Miche, Pointe-a-Calliere
Hi, I guess I'm on a bread baking bust-up binge. Tonight as I "shelled out" (Hallow'een) I baked off two 1kg. loaves of Miche Pointe-a-Calliere as per Hamelmans "Bread" book. I have done this bread before both from this formula and also from Reinharts BBA book, the Poilane style Miche. Both are wild yeast raised, no commercial yeast. Both also utilize high extraction whole wheat flour, stuff that's hard to get in my neck of the woods. So I have opted to making a sort of my own; I simply sift out the bran from "No Name" whole wheat flour which is available here in Toronto at No Frills grocery stores. It seems to work well. Both breads are easy to make and taste quite delicious but Hamelman is right, don't expect a bold high loaf, it bakes out rather low and flat with modest spring and a pretty big foot. Here are a couple of pics, tomorrow I'll cut into one of them and if the crumb looks acceptable I'll post another pic. It better be, or else I'll just have to make it again.
Miche Pointe-a-Calliere By the way... that's semolina on the crust, I proofed these loaves in baskets lined with the stuff.
More Miche
Time to hit the hay.
-David Aplin
I've made Reinhart's version and also Leader's. The latter is a slacker dough. I rather prefer it, although Reihart's miche is closer to my recollection of the Poilane bread I had in France.
I'm interested in seeing the crumb of your miches and hearing about the taste and texture.
BTW, I've used first clear flour from King Arthur Flour for this bread. To my taste, it comes closer to the original than any combination of other flours I've been able to devise to date.
Hammelman's miche is on my "to bake list," along with a bunch of other breads from his book.
David
Yes! Cool. Alright.
The Hamelman formula is 82% hydration, very loose. Amazing what 2 folds will do to strengthen it. I encourage you to do that recipe, it's fun! Both times I've made the Miche it rose well during the bulk proofing stage but when the dough was divided into individual portions it just lay there like a wet sack and did very little. Each time I gave maximum time for the final proof, well over 2 1/2 hours. On the first instance the loaves were scaled at the proper 2 kg and when they were baked they went from being very, very low to amazingly bold! When I peeked into the oven I was thrilled, (however and alas) I should have given them a way lengthy bake, I "only" baked them for an hour at over 400 F, when I cut into them a day or so later they were definitely underbaked, raw actually. I was very disappointed as I thought I had achieved something of enormous enormance*. This time I scaled the loaves at a more reasonable 1.2 kg and gave a much longer bake, approx 1 1/2 hours at 450 F coasting down to 400 then 350, and this is the current version that you see up above. You gotta do it every day! I'll take a couple of pics so you can see the crumb. The taste? Forget about it, it was awesome with my morning cuppa. I munched the heel/toe in the truck on my way to work, it was a very good scoff.
-d
*If I Ran The Circus by Dr. Suess
Here are a few pics of the crumb...
Those pics (especially the pics of the crumb) are inspirational. I have been in a baking slump for about six months now. Divorce, moving, and moving again has put a damper on anything but baking simple sandwich loaves to have around. I have both the Hamelman book and the new Reinhart book, and have been meaning to get around to baking from both. I think you may have just inpsired me to refresh the old starters and get back on the horse. Those are lovely loaves.