Pain de Campagne
This weekend, I baked Pain de Campagne from Flour Water Salt Yeast. I used my own levain, which I have been keeping alive for a few months now and which comes from Chad Robertson's Tartine recipe. I dont understand why Ken Forkish uses so much flour in his starter, so I figured that I would just stick to my own levain without trying to emulate his recipe. I only use about 150 grams of flour mix (50/50 AP and whole wheat), 75% levain, and 150 grams of water. to keep my levain going. I was realle excited to try out this recipe because my past attemps at baking Tartine sourdough has yielded bread that was somewhat dense, though still delicious. Since this Pain de Campagne uses commercial yeast in addition to the levain, I was expecting a nice fluffy sourdough bread.
As you can see, I was relatively succesful. I really worked hard on degassing the dough a bit so I would not get the cavernous holes that I got last time, when I baked the Tartine sourdough. The bread was nice and fluffy, and the only serious problem that I encountered was when the dough got stuck to my wicker basket during the proof.
Comments
Looks pretty darn good to me! Nice bake.
You got a very nice crumb without the caverns. Perhaps worry less about thoroughly degassing - some is good but a light touch will leave you with a more open crumb - and just make sure your dough is properly developed. The big holes can come from underdeveloped dough (I know as I've gotten them plenty of times.) You can get good development with a vigorous upfront mix, plus a few stretch and folds during bulk ferment. I haven't seen Forkish's book, so don't know what process he suggests. Great baking! -Varda
I agree with Varda. One other thing if you don't want your dough to stick to your basket, use rice flour mixed with some AP flour or just rice flour. I have never had a dough stick once since following this method.
Nice baking.
Ian
is some fine bread. The outside is baked to that yummy dark brown and the crumb is perfect for sandwiches. Chad uses a more liquid and fresh starter than many other bakers do.
Very nice baking and Happy New Year.