The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Recent bakes

Janedo's picture
Janedo

Recent bakes

baguette farciebaguette farcie

A big thanks to Eric (ehanner) for this great idea. These baguettes (baguette Monge recipe - quick to make) are filled with mountain ham, like serrano, ewe cheese and grainy mustard. The kids loved them! I made a sun-dried tomato, herb, olive oil, goat cheese, serrano one for me. Perfect picnic fair. I formed six small rectangles, lay the ham, cheese, etc in the middle and folded the sides up and rolled lightly to form a baguette. Just have to be carfeul not to roll the dough too thin. The seam on the bottom, then slashed before baking. 

pain épice T110pain épice T110

The breads were made using a firm starter that I fed to become stirrable in the evening, left out all night, then the dough made in the morn, baked in the afternoon (an initial 4-5 hr rise, then a 2-3). Half T65 and half T110. The T110 is a new brand I found. It's organic and stone-ground like the other but the bran is really small and you can't really see it, but the flour is sort of grey-beige. Really strange but it makes the best bread ever with a spicey, pain d'épice smell to it.  

pain romarin
pain romarin

I made Mike Avery's sourdough ciabatta that was a huge hit here. I have actually never tasted it but my italian friend said it was great! This bread I'm showing is based on the same technique, but I changed a couple things.

Rosemary-honey bread 

the biga (I made an orange size ball and left it out all night) didn't weigh it 

400 ml water

625-50g T65 (bread flour over there and maybe a bit more)

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp honey

2  tsp salt

2 tbsp fresh rosemary chopped

I don't know why but the bread was lighter in texture, almost like a yeast bread. Maybe because there was no milk and the honey helped? I have no idea but it was really GOOD! 

baguettes rustiquesbaguettes rustiques

These are the rustic baguettes from Glezer's Artisan baking. They were really good, but  it dawned on me that I'll never get those huge holes if I always use my organic T65 which isn't real white flour. I bought some T55 non organic to try one of these days but that breaks my heart a bit. It's just a challenge thing. I don't like baguettes that much really anyway! But any amateur baker wants to try and master them ... don't we?

I read an article about french flours and yeast. Did you know that most bakeries in France have a flour sponsor? They only use the flours from that supplier and they get great, light, holey baguettes because the flour has emulsifiers, and other additives. That's pretty icky in my books... and also my initial motivation for baking my own bread. But it's very much like the States, you have wonderful artisanal bakeries and so do we. They just have to be hunted down! I read an article yesterday about France's N°1 baker who makes the best baguette in France. His name is Anis Bouabsa and is from a family of Tunisian immigrants. He talks about using a very, very small amount of yeast and a long long rise (20 -30 hrs) but didn't say anything about builds. 

Have a nice Sunday!

Jane 

 

Comments

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Hi, Jane. 

I think there was an article about Bouabsa recently in Gourmet Magazine, I think. Isn't he the baker who gets custom milled flour from a very small, old mill? 

How did you like the baguettes rustiques? They were on my list of breads to bake this weekend but didn't make the cut. I just had to bake Nury's rye again, and I made Essential "Columbia" for the first time yesterday. I over-proofed the loaves badly and everything went wrong from then on, except the bread tasted delicious! 

Today is for making strawberry jam, so no baking. It's supposed to be 39-40C here today, so it will be better to keep the oven off anyway.  

David

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I made the wrong association. I found an article about the baguette baker to whom Jane referred. Actually, the contest he won was for the best baguettes in Paris, not in France. Since baguettes are the parisian bread, maybe this doesn't matter, but there was an article about a baker from a small town whe supposedly makes "the best baguettes in France." I'll keep searching. 

Anyway, here's a link to an article about Bouabsa: 
http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/gbr/tpl/mag5/art20080301/htm/tour-gastro-meilleure-baguette-paris-2008.htm

David

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Maybe my steel trap is a little rusty ... 

I have things sorted out now, I think. The article of which I was thinking was in the March, 2008 issue of Gourmet Magazine, page 124 ff.  It was about a small 400 year old flour mill in Normandy, near Mortagne-au-Perche, and their efforts to get bakers to use their flour as part of the "local food" movement. Their brand name is "Farine du Perche." 

Gourmet's web site doesn't let you read the articles, only abstracts, or I would provide the link. However, here is a link for a French web site of the mill. You can order flour from it. 

http://www.moulin-de-la-peltrie.fr/page00010003.html  

David

Janedo's picture
Janedo

Thanks for the note. Yes, it was the best baguette in Paris.

I haven't scouted out all the small mills in France. There must be quite a few. But among the organic grain mills there are several ones that the organic shops rely on. I'll look up the other baker tomorrow morn when I have some time.

I have to try the essential columbia again but relying more in the description of the dough than following the recipe. It is clear that I cannot do that. My flour drinks way more water than what recipes call for. I made Floyd's cinnamon raisin oatmeal today and I made sure NOT to put all the flour in at one. As suspected, I didn't put in about 3/4 cup of flour or the dough would have been way to heavy. The bread came out fantastic! I've learned my lesson.

Mmmm strawberry jam! We bought three kilos of cherries today, but just to eat. I think I might make some cherry soup tomorrow.

Jane 

holds99's picture
holds99

They all look absolutely beautiful AND delicious.  Eric's idea for baguette farcie sounds wonderful...like picnic time with fruit and wine.

Howard - St. Augustine, FL

ehanner's picture
ehanner

Jane, you are quite the Artist. This is a very nice collection of breads and well photographed as well. The Farcie looks delicious!

Eric