I've been making thin couronnes lately, because I can give the loaf a real stretch like baguette, but still have it fit on my oven stone (heck, fit the oven itself). I haven't had much luck with getting a good grigne, tho... until today! I just had to share a picture. I hope I can do this again!

I reduced my initial oven temperature to 475F to avoid setting the crust too fast, added water for steam some time before the loaf to avoid a steam flash, and worked on my slashing with the safety-razor-blade-on-a-coffee-stirring-stick trick, but it wasn't quite right, and my slashes would never get that lip pulling up and browning to a crisp.

Today, I proofed the loaf under a tea towel, but with a metal bowl full of hot water set in the ring of dough. I'm not sure that's what really made the difference, altho I did notice that the skin near the bowl was drier, which may have helped the loaf to expand outwards and pull on the slash... maybe?

O no!  Playing in the garden, I learned from the music across the courtyard it was my neighbor Istvan's birthday!  What to do to wish him the best...?  Bread, because I can't make much else!  But something special, so it wouldn't be just another loaf - a secret ingredient absolutely nobody could guess but everybody seemed to like...

Vanilla! Since I love the couronne shape and Istvan's got a lot of mouths to share with, I tried a big loaf and kneaded up this:

Aaaahhh! Mostly, I thought I would upload this because I found what I ended up with hilarious!  But happy birthday, neighbor... 

Sunflower Seed Rye

Sunflower Seed Rye Crumb

The Sunflower Seed Rye from Peter Reinhart's "Bread Baker's Apprentice" is made with a pumpernickle rye soaker, bread flour and toasted sunflower seeds plus yeast, salt and water. It is shaped in a couronne and marked with a square around the hole with a dowel.

 Reinhart's instructions are to make a boule from the divided dough and, after resting, punch a hole in the middle and enlarge it. I shaped these couronnes by rolling them into a 24" "rope" and joining the ends. My technique in marking the loaves apparently didn't work. I did dust the grooves with rye flour, which was supposed to keep them from closing, but they sure disappeared! I don't know if I didn't make the grooves deep or wide enough or I just got too much oven spring. Whatever.

 Visual aesthetics aside, this is a very tasty bread. My wife ate a slice with apricot preserves as soon as it was cooled and declared her approval. We had some with a crab louie for dinner.

 Gotta work on that groove, because I sure like the couronne shape. It makes for a great crust to crumb ratio for crust guys like me.

David

This weekend I decided to bake a couronne. I used my sourdough for it. I am not entirely happy with the shape, but the crumb and taste were great. I've written about it at length here.

For now, here's a picture of the finished couronne:

And here's a picture of the crumb: