Early Summer Baking: Borodinsky in a Banneton and Pain de Campagne with Mixed Leavens
Early Summer Baking:
Pain de Campagne with Mixed Leavens and Borodinsky in a Banneton
It's been a lovely weekend in the far North Eastern corner of England. Yesterday we drove onto Holy Island and walked through the village, up to the Castle, then round the Northern Coast crossing 2 of the finest, and utterly deserted, beaches to be found...anywhere!
Today, we made our patio beautiful, once more, following the ravages of our harsh winter. After we had eaten our lunch sitting outside, I took some photos of the bread I was making, as it came out of the oven.
I made 3 loaves in total. One was a gift to our neighbours who treated us to an Iced Cream whilst we chatted away the afternoon: thank you Anna and Mark! Another was just a small loaf, which I'd baked early so we could have fresh bread with some gorgeous "Berwick Edge" cheese I found yesterday, made by a local speciality cheese company, Doddingtons, just a few miles up the road from here. Awesome flavour packing a real punch!
And the other is a 1.5kg Boule, showcased in the photographs here. Yes, outdoor photography in the sunshine in good ol' Blighty: things must be on the up? [I wish!]
Here's the details:
I built both the wheat leaven and rye sour using 2 feeds from stock of 80g of each leaven, on Friday evening and Saturday morning. I mixed the final dough on Saturday early evening, and retarded in the chiller overnight, before dividing, final proof and bake on Sunday morning/early afternoon. The figures in the table offer totals of flour and water only; there was a small residue of both leavens for me to put back for stock.
Material |
Formula [% of flour] |
Recipe [grams] |
1. Wheat Levain |
|
|
Special CC Flour |
25.8 |
400 |
Water |
15.5 |
240 |
TOTAL |
41.3 |
640 |
|
|
|
2. Rye Sour |
|
|
Bacheldre Dark Rye Flour |
9.7 |
150 |
Water |
16.1 |
250 |
TOTAL |
25.8 |
400 |
|
|
|
3. Final Dough |
|
|
Wheat Levain [from above] |
41.3 |
640 |
Rye Sour [from above] |
25.8 |
400 |
Special CC Flour |
64.5 |
1000 |
Salt |
1.8 |
28 |
Water |
36.4 |
564 |
TOTAL |
169.8 |
2632 |
% pre-fermented flour |
35.5 |
- |
Overall % hydration |
68 |
- |
Method:
- Build each leaven from stock, using 2 refreshments, as outlined above
- Mix rye sour, flour and water until loose dough is formed; autolyse 45 minutes.
- Add salt and wheat leaven and mix gently over half an hour to form a strong dough. Use Bertinet-style techniques here, as the dough is soft and sticky to start, but will soon become obviously strong.
- Use intermediate proof of up to 1 hour. Then refrigerate overnight.
- Scale, divide and mould round. I made a boule at 1.5kg, one at 750g, and made a small boule with the remainder. Place upside down in bannetons and set to prove, for around 4 hours, allowing the dough pieces to come back to ambient temperature.
- Bake with steam on bricks in an oven pre-heated to 250°C. Cut the tops of the loaves just prior to loading.
- Turn the heat to 200°C after 15 minutes. For the large boule, bake out for up to 1 hour if necessary; minimum 50 minutes. Jar the oven door slightly open, turn off the heat source, and leave the oaf in the oven for 15 minutes.
- Cool on wires
I'm really pleased with how this loaf has turned out. My experience with overnight retarding is that the breads are very prone to "blow-outs". Plenty of time is needed in the final proof in order to avoid this. I guess that my kitchen temperature hitting the dizzy heights of 24°C by lunchtime really did help me here. The dough had been very active when I set it in the chiller the night before; so I turned the fridge to work at full power. Note too, that the pre-fermented flour is way up over 35%. Great result! Here are some photos:
As the previous 2 occasions, I used a "scald". However, this loaf was proved in a banneton, and baked on the bricks. Also....it is 100% Rye!!! A colleague of mine who is studying for the VRQ Bakery Level 2 let me have some Doves Farm Light Rye flour she had in stock. The sour was built with 3 refreshments. The first 2 were part of the dough above, with a final refreshment made on the Saturday evening to allow me to form the final paste on Sunday morning. I made the "scald" on Saturday evening, at the same time as the final refreshment of the sourdough.
Here's the formula:
Material |
Formula [% of flour] |
Recipe [grams] |
1. Rye Sour |
|
|
Bacheldre Dark Rye Flour |
29.8 |
186 |
Water |
49.7 |
310 |
TOTAL |
79.5 |
496 |
|
|
|
2. Scald |
|
|
Black Strap Molasses |
6.1 |
38 |
Malt Syrup |
4.5 |
28 |
Coriander [ground fresh] |
1 |
6 |
Salt |
1 |
6 |
Doves Farm Light Rye |
20 |
125 |
Water [rolling boil] |
35.3 |
220 |
TOTAL |
67.9 |
423 |
|
|
|
3. Final Paste |
|
|
Rye Sour [from above] |
79.5 |
496 |
Scald [from above] |
67.9 |
423 |
Doves Farm Light Rye |
50.2 |
313 |
TOTAL |
197.6 |
1232 |
% pre-fermented flour |
29.8 |
|
Overall % hydration |
85 |
|
Method:
- Prepare the rye sour, feeding 3 times from stock, as outlined above. Make the scald at the same time as the last refreshment. Dissolve syrups in the water and bring to a rolling boil. Grind the coriander, and combine with salt and flour. Pour on the boiling syrup solution and mix to from a stiff paste. Cover and leave to cool overnight.
- Combine scald and sour and mix thoroughly. Add in the remaining flour and form a paste.
- Bulk ferment, covered, for 1 hour.
- Use wet hands to shape and then prove in a banneton, covered, for c. 4 hours.
- Tip out onto a baking sheet. Spray the loaf top with water. Prick the top with a skewer, or, equivalent, and dust with freshly ground coriander seeds.
- Bake at 250°C for 10 minutes with steam. Turn the oven straight down to 190°C and bake out for a total bake time of 1 hour
- Cool on wires
I ended up cutting into the loaf sooner than ideal, as the photographs really testify. It was such a beautiful day, and so I wanted to try and get the best photographs possible. I think I succeeded with the Pain de Campagne. The Borodinsky is not quite there. Given more paste, I prefer to make this in a Pullman Pan. But, I did not have that luxury. And, the scald was really thirsty. The final paste had 85% hydration, but was stiffer than I am normally comfortable with. The trouble is that a higher hydration can be very difficult to bake out.
There is too much flour on the top of the loaf, from the proof in the banneton. I did my best to brush it off and replace it with coriander, but with mixed success.
The crumb is obviously moist, and I think it will taste great. But it's a little tighter than I believe I would have achieved if I'd been able to use a Pullman Pan.
Still, photos are below, and I am certainthat the flavours will be as I want!
My sunny greetings to you all
Andy