Hello from Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Hey all,
I have been following TFL for months now and finally decided that there was no reason why I shouldn't join this wonderful community. Many of you have already unwittingly helped me on my quest to improve my baking skills, and for this I thank you.
I live in a small (2,000 people) tight knit farming community where everyone is willing to help each other out in any way they can. The TFL community seemed to embody many of the qualities that I loveĀ about my town that I couldn't resist joining this great site.
Today I baked my second attempt at BBA's pain a l'ancienne. This bread seemed incredibly easy to prepare and bake, but I do have to say my wet dough handling skills could use some work. I can't seem to transfer the cut dough from counter to parchment paper without degassing the dough.
Below is a picture of my second attempt at this recipe and I found the crumb a little tighter than my first attempt but the taste was just as amazing. Also my wife and I found that the hardened leftovers, if there are any, make excellent dog treats!
In this recipe I used five roses bread flour and red star active dry yeast. I'm down to my last bit of five roses flour and will be looking for another bread flour to replace it, I'm not too impressed with the results from this flour for BBA recipes. I will also be changing over to SAF instant yeast as I just found a local resource for it. These loaves? baguettes? were baked at 525 for the steaming portion of the bake then dropped temp to 500 for 25 min with some rotating during the bake for evenness.
I'm gonna have to search for my pics of my other recipe attempts and see if I can't post them here.
questions, comments and constructive criticism are welcome