Leader's Pain au Levain Complet (a la Poilane)
I have made Peter Reinhart's Poilane-style miche many times, but this was my first attempt at Daniel Leader's version. The formulas are different in a number of ways. Leader uses autolyse, which Reinhart does not, and does not use cold retardation of either the starter or the formed miche, which Reinhart does. Leader uses a higher hydration dough and folding an hour into bulk fermentation.
Leader's instructions for this formula contain at least one error, in the secion on making the whole wheat starter. His instructions for adding the starter to the dough are confusion in this formula as in others.
Rather than using a mixture of bread flour and whole wheat in the final dough, I used 400 grams of first clear flour and 100 grams of whole wheat. (I used to prefer all first clear flour for Reinhart's miche, but KA's first clear flour seems to be somewhat lower extraction recently.) The miche was proofed in a linen-lined wicker banneton, which I am loving.
Two hours out of the oven, the flavor was lovely. I like the flour mix I used - just enough whole wheat flavor. It was somewhat less sour than Reinhart's version in my hands, presumably due to the lack of cold fermentation, I assume.
Photos to follow ...
David