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P̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶R̶u̶s̶t̶i̶q̶u̶e̶ Fancy Schmancy Bread

Anonymous baker's picture
Anonymous baker (not verified)

P̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶R̶u̶s̶t̶i̶q̶u̶e̶ Fancy Schmancy Bread

P̶A̶I̶N̶ ̶R̶U̶S̶T̶I̶Q̶U̶E̶

FANCY SCHMANCY BREAD

MY WEEKEND BAKERY’S VERSION OF THE HAMELMAN RECIPE

INGREDIENTS FOR THE POOLISH
180gwheat (bread) flour
45gwhole wheat flour
225gwater (room temperature)
10gsourdough culture
INGREDIENTS FOR THE P̶A̶I̶N̶ ̶R̶U̶S̶T̶I̶Q̶U̶E̶ FANCY SCHMANCY BREAD
MAKES 1 LOAF
  the poolish from step 1
225gwheat (bread) flour
70gwater
7.5g(sea) salt
2.3ginstant yeast

 

 P̶A̶I̶N̶ ̶R̶U̶S̶T̶I̶Q̶U̶E̶ FANCY SCHMANCY TIME TABLE


Day 1: Make poolish let ferment for 12 hours at room temperature

[refrigerated the poolish for 6-7 hours]


Day 2: Make final dough

 

  • Add flour and water to starter, mix for 1 minute

  • 30 minutes autolyze [autolysed for longer as the poolish was cold]

  • Add salt and yeast [missed out the yeast]

  • Knead for 5 minutes

  • Rest for 40 minutes

  • First stretch and fold

  • Rest for 25 minutes

  • Second stretch and fold

  • Rest for 25 minutes

[without the yeast and a colder dough the bulk ferment was longer and I spread out the stretch and folds a bit more plus added in a third set] 

 

  • Shape

  • Final proofing 30 minutes [final proofed in the fridge for 13-14 hours]

  • Bake for 45 minutes at 235ºC / 455ºF

  • Your loaf is ready!

not.a.crumb.left's picture
not.a.crumb.left

Hi,

What an amazing loaf and scoring! Dan said that your are in UK and I was wondering whether there is any UK bread that you would recommend? I am based in Suffolk and have used Maple Farm Organic stoneground white bread flour and their rye but I think it might not be strong enough and just today tried Marriage flour from Essex. For the starter I use Shipton-Mill Light Rye and that is amazing!  Super bread and I am just a beginner trying lower hydration dough.. Kat

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Doesn't always work out this good to be honest Kat. For every good loaf you see just remember there has been learning curve. 

I generally make do with what's available and convenient for when I go shopping. I've learned there are some flours I don't like (Tesco's supposedly string bread flour for example) and some that I do like (e.g. Allison's very strong bread flour). And many in-between. 

If you're using European flour and following a North American recipe then it's is wise to drop the hydration by about 5%. I've learned this the hard way. If you can find North American flour then all well and good. 

Any British brand selling flour where the protein 12.6%  falls within the same range as a North American AP flour. Works just fine but good to know what you're dealing with. 13-14% and more and you're getting I to what we call strong bread flour. Any higher and it's very strong bread flour. 

Doves Farm has good flour and some interesting heritage varieties as well. 

There's a lot out there and haven't tried them all. 

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

I love the flour design on the loaf. Crumb shot please!

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

It's cooling so crumb shot later. 

The scoring was...

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So starting down the right side of the dough score the diagonal. Then from the top of the dough score down the loaf again at an angle to catch the bottom of each score. Then for a third time starting from the side score upwards from the outside in to catch the top of each middle score. 

I saw this being done and if done perfectly then it should end up in being a raised pattern. Not so mine but still looks good. Might have to be done a little curved to get that pattern. Will have to find the video again. 

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

What a beaut! The scoring, the shaping (out of sight), the tiny blister, and the residual flour... That is impressive. It must have been exciting to watch through the oven glass and see it grow.

What kind of flour did you dust it with? I’ve been using rice, but I’m not getting a nice white look on the crust.

Dan

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

They don't always turn out this way but such a good feeling when it all comes together. 

My method of doing a freestanding loaf and steam was actually losing heat in my oven. My oven is always my bug ket down. Tried a new way today. Haven't used my lekue in a while but I thought why not use it as an inverted pot? Didn't do the steaming with water but rather just turned up my oven to the max and carefully positioned the lekue over the dough.  It perfect but it was very good. Think this helped get that improved oven spring which I lost through lack of heat. We continue to try and make best out of the situation. 

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

As you know, I recently bought a Lekue. I’ll be watching your progress on that.

Hey, I just ran to the kitchen and got out my Lekue. Do you think that the opening on the sides and at the bottom between the stone and the Lekue wii allow steam to escape? I’m thinking, heat rises. What say you?

Dan

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

My situation is too small an oven. Mini electric tabletop oven. Can't fit in much so a big dutch oven I can't do. Don't even have a baking stone. So I've spent a long time trying out different things. Found a way to make great steam but funnily enough the oven lost heat. 

Now if you have a baking stone and a normal pot you can invert and use over the dough then that would be best. After all no gaps. With the lekue there will be gaps but I use a long banneton and when i stretch it to go over the dough the gap is less. Still there but like you I figured heat rises and not all the steam will be lost. Now since I don't have a stone I line a tray with foil. So I also pulled up the foil around the sides. That helped. But what's more is that it offered protection from the fan so it didn't dry the dough out too quickly. That's where the problem was. To create steam efficiently I had to pour water in a drip tray, turn the fan off and the bottom coils on. Steam great is great but temps are bad. Turn the fan on and the temperature is great but the steam is bad and the dough dries out. This way helps a bit with both. 

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Good looking loaf.  (with the same two "exceptions" that I had when I ran this same formula last May.)

The Weekend Bakery stars for some reason call their levain a poolish.  Is it just because it is a 100% hydration mix and constitutes half the total flour?  Or because this is a Pain Rustique and is supposed to have a poolish in it?  A mystery, but if we get hung up on calling things A instead of B then I suppose that we are missing the big picture - which is the star of the performance.  The bread! 

And, as with me, another "violation" of the whole Pain Rustique Mystique is that it is usually a relatively un-shapen ball of dough - hence the moniker "rustique".  Something that we both violated in our undertakings.

Nonetheless, the world of baking is rife revolving 'round roving rebels reveling in revolting against the tide.  So in light of that alliteration, let's carry on, Mate.  Nice going!

alan 

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

I have called it a poolish more because I'm too tired to continuously change and correct terminology. Now I just go with the flow :)

The more I think I've made sense of the terminology in my head then someone else comes along and uses a different term. I'm like you - whatever it is called I'm looking more at the final loaf. 

Someone once said it's very difficult to purposefully play an instrument off key. So too here with the pain rustique. Ask me to shape a fine loaf and I'll give you a pain rustique. Ask me for a pain rustique and I'll give you a fine loaf. 

Thank you Alan. Onwards and upwards. 

HansB's picture
HansB

Looks great Abe!

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Posting the crumb shot and taste report now. 

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Well here it is... Not bad for a 66% hydration loaf. Appears more like a 70%+. Tang is there but not too pronounced. Just enough to say sourdough. This will go well with cheese. 

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

Very nice! Great crumb!

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Just goes to show that high hydration isn't always the key. 

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Is the yellow tint on the crumb an accurate color rendition? If so, what caused it? Love the color, but can’t figure out which ingredient would have caused it.

Dan

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Your counter in the crumb shot looks more yellow. Was there a color shift in the last image. 

Danny

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

And bad lighting. Top photo is better.  

Colour isn't too far out though.  

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

love the scoring. thank you for the tips on how it is done.  the crumb is lovely!

Leslie

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Here is the video

As you can see I didn't get it quite right but it's nice all the same. Been wanting to try it but was too chicken. Today I thought well I'll never succeed unless I try. 

Nothing quite like a good bake that sets the mood for the week. 

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Abe, your scoring looked much better to me than the one in the video. Your bread is gorgeous.

Dan

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Scoring has never been my strong point but for scoring to work the gluten needs to be well developed, the dough has to be shaped well, the final proofing judged just right and a good oven spring. So much has to come together. 

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

his dough is relatively low hydration I think? and it looks so easy.

Leslie

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

For a while but always backed out at the last second. Today I thought what the heck. I won't know till it try. 

Hope you've gotten some ideas. 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

call their bread and levain the wrong things.  It makes it difficult for others, especially newbies, to know what is really going on or to learn about any craft or profession   Words still have meaning no matter how dumb the ignorant world wants to make us.  Without knowing what words mean, it is impossible to even talk about anything intelligently and efficiently.  Poolish is a preferment made with a pinch of yeast at high hydration invented by Jewish bakers in Poland.  It has nothing to do with SD or levain of any kind.   Pain Rustic means it is supposed to be rustic looking bread on the outside not made to look beautiful with fancy scoring made by a fine amature baker from Dover much less London:-)

I imagine my expert Architectural history professor from college who would flash slides of thousands io famous buildings at us poor students in a darkened room seemingly forever always asking:  what is this, who designed it, when was it built and where can it to be viewed today?  Do you think he let anyone off with the wrong answer?  Imagine trying to seriously discuss Frank Loyd Wright with 4 people who think he is either a mid century modern furniture designer, a cubist painter, a modern fiction writer or a long dead famous chef?

How about having surgery for lung cancer and the doctor says to the nurse right before they put you to sleep, lets get rid if that lung cancer by taking his left leg off?  Or asking someone at the wine store to recommend a good oaky chardonnay and all they do is bring you red wines from Bordeau.  It is up to the folks that know, who want to teach newbies like I know you do, to correct those that don't know so that they will no longer screw up everyone else with their ignorance.  We have enough ignorant great bakes already.

Just because Chad Robertson doesn't follow the accepted convention for bakers percentages doesn't mean no one should.  I just makes him wrong to do so and all he does is make everyone else as lazy and ignorant.

It is a nice looking bread inside and out Abe but that doesn't mean you can call it what it ain't and get away with it around here no matter what ignorant other bakers do:-)  Before long people will think that an autolyse has salt and sourdough in it......and no will know anything worth remembering.

I just asked the new Cox Contour robot to finds me the Waste Management golf tournament in Phoenix to watch on TV and it brought up the movie Anger Management tout suite.  We should at least be better than the Cox Contour  obot - or maybe not!

Happy baking Abe.

rpooley's picture
rpooley

Je suis d'accord

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Gulp! 

I shall take that as a compliment Dabrownman. 

Changed my post accordingly

Thank you :)

alfanso's picture
alfanso

word in Urdu.  We English speakers can't agree on calling it this or that, and then add to the mix the other 3 or 4 languages spoken around the world.  The stew gets thicker with each new phrase, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't at least give it a go.  Not that anyone would care to listen to, no less abide by, what some group of independent baking nerds call things in our own kitchens in the hopes that it goes viral.  Not to be.

However, poolish is a well established term, with a pedigree of many many decades behind it and probably so clearly defined that it should be unnecessary to have this conversation over it.  But I will...

In support of dabrownman's standardized definition, comes the (never been incorrect ;-) ) Wikipedia definition which states:

  • "Biga and poolish or pouliche are terms used in Italian and French baking, respectively, for sponges made with domestic baker's yeast. Poolish is a fairly wet sponge (typically one-to-one, this is, made with a one-part-flour-to-one-part-water ratio by weight), whereas biga is usually drier.

However, in support of daWeekendBakery's definition comes the (top 'o the mountain) Michel Suas entry from his compendium "Advanced Bread and Poultry":

  • Liquid preferment that consists of equal parts flour and water and is allowed to ferment at room temperature. Hydration is at 100 percent.

With no mention of the leavening agent, Mr. Suas gives credibility to daWeekendBakery's take and throws water on a few hundred years of considerably more than just tribal knowledge. 

As an aside, from my armchair it seems like someone in Mountain Time (GMT-7) has been hitting the hootch a little early on a Sunday, or the Swedish Apprentice put him in the doghouse...Not that there's anything wrong with that!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

was discussing preferments and he was quite specific about the origins and meanings of many of them and you can find his attributes at the King Arthur web site here.  

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/professional/preferments.html

Biga and poolish are both made with a small bit of yeast but the biga tends to have less water than 100% but it can can be 100% hydration too where the poolish usually has more water than a biga but can be more than 100%. hydration - sometimes much more.  Poor Mr Suas is outclassed by a real master baker:-)

Mr Suas only goes so so far with his definition which quite far from from the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  The master baker Jeffrey Hamelman is by far and away the best expert in all things bread.  As JH says, pooiish has its origins in Poland and was originally used for pastry where as Sourdough adndlevain has its own separate preferment category than poolish or biga.

Sorry way too early for drinking here any day but AZ has its own time that never changes and does not follow the daylight saving times.  We have plenty of daylight and do not need o save any.  We are the same time as Pacific half the year and the same time as Mountain for the other half - like right now:-)

When can we talk about autolyse!

Happy baking for all poolishes everywhere

HansB's picture
HansB

The only thing standard about baking terminology is that there is no standard.

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

I LOVE your new title! Love your sense of humour too!

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

For ones sense if humour. 

I like this title. It's growing on me :) 

Portus's picture
Portus

“When I use a word”, Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less”.

“The question is”, said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things”.

“The question is”, said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.”

 

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

It's amazing this place... I might cut into the other side of the loaf and see what happens. 

I think a mad hatter's tea party is in order.

hreik's picture
hreik

Nicely done.

You've got bragging rights, right?

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

I've been told off and under Dabrownman's orders I've had to change the title :) 

Thank you Hester

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

thank you for posting it.

Leslie

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Thank you Leslie. It is a nice recipe and enjoying it for dinner. 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

This is one of the best Fancy Schmancy loaves of all time. Bet it tastes High Falootin' too :-)

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=high%20falootin%27

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

I've learned a new word today. 

Oh yes, and before I forget... Trevor Wilson, in one of his recipes, does an autolyse with salt. He explains that because it's a very long autolyse he does this to prevent unwanted fermentation. 

I am also aware that a poolish is done with yeast and I spruced up the final loaf etc but I was just copying their recipe instead of typing it out. I myself have corrected people in the past when they have described a levain as a poolish. 

syros's picture
syros

First Abe beautiful bread and beautiful scoring..... 

Secondly - as a newbie, I must say I do appreciate the discussion on the issue of poolish, etc. I just made a bread from the Weekend Bakery - their San Francisco Style Sourdough Bread, adapted from Reinhart’s recipe. The poolish confused me and I made the poolish using my sourdough starter and no yeast. I couldn’t figure out if they meant levain or poolish so I went with levain. My bread turned out fine, but I’m glad this was cleared up. Most of this discussion is over my head, and when I follow a recipe things have to be very specific and clear as I don’t have years of experience at baking this type of bread. It’s not yet intuitive so it’s a learning curve, but it must also be an enjoyable experience. 

Glad to see such passion. And I thought tomato growers were a passionate bunch! Wow, who knew? 

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

Passionate? Do tell! ?

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

I'm glad out of all this discussion you have cleared up some questions. It's been all worth while. 

Yes, myweekendbakery does mistakenly call it a poolish. I have also corrected people on this in the past. I was just posting their explanation instead of typing it all out myself. 

Didn't think it'd turn out like this though :) 

Portus's picture
Portus

 

There once was a baker, Lechem,

Who caused a bit of mayhem;

Baked a loaf with some poolish, 

Which some thought was foolish –

But best not be quick to condemn.

 

syros's picture
syros

Off topic, but yes, tomato growers get very territorial and are very very circumspect when it comes to varieties and names and who discovered what. Can get quite nasty actually. But in any event, we all learn something!?

syros's picture
syros

Portus, a baker and a poet? Priceless!

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

?

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Really, I came back to feast my eyes... That Bread is beautiful!

When I see images of absolutely beautiful bread, I don’t get discouraged or jealous. I revel in the thought, that if they can do it, then so can I. It is a source of encouragement. The great thing about baking bread, is that we’ll never really scratch the surface of possibilities in our life-time. There’s just too much out there. There is no end for those who pursue the perfect loaf. But the joy in the journey is the reward, in and of itself.

Dan