A sunday afternoon Miche—tinkering with a formula
We are only half way through spring and already the temperatures feel like summer. Hot windy days with no rain have left our lawn and garden golden brown and crunchy. Over a railing in the back yard, well hidden from the scorching afternoon sun a star jasmine has been thriving and filling the kitchen with its scent. We now wake to the morning call of stormbirds.
My current job is winding down into its final week and I have been busy applying for jobs with some success. I have been called back for a second interview for an in-house graphic design position this afternoon. Fingers crossed …
During the week I had the good fortune of spending a day with Brett Noy at his award winning bakery Uncle Bob’s Bakery [2] in Belmont. In 2012 Brett Noy was the first Australian ever appointed to judge the World Cup of Baking—the Coupe de Monde de la Boulangerie—his passion for baking, attention to detail and dedication to the training of Australia’s future bakers shone through every conversation we had.
Brett and his team were so accommodating and gracious throughout the day. They answered all my questions and even allowed me to get involved in the days bake. It was great to see a different side to sourdough production as I have only been involved with small wood-fired micro-bakeries up to this point. So much food for thought … thanks again Brett!
With all this activity I have been keeping my baking relatively simple. I am still following the formula I posted here [7] but on occasions experiment with one feature and watch the result. This week I experimented with using freshly milled whole-grain flour to feed the levain. As a result, 10% pre-fermented flour was from freshly milled wheat and another 8% freshly milled spelt and 2% freshly milled rye was added to the final dough—so in all, 20% of the flour was freshly milled whole-grains.
To keep a sweet flavour profile in the levain while feeding with freshly milled flour required some changes to the build times. The trick is to keep them short and reasonably warm to maximise yeast growth and expand them well before increased acid build-up occurs. This meant the builds were expanded as soon as they doubled—about three to four hours.
There was a wonderful point as mixing commenced—you could see the whole-grain levain streaking through the dough as it dissolved and finally disappeared. For the remainder of the afternoon the dough sat in bulk and continued on schedule until shaping and retarding overnight in the fridge. A miche and two batards were baked the following morning after a few hours on the bench coming to room temperature.
The crumb and crust were keeping in line with previous pain au levain I have baked but with perhaps a more defined wheat flavour. There isn't a sharp tang but instead a delayed flavour that is quite hard to pinpoint. We took the batards to a Sunday afternoon BBQ where a friend took a bite and exclaimed that "while she had eaten bread before … she had never tasted it until now” … a wonderful quote made all the more poignant when I explained that the bread she was eating was comprised of only flour, water and salt …
… and the tart making continues …
... a berry and ricotta tart for the Sunday afternoon BBQ. A sweet ricotta filling is baked into a tart shell and then cooled. It is then topped with a strawberries and blueberries which have been lightly soaked in caramelised balsamic. A light and bright afternoon tea …
Cheers,
Phil