The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

?Ciabatta & French Baguette? Not in my kitchen!

alfanso's picture
alfanso

?Ciabatta & French Baguette? Not in my kitchen!

I infrequently would ever bother to deride another's work, but this video deserves dishonorable mention, particularly because it comes from a flour company.  It reminds me of that saying about car wrecks on the roadway - "you can't look and a you can't look away".

Now you may disagree with me, and feel free to do so, but I think that many will agree that this is a Hall of Shame production.  Just try to stay with it to the bitter end.  I dare you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HKCsIKANpU

Supreme Flour bills itself as (in its own words) : "It is acknowledged as one of the largest mills in the world".

 

merlie's picture
merlie

Unbelievable flour company promotion !  Have not seen that brand here in Canada.  I am still struggling to make the perfect baguette. By comparison mine are great !  

Merlie

 

 

Donkey_hot's picture
Donkey_hot

This is very sad...

Our Crumb's picture
Our Crumb

...I won't get back.

What's really tragic, and not just a little curious, about this not so "Supreme" performance is that he goes through 90% of the motions required to produce an excellent loaf.  He makes a biga, he stretches and folds, he rests, he shapes, he steams.  But the "Supreme" product he's pitching seems to succeed in preventing his process and formula from producing anything better than these 7-11/truck-stop loaves.  If those tragic products resulted from some just-add-water Bisquick sort of product, then fine.  But all that fuss for that?  Hard to figure.

Alan, I think you should follow his procedure but with your ingredients, film it and send it to Supreme.  Good idea?

Tom

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Those close-in shots of his knuckling the dough gave me the creeps.  And your analogy of 7-11 truck stop quality is an insult to 7-11s.

pmccool's picture
pmccool

How could they do so many things so wrong on so many levels?  When the "professional" baker starts out referring to a poolish as a biga, I knew that things had taken an early lurch toward the ditch.  I just had no idea how bad the wreck would be.  Oh.  My.  Head.

Paul

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

Even worst than those I can get from the poorest bakery in supermarkets! But I guess that's pretty much the expected quality for pre-mixed products. My mom bought a box of pancake mix once long ago and pancakes made from it were awful! Tasted weird and came out super thin instead of thick and fluffy as demonstrated in the picture. Even my first attempt at all-from-scratch pancakes tasted 10 times better.

They should take a look at all the gorgeous baguettes you've been baking and they'd know how ridiculous they're being! No sensible men should buy this product after watching that video.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

see nothing wrong with the video and wish they could make bread as well:-)  For them it would be true enough.

DesigningWoman's picture
DesigningWoman

it must have been excruciating for you. Erase it from your mind, your hard disk shouldn't be polluted by that.

Have a good day.

Carole

Ru007's picture
Ru007

This was such a cringey, watch from behind the couch type of video!! 

Yikes! 

Portus's picture
Portus

... is a dead giveaway; sad to admit the presenter is a fellow South African!  Last night I wrote to the mill as follows, and wait its reply (when pigs fly!):

Hi

The content of this link may interest your Academy staff. 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/56241/ciabatta-french-baguette-not-my-kitchen

The Fresh Loaf is a respected, on-line “community for amateur artisan bakers and bread enthusiasts” where ideas are exchanged and advice is sought.  It has significant international reach amongst some of the world’s most informed bread makers.  

The critic is highly regarded amongst members as an expert (see subjoined link), so it is a pity that this presentation saw the light of day on this forum. 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/56233/when-jeffrey-met-ken

Regards

alfanso's picture
alfanso

I appreciate the kind words, but I'm an expert at taking out the garbage, lifting heavy things, arranging my underwear drawer, walking the dog.  And not much else.

alan

SteveB's picture
SteveB

And I thought Stephen King was the master of horror!

SteveB

www.breadcetera.com

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Ciabatta is flour, water, salt, yeast and olive oil.

He's adding flour, water, salt, yeast + premix?

So what's in this premix? He's added all the ingredients!

Oh... And I wouldn't have those ciabattas even if they were giving them away. I've seen far! better ciabattas on TFL which look delicious. I believe we didn't see the crumb for a reason.

oldskoolbaker's picture
oldskoolbaker

 That video isn't so bad compared to some of the stuff put out by bakery supply companies and flour mills. Y'all should be glad that you are amateurs, the unfortunate baker who works in a shop that deals with premix(75% of them these days) is pressured to make good looking product from that mix, every batch. It can be done, believe me, a good baker can work miracles with those mixes.I, myself would have no problem making beautiful product but that's all it would be...product.  As far as the taste is concerned, no premix can help, it's going to be nasty. Premix can be good in a bakery like at a grocery store where the baker is constantly hammered about time and productivity. If you need to knock out and bake off 80 gallons of dough in an 8 hour shift by yourself, using a mix will be a godsend. Commercial bakers don't have the luxury of lots of time, and mistakes are frowned on.

Alan.H's picture
Alan.H

Even Sam cringed at being exposed to such cruelty to dough and he has seen a lot!

Ps.     Sam is the household Norwich Terrier.

Portus's picture
Portus

...more favourably on SA's milling industry relative to Supreme?  PMcCool has previously written favourably about Eureka Mills (my "go to" flour), so this may interest him.  Seems The Bread Gypsy Bakery is worth visiting.

https://mailchi.mp/eurekamills/spotlight-on-a-bakery-the-bread-gypsy?e=a1f4d47223

pmccool's picture
pmccool

It would have been wonderful to know about The Bread Gypsy Bakery while we lived in Pretoria.  We moved back to the States in late 2011.  I suspect that their startup hadn't gotten far enough along to have come to our attention before we left.

Thumbs up to Eureka Mills and their flours.  They were my "go to" flours, as well.  Never had their rusks, though.

There's a place in Stellenbosch, Schoon de Companje, that has begun working with local farmers to develop grain supplies for their bakery.  I believe that they now mill all of the flour that they use, with much of the grain coming from local growers.  Fritz Schoon is also an Ile de Pain alumnus.