The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Miche 50/50/50

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

Miche 50/50/50

I read in MC's beautiful blog, farine-mc.com, that Miche is not her favorite bread but that she can understand how someone can go wild about it.  She said, "It is a majestic bread ... rich with the lore and fervor of the old days."    That is exactly how I feel about Miche!  "... rich with the lore and fervor of the old days." 

The word, Miche, conjures up for me images of a past full of hardship and labour, and yet, romances, at the same time.  Romances, not in the true sense of the word, but in a nostalgic way, referring to the simple, unsophisticated, and natural way of living.

One of the pseudo-Miche I made was Sourdough 50/50 nearly four months ago.  I was not happy with the bread at the time and had wanted to re-make it ever since.  But, No, I had to do something slightly different.  I could not even follow my own script.  I introduced one more element into my Sourdough 50/50 to make this Miche 50/50/50.  In addition to 50% levain, and 50% Poolish, of the final dough flour, I added 50% old dough.  The old dough was a piece of dough reserved from a previous bake a couple of days ago.  This piece of dough did not go through bulk fermentation or proofing.  It was sectioned off and placed in the refrigerator straight away.

Apart from being whimsical and having fun, I had but one purpose for doing this - to see how adding a piece of old dough would improve the flavour of the crumb, along with the levain and Poolish which I already had.  This is nothing new.  Many people have done something similar.  And here is my Miche 50/50/50:

 

                

 

                                                         

                        

 

 In order to be able to score the dough easily, I went for an overall lower hydration of 63%, compared to 68% for Sourdough 50/50.  I wanted to have some sort of Chinese tofu look  on the crust.  As a result, I gave up some openness of the crumb.

  

               

 

                        

 

The crumb was exceptionally flavourful, which might come through the close-up shot below:

 

                             

 

The crumb is very sour to my taste, due to the lower hydration too. 

When I prepare my Poolish, I did not put in a pinch of instant yeast, which one would normally do.  I wonder if this has anything to do with the slightly dense interior structure of the Miche.

If you are interested in trying the idea in this post, I would suggest a dough hydration of no lower than 67 - 68%, and definitely a pinch of instant yeast to go with your Poolish!

 

                                             

Shiao-Ping               

Comments

pmccool's picture
pmccool

The crust and crumb look absolutely lovely, to me.  Beautiful bread!

Paul

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

Have you found a rye flour supply in South Africa yet?  Hope everything goes well for you there.

Shiao-Ping

pmccool's picture
pmccool

but then, I haven't really had much opportunity to look for any.  Mini O sent some suggestions which I have yet to act upon.

This week we're back in the States and though I've looked in two different supermarkets, I haven't found any on the shelves.  Guess I'll have devote some more effort when I get back to SA.  

Thanks for your kind thoughts.

Paul

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

... from my local supermarket a few hours ago.  I am so pleased that they now stock these more unusual items on their shelves.  I also found Organic Spelt flour there too.   I wouldn't have thought I would be able to get them at my neighbourhood supermarket; my area is just a very typical suburban residential area.  Lucky me.  If I were you, I would sneak a couple of small bags of rye into my luggage.

Shiao-Ping

RebelWithoutASauce's picture
RebelWithoutASauce

Hey Paul,

 

Try checking the supermarket's 'whole foods' section. I could never find Rye flour anywhere and by looking in the health food/organic section I found that rye flour is always kept in this section in the USA instead of with all the other flours.

-Dan

RebelWithoutASauce's picture
RebelWithoutASauce

Hey Paul,

 

Try checking the supermarket's 'whole foods' section. I could never find Rye flour anywhere and by looking in the health food/organic section I found that rye flour is always kept in this section in the USA instead of with all the other flours.

-Dan

ciabattaventi's picture
ciabattaventi

As always, your breads are inspiring. Happy New Year!

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

So you like the tufu look.  Thanks.

Crider's picture
Crider

perfect for toast!

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

Thank you.

Shiao-Ping

proth5's picture
proth5

Gotta be me.

What is your rationale for not putting a pinch of yeast in your poolish?  Do you feel that there are other means to pre ferment this flour?   One might guess that this would be a contributing factor to less than thorough fermentation of the flour which would have an impact on the crumb.

Quite interested in your response as I know you have put some time into the study of bread theory.  Thanks!

Pat

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

Hi Pat

Thank you for your question.  I have not been baking with any instant yeast for the last three, four months.  I did not put a pinch of yeast into my Poolish because -

 

(a) "In theory," as soon as the water hits the flour, fermentation has started, although at a much slower rate than if there were yeasts.  

(b) The Poolish being only 1/3 of the pre-ferments, I thought the other two pre-ferments would be enough to leaven my dough.  (It is not uncommon to have levain as low as 5 - 16% of the final dough flour.  Please see here.)     In the making of this Miche, the Poolish, the levain, and the old dough were 250 grams each and my final dough flour was 500 grams.  This means that my levain and old dough together were 100% of my final dough flour!  

And,

(c) I like to experiment and I like to play devils' advocate - I will "own" my experience and my findings. 

   

When it comes to bread theory, I really just have enough practical knowledge to make bread.  I am really not up for a good discussion on the theory side of things.  I really have had my fair share of "misconceptions" when it comes to bread theory.  For instance, it was only a couple of days ago that I learned that stiff starter has slower yeast growth, compared to liquid starter.  I thought a stiff starter would give me more yeast population because of the presence of more flour.  What I did no know was, given the same temperature and the same amount of time, a stiff starter would probably have less yeast growth compared to a liquid starter of the same weight.

Shiao-Ping

p.s.  I enjoy very much your informative post on linen couche.  Thank you.

 

proth5's picture
proth5

for your response.  It was just an unusual think to do and I thought I would explore your rationale. 

I've been experimenting with "hybrid" levain and commercial yest pre ferments and I will say that I get some good and also some disappointing results with them.

Thanks for your kind words on my blog entry.

And thanks again!

yozzause's picture
yozzause

Great way to start the year Shiao-Ping
It looks good to me, perhaps the elevated sour has come from the old dough as this was a relatively large addition to the mix rather than less hydration. The firmer dough has given pretty good definiton of your slashing which is nice and even.
Now you mentioned TOFU look to the bread, have you tried tofu in your bread , i have used it when there was an abundance in the cool room at work and it was getting close to code and they were going to chuck it.
Let me say i am not a tofu devotee but in the bread it was great, it gave a silkiness to the crumb and enhanced the keeping qualities and was voted a success by my asian colleagues Malasian/Aussie and recently arrived Vietnamese ladies.(looking forward to seeing your version)
regards Yozza

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

That is very interesting, Yozza.  I would never have thought of putting Tofu into my dough.  (1) Was it soft Tofu or hard Tofu you used?  There would be more moist coming out of the soft Tofu. (2) How much did you use, 20 - 25%?  If you put a lot of it, it will become a semi-gluten free bread!

How does Tofu Sourdough with Soy Beans sound to you? 

Shiao-Ping

yozzause's picture
yozzause

Silken tofu the soft stuff is what i used, and i used the whole pack 425g i think and that was in a 2kg mix from memory. which equates to a 20%+ addition.The gluten in the flour is probably about  12% no addition is needed. this was made as a normal short fermentation dough but i would be happy to try this as along fermentation or even a sour dough next time.

I'm sure we will enjoy seeing your version very soon, certainly before i get around to doing mine

regards Yozza 

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

... your information.

Regards,

Shiao-Ping

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Happy New Year! I'm looking forward to seeing your 2010 baking.

David

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

It looked like you had a great little holiday by the sea!

Look forward to seeing your baking in the New Year too.

Shiao-Ping