It's been a heck of a bread making weekend.  Considering downstair neighboors and the French method don't mix well, I decided to make them some loaves too.  11 one pound boules of sourdough are retarding in the fridge right now, but I was impatient and hungry so I baked one of them today.  Didn't turn out as dark as I like but that happens(my stomach was rushing me to get the rest of dinner in the oven.)  This is a Poilâne-Style Miche I modified from the BBA and my own experiance with Poilâne.  Critique, questions, and comments are always welcomed!

Hey again,

Here's a Poilane style miche using liquid levain that I baked on 3/4/10.  The flour mix was 75% WW, 25% AP at 75% hydration.  The liquid levain was made prefermenting 20% of total flour using all WW flour for the levain.  The salt was 1.8%.  Each miche was about 1500g before baking.

Tim

Hello,

I just shaped my boules for the Roasted Onion and Asiago  Miche from the BBA.  Problem is, I don't have room in my fridge to put both baking sheets in?!  It's almost 2pm here in LA, and they've now been sitting out for about 30 minutes after shaping.  Can I bake them tonight??  Should I be waiting for them to double??

Thank you!!

Hi there,

I've baked the Poilane Miche from the BBA a couple/few times. First times, I followed it to the letter using commercially available flour (King Arthur Whole Wheat) and got a well risen, relatively open-crumbed (for this type of bread) result. This time, I milled my own flour, red winter wheat, and the result was very good, but more dense and experiencing less oven spring and a tighter crumb. All other factors were roughly the same. I'm wondering if the flour I'm milling (I'm new to milling my own), which is obviously coarser than KA flour or others, will make a loaf inherently more dense, less risen, etc.

Again, I'm not at all disappointed with the result (in fact flavor was terrific), more curious about the factors at play. 

Thanks for your input.

-David

So this is my second attempt at making this bread.  Actually, the first one turned out beautifully, but this is what I did differently.

I made the Firm Starter, then had to leave for business.  So instead of leaving it overnight, it was in my fridge for about 10 days.  It was fine when I got back yesterday, so this morning I got down to it.  I followed the next steps, and mixed it by hand and kneaded it in the bowl for a few minutes, but MAN, my wrists (and entire body weight) were no match for it.  I had to stop kneading it obviously, so its sitting on my kitchen counter covered in a towel.  What should i do?  That is one seriously dense dough!

Also, as an aside, I made the BBA Potato, Cheddar and Chive Torpedos and they were FANTASTIC!  Highly recommend everyone give that one a try.

A few days ago I baked a couple of loaves of Poilane-Style Miche from PR's BBA and they did ok but the crumb was tougher and waxier than I would have liked. Can people familiar with this recipe tell me how I might make the crumb lighter?  Should I put in a couple of eggs? Milk? Vegetable oil?  Since I am a novice I am reluctant to substitute with recipes I am not familiar with.

Please note below that since I have no easy access to medium grind WW flour I have, as P.Reinhart suggested, gone with the 50/50 of bread flour /WW flour alternative.  

The recipe is as follows: 

Firm Starter

.......1 cup Barm

.......2 cups Sifted medium grind whole wheat flour* ( 1 cup bread flour, 1 cup WW flour) 

........1/2 cup of water 

Final Dough

.......7 cups  Sifted medium grind whole wheat flour* (3.5 cups Bread Flour,3.5 cups WW flour)
.......2 T Coarse sea salt
.......2-2 ¾ cups Water, lukewarm

ps: note to David, yes, I have RTFM......several times.