April 12, 2011 - 5:18pm
Thom Leonard's Country French Bread
I wasn't planning on posting today, nor on making a four pound loaf, but sometimes things happen. My two aims for the day were to make something from Maggie Glezer's book, which I recently purchased, and something with a fair amount of whole wheat. So I picked Thom Leonard's Country French Bread, without reading the whole way through. I noticed at the flour part that I was pouring a lot of flour into the bowl, but I figured that it would call for cutting into multiple loaves later in the day. By the time I got to that point I realized that I was making a miche in all but name. And this after I steadfastly avoided the miche craze of the winter. This is a lot o' bread. Oh my.
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Comments
Your crust, crumb and scoring are all lovely.
David
I was kind of surprised that it came out at all as I wasn't prepared to deal with so large an amount of dough. -Varda
What a fine looking miche Varda, in crust, crumb, and scoring. Nicely done!
You've been making some very good looking loaves lately, and it's been great to watch your constant progression from your early days of diving into bread making to where you are now, an accomplished baker.
Best Wishes,
Franko
for you comments, Franko. It seems like a long journey with a long way to go, but fortunately fun along the way. -Varda
Lovely looking miche, Varda! And just to echo what Franko said: you have been making some beautiful loaves lately. What a stunning view from your diningroom table. :)
All the best,
Syd
That shot out the window kind of took me by surprise, just like the bread. I appreciate your kind remarks. -Varda
That's an impressive looking loaf - and it should keep you in bread for a week or so.
Nice bake!
Larry
Yes, a lot of bread. I managed to hack it in two with my breadknife but a saw would have worked better. Thanks for your comments. I have been so impressed with your beautiful leisure baking after all your work baking. -Varda
Your bread looks great. Nice color. I've made this bread a couple of times and didn't get the nice browning you did. In looking at the pictures of his bread in Maggie Glazers book he gets an incredible dark brown. How do you think he does it? Herb
Hi Herb, Unfortunately I haven't made this bread except the once and that was over two years ago. Wish I could remember more. But in general, I find you can get a darker color with high heat, long bake, and as important as the first two - steam, steam, steam. Recently I found that my breads were too pale even with the high heat and long bake. I changed my steaming method, and found that I got a much darker crust overall. What seems key is the burst of steam at the very beginning of the bake, rather than just creating a moist environment in the oven which is what I had been doing. Do you have any pictures? -Varda
Varda. That crumb looks so nice. Sort of a similar crumb I was after with my recent WW/Rye loaf. I can imagine yours turned out nicer than mine and will give you some very nice hearty sandwiches.
John
All I can remember about this bread is that it was very big. I made this two years ago. And I do think your recent WW/Rye crumb was nicer than this. Thanks John. -Varda