This 2+ kg miche is for an upcoming family gathering. Eighteen of us - most of 3 generations - will be getting together at the Central California beach town where my generation vacationed with our parents in the 1960's and '70's. There are lot's of wonderful memories of those Summers.

The formula for the miche is from the SFBI Artisan II workshop I took last December. I have described the formula and methods here: This miche is a hit! Since then, many TFL members have made this bread and seem to have enjoyed it as much as I. That includes brother Glenn, who has promised to bring along a matching miche.

The only modification of the original formula for this bake was to use half WFM Organic AP flour and half CM Organic Type 85 flour.

 The crust has lots of lovely crackles.

No crumb photos, since I'm taking it intact to the gathering.

I also baked a couple 1 pound loaves of the San Francisco Sourdough from AB&P today. The formula can be found here: Crackly Crust & Shiny Crumb: San Francisco Sourdough from AB&P

I think the "group photo" puts things in better perspective.

David

One of the breads that we learned to make in the SFBI Specialty Breads workshop was a no-knead, hand mixed ciabatta.  I've made ciabatta using other formulas but hadn't been quite happy with the flavor and oven spring.  I knew using a biga or poolish was the way to add more depth to the flavor.  And that the high hydration makes it virtually impossible to knead the dough by hand.  So when we made the no-knead hand-mixed ciabatta, I knew I had finally found my Holy Grail of ciabattas.

A large rectangular tub is ideal for mxing and fermenting this bread.  I found a perfect food grade plastic tub at The Containers Store; it's 12.5 in x 9.5 in x 6. in and has a snap on lid.  Rubbermaid makes a comparable container; just not as tall.  Also, the large Danish dough works great for mixing the poolish and the final dough if you don't want to get your hands all full of wet, sticky dough.

The two loaves on the left were baked together first.  The larger one on the right was baked on its own.

The crumb is moist and tender with slightly chewy crust, perfect for dipping into EVO & balsamic vinger.  The bread gets a nice oven spring during baking and makes an awesome panni sandwich.

I know that Jason's Quick Coccodrillo Ciabatta Bread will continue to be a favorite on TFL, but I hope you give this one a try.

SFBI Ciabatta

Poolish 
Flour: 306 g (BP: 100%)
Water: 306 g (BP: 100%)
Yeast (dry instant)  0.5 g (about 1/8 tsp) (BP: 0.1%)
Total: 612.5 g (BP: 200.1%)
Pre-fermented flour %: 35%

Final Dough
Flour: 568 g (BP: 100%)
Water @ 80°F: 376 g (BP: 66.15%)
Yeast (dry instant): 2 g (about 1/2 tsp) (BP: 0.33%)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil: 26 g (BP: 4.62%)
Poolish: 612 g (BP:107.75%)
Salt: 17 g (BP: 3.08%)
Total: 1601 g (BP: 281.92%)

Total Formula
Flour: 874 g (BP: 100.00%)
Water: 682 g (BP: 78.00%)
Yeast (dry instant): 2.5 g (BP:0.25%)
EVO: 26 g (BP: 3.00%)
Salt: 17 g (BP: 2.00%)
Total: 1601.5 g (BP: 183.25%)

1. Mix all the poolish ingredients until well incorporated (DDT 70°F). Allow to ferment 12 - 14 hours at room temperature (65 - 75°F).
2. In large rectangular plastic tub, hand mix all the ingredients until well incorporated (DDT 73 - 76°C).
3. Cover and bulk ferment for 3 hours with 3 stretch and folds at approximately 45 minute intervals. For the first stretch and fold, scrape dough out of the container onto a well floured surface. The dough will still be very sticky and it may be a bit tricky to do the stretch and fold. Oil the container (I used EVO) and replace the dough in the container. The remaining two stretch and folds are done in the container.
4. At least an hour before baking the bread, preheat the oven with baking stone to 450°F.
5. Gently scrape dough onto well floured surface. Dust the top of the dough with flour and gently pat the dough into a rectangle.
6. Divide the dough into desired pieces. (I did 3 large loaves.) Gently transfer pieces to well floured couche. Cover and proof for about 30 minutes.
7. Transfer to baking stone and bake with steam for about 12 minutes. Vent and bake for about another 10 - 13 minutes until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when thumped. Total baking time: 22 - 25 minutes.

With all this talk on the forum about miche lately, I've been itching to give it a try.  So when the excellent dmsnyder posted the formula for the miche he made in the SFBI Artisan II workshop, I decided that the time was now and the bread should be here!

I followed the very nicely written formula at the link, using a small amount of whole wheat flour in the Levain and toasted wheat germ in the final build, as I've no good source for high-extraction whole wheat flour.  I made the levain with 25% whole wheat flour, 75% KAF AP (and my starter had been fed the same mix), to get approximately 3.33% whole wheat in the final dough (it actually ends up being a bit more, but I didn't worry about it).

I must say, this is an excellent formula, and an excellent bread.  Incredible oven spring.  Wonderful alliterative potential too: My massive mighty miche makes mastication memorable.

Anyway, pictures:

From the top

Another external view

Miriam meets miche

Not a bad crumb either.

We sliced it 7 hours after it came out of the oven.  Lovely flavor and texture, lots of character.  Looking forward to snacking on the remaining three quarters of a loaf  I'd definitely make it again, although unlike dmsnyder, the notion of upgrading to a 2kg loaf sounds intimidating!  If nothing else, there's no way that would fit in my poor little banetons.  I guess there's always the "napkin in a bowl" trick, eh?

The San Francisco Baking Institute has just launched a new educational resource they call the "SFBI Baking Circle." This is a collection of several hundred brief videos demonstrating techniques used in making breads, viennoiserie and pastries. The videos are designed to supplement Michel Suas' textbook, "Advanced Bread and Pastry," but are useful for any baker without the textbook. There are some samples available for viewing, but access to the full collection requires a paid subscription ($83 for 2-years).

I have subscribed and have viewed most of the videos pertaining to bread baking. The quality of the videos is outstanding. Each video has print text and voice narration. The instructions are very clear. Most technique demonstrations are shown from two angles. The scope is very broad and covers very commonly used techniques such as shaping boules, bâtards and baguettes but also some more exotic techniques such as shaping French regional country breads, working with sugar and chocolate and advanced cake decorating techniques.

Is a subscription a good value? Well, that's pretty subjective. I think it's particularly valuable to a baker who does a wide range of baking and wants to supplement print books' instructions with video demonstrations. The videos of pastry and confection techniques are inspiring and informative, even if you seldom or never use them. These videos illustrate techniques but do not provide recipes. They cannot teach you to bake but can certainly help you improve the quality of what you bake.

Take a look and see what you think. Here's a link: 

http://sfbibakingcircle.com/

David

Most of the breads we baked in the Artisan II workshop at the San Francisco Baking Institute (SFBI) are found in Michel Suas' “Advanced Bread & Pastry” (AB&P) textbook. A couple of the breads I and the other students enjoyed the most are not, and one of them was a delicious Walnut Raisin bread made with a firm levain and a small amount of instant yeast.

The following is my scaled down version which made two loaves of 563 gms each. (The 26 g by which the dough exceeded the ingredient weights must be due to water absorbed by the raisins.) I incorporated an autolyse in the procedure which we did not use at the SFBI.

1. Mix all ingredients until well incorporated.

2. Ferment 12 hrs at room temperature.

    

Procedure

1. Mix the flours and the water to a shaggy mass. Cover tightly and autolyse for 20-60 minutes.

2. Toast the walnuts, broken into large pieces, for 15 minutes at 325ºF. (Can be done ahead of time)

3. Soak the raisins in cold water. (Can be done ahead of time)

4. Add the salt and the levain and mix at Speed 1 until well incorporated (about 2 minutes).

5. Mix at Speed 2 to moderate gluten development (about 8 minutes).

6. Add the nuts and raisins (well-drained) and mix at Speed 1 until they are well-distributed in the dough.

7. Transfer to a lightly floured board and knead/fold a few times if necessary to better distribute the nuts and raisins.

8. Round up the dough and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover tightly.

9. Ferment for 2 hours at 80ºF.

10. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Pre-shape as boules. Let the pieces relax for 20-30 minutes, covered.

11. Shape as bâtards or boules and place, seam side up. In bannetons or en couche. Cover well.

12. Proof for 1.5 to 2 hours.

13. An hour before baking, pre-heat oven to 500ºF with baking stone and steaming apparatus in place.

14. Transfer the loaves to a peel. Score them. Transfer to the baking stone.

15. Turn the oven down to 450ºF and bake for 15 minutes with steam, then another 15 minutes in a dry oven. (Boules may take a few more minutes to bake than bâtards.)

16. When the loaves are done, turn off the oven but leave the loaves on the baking stone with the oven door ajar for another 8-10 minutes.

17. Transfer the loaves to a cooling rack.

18. Cool completely before slicing.

Notes

Because of the water in the soaked raisins, The dough was wetter than expected from the 67% hydration given for the total dough. It felt more like a 70-72% hydration dough.

The crust was thinner and got soft faster with this bake than that done in the deck oven at SFBI. I might try baking at 460ºF and also leaving the loaves in the turned off oven for longer. Perhaps a shorter period baking with steam would help get the crunchier crust I would like with this bread.

This bread has a delicious flavor which is exceptionally well-balance between the grains, nuts and raisins. There is a very mild sourdough tang. Definitely a bread I'll be baking frequently.

David

Submitted to YeastSpotting

Today, we mixed and baked ciabattas and challah, neither of them sourdough. We mixed and shaped olive bread, walnut raisin bread and miche to be retarded tonight and baked tomorrow. We also scaled ingredients and mixed pre-ferments for baguettes to make tomorrow. The baguettes will be made with two pre-ferments – a pâte fermentée and a liquid levain. The doughs for the ciabatta and for the miche were hand mixes, and all the levains were mixed by hand.

Scaling water for the miche mix

Hand mixing dough for the miches

Frank had us make 6-strand challah but he also demonstrated a variety of other braids. His challot are pictures of perfection. (Mine are pictures of squid who ate some special mushrooms.)

Challah pieces ready to be rolled into strands fro braiding

Frank's challot, ready to be egg washed prior to proofing

Frank's challot, baked

Challah crumb

My Ciabattas and Challot 

Stretch and fold

Dividing ciabatta dough

Placing ciabatta on the proofing board

Ciabatta baking in the deck oven

Ciabatta crumb

Both the ciabatta and the challah are delicious. I'm looking forward to the breads we are baking tomorrow.

We spent all day in the bakery and only were in the classroom to list our tasks for the day, first thing in the morning. Most of Frank's teaching dealt with dough handling issues, but I picked up a couple pearls worth sharing.

I asked him about how levain is calculated differently from other pre-ferments. (See my blog entry for Artisan II-Day 3.) Here's the answer: It's a matter of convention. Levain and other pre-ferments can be calculated either as a percent of dry flour weight in the final dough or in terms of the percent of pre-fermented flour in the total dough. No big deal. Your choice.

Frank also made two interesting comments as we were scaling and shaping the miches. The first was that long loaves like bâtards have a more open crumb structure than boules made with the same dough. I have found that to be true but attributed it to my shaping skills. The second was that the size of the loaf has a significant impact on flavor. I had also observed this with the miche from BBA which I made once as two 1.5 lb boules, which had a different flavor from the 3 lb miches I usually make. Again, I didn't generalize from that one experience at the time. Interesting, eh?

I am anxious to get home and practice some of the skills I've acquired before I lose them.

David

Today, we mixed and baked four types of bread – whole wheat, rye, multi-grain and semolina. We also scaled ingredients for tomorrow's breads – ciabatta, challah (non-sourdough), olive, raisin-walnut and miche, some of which will be retarded overnight and baked Friday.

The educational goal of today's bakes was to demonstrate the impact of different ingredients such as whole grains and seeds on fermentation rates, dough consistency, crumb structure, etc.

Some of my breads from today's bakes

Personally, I found the sourdough whole wheat and rye rather un-exceptional. The multi-grain made with levain was much superior to the one we made with commercial yeast in Artisan I. (It's going to be my breakfast bread tomorrow.) The semolina bread was difficult to handle – a very slack, sticky dough that fermented and proofed really fast – but was the best bread of this type I've tasted. It was very similar to the semolina bread in Maggie Glezer's “Artisan Breads,” for those of you familiar with that wonderful bread.

In the classroom, most of the time was spent discussing retardation of the 3 types covered in AB&P – basically, retardation during bulk fermentation, retardation of formed loaves and retardation and proofing in a cabinet which allows you to warm the product after a period of cold retardation. The advantages and disadvantages of each were covered, as was the types of breads for which each is best suited.

I think I learned the most in the bakery today. The highlights for me were a better grasp on a way to shape bâtards and how to make a chevron cut correctly, two techniques of which I had a poor understanding, in retrospect.

Frank's breads. He made these to demonstrate pre-shaping and shaping. At the end of the day, we sliced one of each type for our tasting and discussion.

Some of the other students' ryes with creative scoring patterns, on the loader ready to bake.

Frank's rye breads, with various scoring. (The rye breads were scored prior to the final proof.)

The whole wheat breads were dusted with flour prior to scoring. Some had a cooling rack placed over them as a sort of template before dusting which makes an pleasing design on the loaves.

Frank also discussed more about using baker's math with levains and spoke to a question that Pat raised in a reply to my blog of yesterday. He said that, when you work with preferments like poolish, you think in terms of the percent of prefermented flour in a formula. When working with levains, you think of the levain as a percent of the final dough's dry flour. He didn't go into detail regarding the reason for this difference. I could speculate, but I'd rather try to get him to explain his reasons tomorrow.

David

The Artisan II Workshop at The San Francisco Baking Institute is all about sourdough bread. The first day of the SFBI Artisan II workshop is spent mostly in the classroom. The instructor reviewed the content of the Artisan I workshop and then introduced basic concepts of sourdough baking with emphasis on starter elaboration and maintenance. At the end of the first day, there is a quick review of baker's math.

In the bakery, we started elaborating a new sourdough culture with which we will be making bread on Friday. We also scaled the dry ingredients and mixed the levains for 4 different breads we will be making on Day 2

Our instructor for Artisan II is Frank Sally. My classmates are a different mix from that of the Artisan I workshop I attended in August. This group is almost entirely professional bakers who have come from Australia, New Zealand and New Jersey, among other exotic places.

Frank (in the center) and some of my classmates

A couple of my bench mates, both professional bakers from Australia (on the left) and New Zealand (on the right)

Mixing levains and scaling dry ingredients for mixing final doughs tomorrow

Our scaled ingredients awaiting tomorrows mixes

Much of the material presented today was familiar, but Frank touched on a few concepts which, while not completely new to me, I'd never thought much about.

He spoke of the “mass effect,” which occurs during bulk fermentation. He could not tell us the mechanism, but said that there is improved flavor development when the dough weighs more than 2 kg. Most of us home bakers generally work with batches of dough smaller than this most of the time. Evidently, we are missing out on some flavor enhancements by doing so.

Frank described the differing rates of growth of homofermentative and heterofermentative bacteria during sourdough elaboration. The former develop earlier. Moreover, it takes longer for the acetic characteristics to develop in the starter due to the greater volatility of acetic acid compared to lactic acid. This is a factor in the well-known improvement in flavor complexity as a new starter is fed over the first weeks. It takes about 3 weeks for a good stable balance of yeast and the various lactobacilli to develop

These differences also effect the balance of acetic versus lactic acid one can manipulate through differences in feeding schedules. More frequent feedings result favor lactic acid production. So a once a day feeding schedule yields a more tangy starter than a twice a day schedule.

The first set of breads we will be baking will provide comparisons between 1) once a day versus twice a day levain feedings, 2) liquid versus firm starters and 3) breads made with different proportions of starter (relative to the amount of dry flour in the final dough).

Stay tuned!

David

Workshop: Artisan I, May 2009

Course Content
This is a well-rounded program covering the art of bread making. Some people in the class were professional bakers and some of us were home bakers. I found that even though there were two groups with different levels of expertise in the class, the course was targeted to those with more experience, thus creating tension for those of us that didn't fully understand all of the information being presented.

Organization
Both the classroom and lab were appropriate and very nicely set-up. The TV monitor in the classroom was installed off to one side of the room making it difficult to see and read the PowerPoint Slideshow from the other side. The curriculum was pretty complete, even though some topics were not discussed in depth in the classroom so that a clear understanding of the procedure was reached before going in the lab and doing the work.

Once in the lab, we were pretty much following the instructor's directions as to when to hold water from the mix, switch to 2nd. speed, stop mixing, do folds, without an adequate explanation from him about what was happening to the dough at those particular moments in order to make those decisions. Even after taking the class I still don't know what to look for in the dough to make some of those decisions! Pre-shaping and shaping techniques were covered in the lab in a fairly quick and short demonstration, and the little information in our binders covering that information was insufficient. Instead, we were expected to take notes and make sketches during the lab demonstrations making it difficult to pay full attention to what was being shown. In the lab, the instructor wasn't mindful to speak up loudly enough during the demonstrations or ask students to keep conversations to a minimum, making it very difficult at times to hear what was being said.

Instructor
The instructor knew the curriculum very well. Unfortunately he didn't convey the information clearly and effectively. Even though the curriculum was well-organized, the instructor's teaching style wasn't because he kept jumping forwards and backwards throughout the information in our binder during the class.

On day four I made a suggestion about his presentation and his response in front of the whole class was to just say "whatever". Frankly, I found his dismissive response insulting, disrespectful, and inappropriate for a learning setting, and it clearly reflected poorly on him and on the SFBI. At that point I realized he lacked the capacity, sophistication, sensibility, and sensitivity to properly communicate to the diversity of his students.

There were other times when I asked him a question and he would plainly ignore me and walk away from me as I was talking. It was hard for me not to take this personally but I have come to understand that he wasn't capable of simply saying "this isn't a good time for me, could you please ask me later". Thus when it came to asking questions, which I certainly did, my impression was that questions were not welcomed. And when he did answer questions his answers were sometimes inconsistent, creating more confusion and thus the need to ask a further question.

I had the impression that the group would have really enjoyed getting to know him had he joined the group at the lunch table even for a few minutes at any one point during the course of the week and this in turn would have allowed him to genuinely find out more about his students and their interests.

Schedule & Pace
The schedule was heavily packed and the pace was fast and demanding. However, all of it was achievable and very close to what you would find in a professional setting, which was great. Even though I had never made more than a loaf at a time and it would take me practically all day to make it, here we were making in excess of 25 loaves in a day out of 5 different mixes.

Balance of Time
The amount of class time, lab observation, and lab action was fairly well balanced, with the exception of those topics that were only covered in lab and not in class and vice-versa.

What, if anything, should we add to the curriculum?
More time discussing and practicing Baker's Percentages, probably from day one of the workshop. Ten minutes covering this subject and one example on the last day of class it's not sufficient amount of time spent on this topic to fully comprehend it and to feel that you can leave the classroom and do it at home.

Was the SFBI staff helpful to you? What else could we do to give you the best possible experience?
Yes, most of the staff was very helpful, friendly, and approachable, in particular Mr. Suas, the other instructors, and the people that ran the kitchen. Also the students doing the 18-week professional training program were very nice and willing to share their experiences at the SFBI. I did notice that even though the staff was very nice and helpful, they kept to themselves and seemed somewhat reserved when it came to interacting with the students especially in the dining area. It would have been nice to see the staff, including Mr. Suas and the instructor, sit with the students during lunch at least once during our week-stay at the SFBI.

What additional workshops or events would you like to see at SFBI?
More two-day workshops. Possible topics: Pizzas, Operating a small baking business.

What was your favorite thing about studying at SFBI?
Meeting the different, interesting, and diverse people who have a similar passion when it comes to baking as I do. Not to mention the wonderful breads we got to make, taste, and take home at the end of each day.

Additional comments
Taking this workshop at the SFBI was certainly a worthwhile experience for me. Mr. Suas, President of the SFBI, has put together a wonderful place for people from many walks of life and backgrounds to come together and learn the ins and outs of baking. And even though I wish I would have left at the end of the week feeling that I understood fully the curriculum I signed-up for, this experience has offered me the opportunity to learn about many aspects of baking that I hadn't even considered. Unfortunately because of the personalities involved in the process my experience was somewhat bitter-sweet. I would definitely consider taking other workshops offered at the SFBI. However, I feel that I could only do this when the points that I'm raising here have been acknowledged and addressed to ensure all students are made feel welcomed and encouraged to ask questions in a learning environment that promotes dignity and respect.

The reason I emailed this evaluation is that under these circumstances and given my personal experience I knew it would take me more than 5 minutes, rushed at the end of the long 5-day class, to fairly and objectively critique the class and the instruction. Furthermore, hearing the instructor say jokingly, though unprofessionally, that he would look through the evaluation forms and any that weren't "good" wouldn't make it to Mr. Suas, made me feel uneasy about taking the time to fill it out right there and then, and just turn it in at the end of the class.

article on buckwheat from the SanFrancisco Baking Institute - Fall '08 newsletter

Renewed Respect for Humble Buckwheat

http://www.sfbi.com/FileUpload/files/SFBINewsFall08.pdf