The Fresh Loaf

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Question about rustic loaves

July 12, 2010 - 4:14pm
BLHNYC's picture
BLHNYC

Question about rustic loaves

Hi Everyone-

I hope you can help me. I am making Peter Reinhart's 100% whole wheat rustic bread. Just curious- when I shape it into loaves, do I need to score them?

Thanks in advance!

Beth

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hanseata's picture
hanseata
Jul 16 2010 - 4:39pm

The only Peter Reinhart breads I can remember that were not scored were the Pain a l'Ancienne (dough might be too wet) and some enriched sandwich loaves. If you are baking a free standing loaf, scoring is usually necessary to let the gas escape during the baking process - otherwise it will escape, anyway, but not where you want it, but bursting through the crust where it pleases.

Karin

BLHNYC's picture
BLHNYC
Jul 17 2010 - 9:00am

Thank you Karin. Since it was a Pain a l'Ancienne, I did not score it. It looked fine- just didn't taste great. I wasn't so impressed.

Beth

hanseata's picture
hanseata
Jul 18 2010 - 7:59pm

Did you use the whole wheat foccaccia/pain a l'ancienne recipe from the "Whole Grain Breads"? I never tried that one.

I regularly bake my own heartier version of the Pain a l'Ancienne from the BBA, substituting 100 g of the bread flour by a whole grain flour of my choice (either rye, whole wheat, spelt, oat flour, fine cornmeal or buckwheat flour).

These breads taste really good, perhaps you should try something like that instead of a "heavy duty" 100% whole wheat version.

Karin