The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Big dome

caviar's picture

Miche

April 5, 2010 - 4:11pm -- caviar

I was watching an unusual movie from on demand named Sring 1941. There was a scene that place in a Polish farmer home. The female farmer inserted a peel into an old oven in the wall and pulled out aloaf of bread htat looked like it must weigh 4 or 5 kilos and had a hich dome which I understand is not typical of a miche.

Does anyone have any recipe, instruction,comments on such a loaf.

 I thought the movie which took place in Poland in 1941 as the Nazi's invaded was a good movie but expect to do some crying especially at the end.    Herb

hazimtug's picture
hazimtug

This past weekend I made French Bread I, using instant yeast and overnight retardation, following Reinhart's recipe in Crust and Crumb. I ended up with 3 loaves and baked them in our mud oven (traditional for Cyprus). I kneaded the dough as described in the book to disperse the ingredients, form the gluten and hydate/ferment. I should admit, when I performed the windowpane test, I had difficulty forming it. So, I continued kneading an extra 5 - 8 minutes... Then, without testing anymore, I scaled, benched and shaped, let the 3 loaves proof and retard in the refrigerator until the next day. I then took them out the next day, and had them continue proofing for about 2 hours, as they didn't look like they rose enough in just another. In any case, they all looked pretty proofed (doubled in size and soft, the spring was not great though...). As I put the first on the peel and scored it, the big puff just collapsed... I baked it. I didn't score the other ones, afraid that they would do the same. The resulting baked loaves tasted good (much better than bread available around here anyway!), had irregular holes with an airy structure, under a crackly blistery crust (not thick though)... Yet, the two I didn't score had this huge dome on top. What are your thoughts? Why the big dome? Is it because of underdeveloped or overdeveloped gluten, or overproofing before baking?

Looking forward to some tips... Thanks!

Hazim

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