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Troubleshooting BBA Pain de Campaigne

kalikan's picture
kalikan

Troubleshooting BBA Pain de Campaigne

Hello,

New bread baker here; just going through Reinhart's BBA and doing some breads... Last weekend I tackled his Pain de Campaigne and was a bit surprised by the outcome...

His recipe produces 3 breads/boules/loafs. After splitting the dough in 3 equal parts (using scales), my end result was 3 rather small breads. I'm sure someone here baked these breads before, are end results suppose to be this small? Now, I know I probably overproofed a bit (and lost some oven spring) - it's much hotter in house (it was probably around 75 in the kitchen when I started and probably close to 80 by the time bread went into the over), and as I originally planned on the timeline provided in the book, I just couldn't get oven hot enough in time. Still, the finished breads appear to be too small to me (maybe next time I'll just do two or even one boule instead).

Of more concern to me though is that my bread came out pale looking compared to pictures in the book. Reinhart's bread are nice dark brown color, where mine are very light in color (picture below). Any idea what could have gone wrong? Is it because there was not enough heat in the oven? I've heated it for somewhere around 35min (see my comments above, originally I planned to preheat it for an hour, but had to cut it short), but oven temperature was at 500 when breads went it (as suggested in the book). I did use baking steel and had deep cookie tray filled with lava rocks for steam...

Is this the case of not enough temperature or was this because dough was to some extend overproofed by the time it went into the oven? Bread tastes just fine to me, though my wife said she taste was a bit yeast-ish to her. Crumb is dense, but my understanding is that this is how it suppose to be in this type of a bread... Just trying to see where and what I did wrong, planning to tackle this bread this weekend again and hopefully get to something I could be satisfied with.

golgi70's picture
golgi70

Yes you can simply divide the dough into larger pieces and Pane de Campagne is better as a larger loaf in my opinion.  If it tasted yeasty then there was certainly over proofing which will reduce the remaining sugar left in the dough to caramelize the crust. Looking at the photos though  there is some color coming through on the front loaf I think you could have also let them bake longer to get a deeper color.  That adds up since you didn't pre-heat your oven long enough a longer bake would be required.  None the less it sounds like your happy to eat the results and you'll be better prepared the next go around 

Cheers

Josh

v's sis's picture
v's sis

Could the lack of color be a problem of insufficient steam?  Is there steam in your oven when you open the door using your method?  Are you remembering to pull out the steam tray after 15 minutes or so?  

Craig_the baker's picture
Craig_the baker

The pale color is due to being over proofed before being baked. The yeast consumed most of the available sugars before it went into the oven. Live and learn, as they say. I'll bet it still tastes amazing!

Craig_the baker's picture
Craig_the baker

Check how warm it is where you proof the dough. If it's warmer (over 75F) let the dough sit for a shorter amount of time. You could try leaving it out on the counter for an hour or so and then pop it into the fridge for the rest of the time.  You could also use colder water when initially mixing the dough. Another thought would be to use warm water and then autolyse your dough for an hour to jump start the enzymes ability to start breaking down the starches into sugars before adding yeast/culture and salt.

Arjon's picture
Arjon

Your feeling that the loaves were small might simply be due to the shapes you chose to make combined with your perception / expectation of what size each usually is. What was the weight of the dough?  For instance, if you're used to making a boule with say 750 gm of dough, then if this recipe gave you 1.2 kg, of which you used 1/3 for your boule, the result would be much smaller than your usual boule. 

kalikan's picture
kalikan

Hello,

Thanks a lot for all of the replies.

v'c sis - I poured about 1-2 cups of boiling water over lava rocks right after putting the bread in, quiet a lot of steam initially. 8-9min later (or whatever Reinhart prescribes for turning loaves 180 degrees) when I opened over, there was no steam and I did not bother removing the pan. I think this week I will simply cover bread with foil pan for the first half of the bake (similar to baking in DO or cloche - looks like a few people tried this approach with good results) and not bother water at all.

Craig - are you suggesting to stick the dough into the refrigerator once it doubles and then, once oven is all ready, to put the bread to bake? If I go that route, would I need to let the dough come back to room temperature before putting it in the oven or can it go baking chilled (assuming it won't chill all that much in 20-30min)?

Thank You!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

for the whole bake will keep the crust form browning.  Both caramelization the (the main reason why bread browns) and the Maillard effect can only take place in the absence of water.  Once the steam comes out the crust dries out and starts to brown.  

I don't put the steaming apparatus, in this case lava rock with the pan half full of room temperature water , until the oven has hot its pre set temperature of 500 F.  At that point the stone is 15 minutes behind the temperature pf the oven.  Once the oven hits temperature put the lava rock pan half full of water on the bottom rack with the stone on the next rack above.

In 15 minutes, the stone will be at temperature and the steam will be billowing.  Slide the bread on the stone and toss 1/4 C of water on the bottom of the oven for instant steam and shut the door and turn the oven down to 460 F.  When the steam time is done remove the steam pan and turn the oven down to 425 F convection if you have it or 450 F if you don't.  Bake to 2305 F in the inside with an instant read thermometer.  Your bread will spring, bloom and brown properly if proofed correctly (85-90% ) every time.

Happy baking 

kalikan's picture
kalikan

dabrownman - thanks a lot for your tips! I've ended up baking one big loaf of Pain de Campagne early in the morning today and you were right, I should have pulled that tray with lava rocks out of the oven even though it appeared dry. When I baked it earlier today using your instructions, I pulled what seemed like an empty tray with lava rocks out - but less then a minute out of the oven, I could see water vapors coming out of them...

Followed pretty much all of my steps from the previous bake, but decided to do one large boule instead of 3 tiny ones. My benneton did not come on time, so I had to improvise using salad bowl and loaf came out a bit misshapen. It did brown nicely. Reinhart's baking timeline was for 3 small loafs, so I knew I will have to bake my large boule longer, but wasn't sure by how much longer. Ended up steaming in for 25 minutes and then baking additional 25 without steam. Next time will probably cut steam to just first 15 minutes and do 35 minutes without, hopefully I can get to a much deeper colored crust (ie what he has in his book).

Picture attached. Pardon my sloppy slashing, still trying to get a hang of it.

AbeNW11's picture
AbeNW11 (not verified)

Defy gravity!

kalikan's picture
kalikan

Don't ask me, picture looks fine on my computer, not sure why FreshLoaf put it up on its head. Must be a sign of some sorts:)