I could withstand the Leader's "Alpine Baguettes" and decided to give Hamelman's "5-grain levain" a try. I thought that there can't be anything wrong with a bread that Hamelman himself describes as "one of the most delectable breads".
I wanted to see if James MacGuire's Pain de Tradition procedure would improve my San Francisco Sourdough. My formula is as follows:
220 g San Francisco starter @75% hydration (ie, 126 g white bread flour and 94 g water)
374 g white bread flour
306 g water
10 g salt
2 g instant dry yeast
(ie, total flour is 500 g and total water is 400 g)
This is my attempt at this lovely bread posted by Shiao-Ping. I did a long write-up but just deleted it and would like to say..My loaf leaves a lot to be desired...but the 'Flavor is amazingly delicious' I couldn't believe how lovely, creamy, smooth and flavorful this bread tastes..the flavors that developed over the long fermentation are delicious...my crust did soften somewhat and I don't think as crispy as it should be.. I think my next attempt I may adjust my flour so there is a little less hydration. My dough stuck on part of the banneton when I was pu
This bread is fast becoming a favorite with us.
As I had such a lovely result from my last [url=http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12866/james-j-macguire039s-pain-de-tradition/][b]Pain de Tradition[/b][/url] using white flour, I thought I'd give it a try with whole-wheat flour. James said to make a miche de campagne, substitute 15% whole-wheat or up to 10% medium rye for part of the white flour, so my 100% whole-wheat version isn't conventional.
Many TFL users would recognise Mr James J. MacGuire's name as he is the technical editor for Prof. Raymond Calvel's "The Taste of Bread." In a 10 page article entitled,[b] "The Baguette" [/b]in the Winter 2006 issue of Mr Edward Behr's quarterly magazine "The Art of Eating," ie. No 73+74 issue, Mr MacGuire's message about a good French traditional bread is very clear: slow & gentle mixing with autolyse, long fermentation, and high hydration.
Hamelman's 40% Caraway Rye without commercial yeast:
I haven't cut into this yet, but I'm so pleased! I modified the recipe and only used the rye levain. It looks great. This bodes well for paying attention to fermentation temperatures.
I cut the recipe down to make a single loaf:
I have read a lot of press about a special baguette called "La Flute Gana" made by Bernard Ganachaud, one of the pioneers of the artisanal bread revival in France during the late 70's. I have tried to follow different interpretations of Ganachaud's recipe available in some bread books without much success so I decided to experiment and develop my own interpretation of "La Flute Gana".
This poor bread had a tough time of it with me. It's Pumpernickel Bread from the BBA. I made the levain version without instant yeast.
Ingredients:
7 oz. starter - 100% hydration
7oz. Giusto's pumpernickel flour
6oz. water
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