The Fresh Loaf

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Pain de Campagne from Flour Water Salt Yeast

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Pain de Campagne from Flour Water Salt Yeast

When I got Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast and started baking from it last Summer, I found the breads and pizza doughs to be delicious, but the fermentation times for both levains and doughs was very much shorter than what were given in the book. I figured it must be due to my warm Summer kitchen, which was in the mid- to high-70's (F). Well, now it is Winter, and my Kitchen is about 68 dF. So, I have begun revisiting some of Forkish's breads.

This week, I made his Pain de Campagne. As given in the book, this is a mostly white bread with a bit of whole wheat. It is a pain au levain, but is spiked with instant yeast. I modified the formula to 10% medium rye, 15% WW and 75% AP flour, and I left out the instant yeast for this bake. I followed Forkish's procedure for mixing and stretch and folds, but I fermented the levain and the dough in my Brød & Taylor Proofing Box set at 72 dF. The fermentation times were just a tad longer than Forkish specified for the bulk fermentation, which could be due to my leaving out the instant yeast.

Here's the result:

The flavor was less sour than I remember this bread being but quite nice. 

I made another batch of pain de campagne dough, wanting to increase the whole grain proportion and also the flavor complexity and the sourdough tang. For that batch, I increased the WW to 24%, keeping the rye at 10%. The AP flour is now at 66%.  That is, the final dough flours were: 500g AP, 200g WW and 100g Rye. (The levain contains 160g AP and 40g WW flours.)

I also included the instant yeast. I bulk fermented at 76 dF and let the dough get to 2.5X the initial volume. That took about 4.25 hours. 

And here are photos of the second bake with increased WW and instant yeast:

I went for a walk, and, when I came back, ....

Megacrackles!!

One of these loaves went to a friend whose Winter Solstice party we attended this evening. The second loaf rested for about 8 hours before I sliced and tasted it.

Just as I had hoped and Josh predicted (see below), this second bake, with more rye and whole wheat and a higher fermentation temperature, was markedly more sour. Interestingly, the flavor seemed more complex overall. 

This was a very useful lesson for me. I will be making this bread using the increased whole grain flour and increased fermentation temperature from now on. This experiment with increased fermentation temperature in particular needs to be repeated with other formulas. Stay tuned.

As a bonus, here is a loaf of  "Hansjoakim's Favorite 70% Rye" I baked a couple days ago and sliced this morning.

Note the blowout on the right. I proofed this loaf seam-side down with the intent that the folds would open up during oven spring, but, alas, I again sealed the seams too well. Thus, the blow out. A good demonstration of that which scoring is meant to prevent.

Of course, the blow out in no way detracts from the eating quality of the bread which in this instance was delicious.

David

Comments

Mebake's picture
Mebake

They are beautiful, David! The crust and crumb have everything that an artisan baker would wish for.

Waiting for your second version.

 

gmabaking's picture
gmabaking

Lovely breads!  Since the weather turned cold, my kitchen also is usually around 68 degrees. With this cooler temperature I have returned to baking from Flour, Water, Salt and Yeast. Everyone who has tasted this bread has really liked it, even more than the Tartine breads. Also thought it was less sour, but not quite faintly sweet like the Alaskan Sourdough. Look forward to seeing what you think of next bake.

Abelbreadgallery's picture
Abelbreadgallery

Lovely! Did you bake it dutch oven?

Abel.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

bread Davis.  Lucy's kind of white bread with 25-30% whole grains and boldly bakied!  They have to taste great.  Well done and

Happy baking

Darwin's picture
Darwin

Those look great, well done sir!

golgi70's picture
golgi70

I really like the scoring.  If you suggesting it was less sour than when made in your warm summer kitchen that makes sense. Fermentation in the higher part of the 70s will certainly make your dough more sour even if the times are shortened.  I'm sure this loaf here tastes lovely but I bet the second batch you got going to bake, by the sound of your amendments, will be the winner of this contest.  

Nice Bake Look forward to see the next

Josh

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

@ Abel: Yes. I baked in Lodge Combo Cookers.

@ Josh: The more I "know" about hydration, temperature and acid production, the more confused I get.

I have understood that the way to get relatively more acetic acid was lower hydration and lower fermentation temperature and longer fermentation time. Yet, my experience this Summer is certainly consistent with what you suggest - Higher fermentation temperature leads to more acetic acid flavor.

David

golgi70's picture
golgi70

But I believe I've learned a bunch on this lately.  I'm still learning but between 75-78F the labs grow at the same rate as yeast.  Just a few degrees lower and the yeast will ferment at a faster rate than the LABS so the dough will be finished fermenting with less lactic acid.  

Then the acetic acid comes into play at the much lower temps when both yeast and labs are at much slower rates if not dormant.  Acetic also produces in a stiff starter opposed to the labs which thrive in a liquid starter.  Then there are the enzymes that benefit in different environments.  

Please don't take this as perfect fact as I very well may be off but I'm trying to learn and take advantage of all these concepts.  It really brings light to why we would use two different starters for a single dough. 

But that was my guess on your sourness.  It was probably 77 degree dough in the summer time.  

Nice bake anyway

Josh

cloud9's picture
cloud9

Yum. Looks fabulous. Nice bold bake, great crumb and great slashing. 

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

David

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

But no crumb photos yet.

David

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

David

Mebake's picture
Mebake

yum, i prefer the second version David.

You're stocked up well now For the holidays!

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

Beautiful bread as always.  Shiao-Ping

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

It is so nice to hear from you!

Thank you for your kind words.

David

LevaiNation's picture
LevaiNation

Hello David. Great inspirational blog!

I have a question regarding your scoring. Are you baking your loaf seam side up like Forkish suggests? If so, do you score the loafs just for looks?

From all the bread reading and researching I've done, he is the only one that doesn't insist on seam side down baking... I love the organic random cuts that his breads create. it's kind of like an exciting surprise to uncover the DO's halfway through the baking to reveal the shapes! Some people use tea leafs for divination... I use bread the bread crust!

 

Anyway, thanks for all your info and pics!

B.

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

How the breads get baked depends (for me) how they were proofed. I am so used to proofing seam side up, that I forget to do otherwise, even when I had planned to.

This way of baking with the seam side up is by no means unique to Forkish. I believe he picked it up from Chad Robertson (Tartine Bread). There are some rye breads in Hamelman's Bread which are baked this way.

Thanks for your kind remarks.

David