Attempt at Hamelman's Miche Pointe-à-Callière
I'll let you be the judge(s) about the success of this attempt! I live nowhere near Pointe-à-Callière, so I can't really call the bread by that name. Miche Source Alice (?Alice Springs in French).
1. I should've read the instructions!
I started by elaborating a starter. I used a 100% culture and 100% wholemeal (100% extraction - it's what I had at home). I ended up with 970g starter! Hamelman's recipe had the culture as 20%(D'oh!).
I didn't have enough wholemeal, so I used my remaining wholegrain spelt (again, 100% extraction). I made up the rest with whitebread flour (I ran out of spelt). The recipe called for 85-90% wholemeal (100% extraction) and the rest white bread flour. I ended up with 42.4% wholemeal wheat, 24.2% wholemeal spelt and 33.4% white bread flours. Hydration was 82% and I had a total of 6 Kg of elastic dough! It was beautiful to feel, but impossible to control. The recipe said that miche is a heavy loaf 2.25 Kg or 5 lb each, so I made 3 loaves.
My drama continued after shaping. I've invented the 13th and 14th steps to bread. The sticking to the couche and the scraping off the couche when it's time to bake. Very crucial steps!
The bread tastes good and the crumb is nice and the crust crispy and thin.
My dough tub.
The first of three brothers!
The crumb view
The 13th and 14th steps (in between proving and baking).
The CD in the second picture is of "Africa"- © Putumayo World Music 1999.
The loaves were bigger than what my oven could handle and I had to pick up the dough and push it back onto the tile.
The loaves just spread out on the couche. I'll get bannetons or baskets next time, I think!
17/04/2008
Miche sandwiches
One week later, the bread is alittle drier, but no sign of mold. Still tasty!
