raspberry jam filling and the orange ones a mango and passionfruit infused ganache (my favorite).  

It was fun to be so immersed in dough and batters for an entire week. 

I am trying to figure out with slash pattern I like the most, or should I say what would apeal to customers most. 

Cheers,

Wingnut

The obligatory crumb shot.