Pain de Campagne
I was inspired by Syd's bake to try my first Pain de Campagne. I wasn't happy with the first bake, although my husband really enjoyed the taste and texture of the bread. It was extremely light and made great sandwiches. As I often do, I froze the other half of the dough to make at a later date, and I baked it today. As usual, my second bake from the frozen loaf turned out better than the first bake from fresh. The first loaf didn't get much height, but had good crumb. The second loaf had much better oven spring and more height. Both had excellent, tangy taste. I have made a crumb comparison between the two loaves below. The first crumb shot is from the fresh loaf; the second is from the bake today.
Crumb from the first bake.
Pain de Campagne (adapted from Syd’s recipe)
Levain
- 50g mature whole wheat starter (mine was mixed)
- 100g water
- 100g whole wheat flour
Allow to peak. This could take from 4-10 hours. Mine took 8 hours.
Main Dough
- 200g of the levain
- 350g water
- 50g rye
- 1/2 tsp diastatic malt powder
- 450g bread flour
Disperse the levain in the water with a wire whisk until there is a good foam on top. Next, whisk in rye and malt powder. Then add bread flour with spatula and mix until all the flour has been moistened.
- autolyse for 50-60 minutes
Then:
- add 10g salt
- knead to medium gluten development (if the dough is sticky, you can use your dough scraper. Try not to add more flour. Just enough for your surface and hands.
Now:
- bulk ferment for 1-2 hours with a turn at 30 minutes (I left the dough for 2 hours and turned twice).
Next:
- pre-shape
- rest 10 minutes
- final shape
Put into well floured banneton and after about half an hour cover and:
- retard for 12 hours in the fridge
- let the dough warm up just before the bake; you’ll see it rise a bit more
Bake
- at 500F in a covered baker for 30 minutes
Then:
- Remove the lid and reduce heat to 435 convection, baking for another 20 - 25 minutes
If you don’t have a covered baker (Syd’s original instructions):
Bake
- at 230 C with steam for 15 minutes
Then:
- reduce heat to 200 C and bake for a further 30 - 35 minutes
The proportionately large amount of levain in this recipe means that the dough develops really quickly hence the relatively short bulk fermentation time.