Hamelman's "Miche Pointe-a-Calliere"-results of first try.......
As some might have seen from my plea for help yesterday, the baking of this Miche did not go according to plan. It being only my third attempt at Miche making I was a bit freaked-I had looked forward to this bread so much!
The bread gods above must have been looking upon my endeavor kindly,though, because I do think it turned out just great!
Here are the points in which I deviated from the orginial recipe from the book "Bread":
-I used mature rye starter as my jumping off point for the levain
-the flour I used was Whole Foods whole wheat , from which I removed the biggest bran particles by sifting
-I built the levain over the course of abt. 20 hours at two different temperatures-one feeding it at 7pm ,leaving it to ferment in my oven with cracked open door and then at 7am out on the counter top
-Due to unforeseen schedule upheaval I had to bulk ferment,shape and then retard in fridge for about 2.5 hours. I was amazed at how far along the dough was when I took it out of the fridge! Wow! I thought I would leave it at room temp for about 2 hours, but after half an hour I hurried to pre-heat the oven and feared it might end up being overproofed.It had good oven spring and I think I just barely made it timing wise.
-I left it in the turned off oven for about 10 minutes
I expected the dough to be a lot harder to manage than it was- I assume that the flour I used really soaked up a lot of water, because it was way easier to handle than the Gerard Rubaud miche(or maybe I am just getting used to it-I LOVE S&Fs)
This is also the first time I tried my hand at stenciling-definitely to be improved greatly! And since I had the shaped loaf in a bowl on a flour dusted towel, the stencil ended up not really sticking,etc. To be continued..........
The aroma of the baking bread was tantalizing and I was really glad it was so late when it came out of the oven, because that was the only reason I was able to refrain from cutting into it right then and there!
Needless to say we all have had some of it for breakfast and it is so delicious! I marvel at how the little flecks of bran are suspended in translucent sheaths of dough(an awkward description, I know)It has a really nice and crunchy crust, it feels light on the tongue but has real great depth of flavor and only a hint of sourness.Definitely a keeper to be made again and again!
Here are some pictures:
Comments
Bravo, it looks wonderful....so professional and it looks like its gotta taste good too. One day........I will. Beautiful to showing it.
Great work.
Giovanni
Am glad it turned out well for you, especially as you had the very good fortune to receive some assistance from Mr. Hamelman!
That looks awesome! My last attempt at this bread was a flop, but you've inspired me to try it again!
It looks wonderful! And congrats on having it turn out so well.
I too have noticed if I sift whole wheat flour instead of using high-extraction for Miches, I find the dough a bit easier to work with. I made my first miche using high-extraction flour, and it just so happened to be the "Pointe-a-calliere", I had such a hard time with it. When I sift whole wheat flour, things go a bit easier as you stated.
The crumb looks tasty too! Enjoy!
Christina- I think your stencil is gorgeous - perfect for this rustic bread! And the crumb is indeed mouth watering. I can't wait to see later developments!
Larry
Wow, oh wow!
What a great looking bread! Would you care to print out the recipe so we can also try it? I don't have the bread book you mentioned and our little library has nothing worth mentioning.
It is only your third try? The bread God is really looking over your shoulder. It is amazing. The crumb looks delicious. Can't wait to try to bake some for my family.
Mantana
Mantana-
dmsnyder already posted the recipe on his blog. here's the link:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12922/miche-pointe%C3%A0calli%C3%A8re-another-james-mcguire-formula-hamelman039s-quotbreadquot
i promise that my first try at miche baking was very funny(just search for miche pyramid)-from a sculptural point of view the bread was quite interesting looking but otherwise,errr,not so much.
with tons of help form the kind folks here(just search for that particular miche and there is tons of advice on it to be found) and reading everything i can about this type of bread baking(which is quite different from baking rye breads, which is what i am more familiar with) and first and foremost listening to my gut and the dough, instead of mechanistically following a recipe, i am getting a better feel for what needs to happen.
i hope you enjoy baking this, it was fun for me and it tastes oh so good!
christina
What a wonderful loaf! I can almost taste it through the pictures! It's beautiful. You really did a nice job reading the dough and knowing when to go to the next step. OUTSTANDING! Jeffrey will be proud.
Thank you so much for all of your encouraging comments and for looking!I feel lucky to have so many friendly fellow travelers on the bread baking journey-it is so addictive!
Christina