Trying a "new" old book

Hi folks!

I have 3 bread books: Hamelman, Forkish and a third... about 3 years ago, when I used to bake bland, dull, straight dough breads and had no idea TFL existed, my sister gave me this book (maybe she got tired of eating my dull bread while having to call it delicious!), which was a rather poorly translated Brazilian edition of a book called "Pains et viennoiseries de l'école Lenôtre".

Well, this book has a very different structure of recipes and very concise instructions I absolutely couldn't understand nor follow. So it took me a few more months till I finally found out about TFL, which helped me learn how to make real bread, and guided my decision to purchase my copy of Hamelman, which is still my favorite bread book. So after baking many many breads from Hamelman and Forkish I decided to try my luck with the Lenôtre book again.

Ah, the difference experience makes! The big difficulty about Lenôtre's book is that it begins straight out with telling you to make a several-kilo big ball of levain, which you then use, in varying proportions, for all the recipes. It tells you to build "la mère" (the mother), then "le chef", and finally "le levain", but tells nothing about what each stage does, and why the hydration changes between them, or why you need to make such a big ball.

Turns out the levain the recipes asks for is a simple stiff levain build at 64.51% hydration, which you can build the day before, or in the morning depending on your schedule, with your own regular, small culture (I maintain about 50 - 100g). So if a recipe calls for 600g of levain, you solve the equation system

f + w = 600

w = 0.6451 * f

, and there you have it, you simply build your levain with f grams of flour and w grams of water, and your recipe is now in the exact same format as we are all used to.

I like this weekend's bake not only because of the flavor, which was amazing, but also because it symbolized a maturity I acquired on so many fronts in bread baking. My culture is thriving, responsive, and has a delicious smell. I have finally baked recipes from TFL and all 3 of my books. I'm leaving behind pale dull breads for good, as the crust this time came out with a beautiful dark color. The sound the crust makes when the knife enters it is just beautiful. There's much to celebrate in this bake.

The following is adapted from the Lenôtre recipe "pain de campagne au levain". It is a 10% rye, 90% AP, 64% hydration (I also found it strange that the recipe's numbers result in such low hydration), with added golden flaxseeds. Bulk fermented for 2 hours with one fold, then shaped and proofed overnight in the fridge. Baked Forkish style, in a dutch oven, seam side up for natural springing of the seams.

Many thanks to the community,

Antonio