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Hearth Style Bread with Red Fife Poolish

Franko's picture
Franko

Hearth Style Bread with Red Fife Poolish

 

Earlier this month I decided it was time to start over and build a brand new rye starter for myself since my old one had become adulterated with various types of wheat flour over the last few months and I wanted a pure rye sour to use in some upcoming projects I have in mind. I'd hoped it would be ready by this weekend but it's seems the pH went out of balance over the last few days making it not quite ready for prime time. The cupboard was bare for bread and I needed something for the next days sandwiches so I thought I'd just make something using a poolish that I could leave overnight and mix up for a dough the next morning. My first thought was to make a baguette dough with the poolish, inspired by Larry's recent post of what he called his “odds and ends” http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21724/odds-amp-ends as well as LindyD's terrific post of the Hamelman series of videos that took us through the entire process of baguette production. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21730/video-lessons-master-baker-Jeffrey-hamelman

The problem with that kind of dough for me is that while I love the flavour of baguettes, I'm not keen on having a wide open cell structure if I'm making a bread to be used for sandwiches, nor did I want a long skinny loaf. What I ended up doing was using more or less the same ingredients and percentages for a baguette dough but reducing the hydration and adding some of my dormant rye sour to the final mix for a bit of extra flavour. Honestly I'm not sure what to call this bread other than rustic or hearth style, which is fine with me since the name is less important to me than the end result. I'd intended to make two large loaves from the dough but when it came time to divide it I decided to make some baguette shapes after all, just for fun and to get some shaping practice in at the same time. In the end I wound up making 2x 250gram and 1x500 gram baguette shapes and the remaining dough as a simple hearth style loaf. The two small baguette shaped loaves turned out OK, but the scoring and final proof on the larger one left a lot to be desired. The hearth loaf had a good jump and formed a nice crunchy crust with Sylvia's steam system providing plenty of steam during the initial bake. The bread has a nice balance of flavour, with the malt and rye sour doing a kind of sweet and sour thing that works well with the nutty wheat flavour of the Red Fife poolish. The crumb is what I hoping for, with no large holes and fairly uniform, so while it's not close to being a baguette type of crumb, it did make for a good sandwich bread which is what I was after from the beginning.

Franko

 

Hearth Style Bread with Red Fife Poolish

Ingredients

%

Kg

 

 

 

Poolish

 

 

Red Fife 75% sifted flour

100

316

Water

100

316

Yeast-instant

1.5

4.7

Total

 

636.7

 

 

 

Final Dough

 

 

All Purpose flour

100

800

Water

45

360

Rye sour-inactive

6

48

Yeast-instant

1

8

Salt

2

22

Malt syrup-diastatic

1

8

Poolish

79

636.7

Total-Kg

 

1882.7

Total Hydration

60.5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROCEDURE:

Mix the poolish and ripen for 12-16 hrs @ 65F

 

Mixing by machine:

Add all ingredients to mixing bowl and mix on 1st for 3 minutes then 2nd for 3-4 ½ minutes. DDT-76F

Mixing by hand:

Add all ingredients to mixing bowl and mix by hand for 10 minutes until you have a soft, slightly loose dough. DDT-76F Note: a slightly higher water temp should be used to make up for lack of friction heat from hand mixing v machine mixing.

 

Bulk Ferment-2 hrs. Fold once after 1 hr, repeat if needed for proper development.

Divide in 250 grm pieces for small baguette shapes or 500 grm for large baguette shapes, the remaining dough for batards. Preshape in rounds and rest for 15 minutes.

Shape accordingly and proof for 1-1 ½ hrs. Score as desired.

Bake at 480F with constant steam for 10 minutes. Remove steam apparatus and lower oven to 440 and continue baking for 10-15 longer for baguettes , 20-25 minutes for batard. Cool thoroughly before slicing.

 

 

 

Comments

wally's picture
wally

The crumb looks perfect for sandwich bread.  The larger loaf looks like a rustic loaf - the kind that Hamelman has in Bread except that his hydration is much higher.  And the baguettes I'll bet are perfect for making subs/hero sandwiches (nice ears, by the way!)

One good thing about a tighter crumb (aside from not having melted butter or jelly wind up in your lap) is that the loaves keep from staling a little longer.  Which may or may not be a problem in your family ;>)

Nice bake,

Larry

 

Franko's picture
Franko

Thanks Larry,

Almost all the breads I've made over the last 6 months have used a levain so I'd forgotten how good a poolish made bread tastes. Considering the relatively small amount of effort these types of bread take they sure reward you with some great flavours. As for staling,I've heard of that sort of thing happening but haven't had any personal experience with it.

Thanks again Larry,

Franko

LindyD's picture
LindyD

I bet you can easily pick up that one loaf by its ears, Franko.  My kids (and grandkids) would love those.

They call an open crumb "diet bread."  Too many holes and too little bread.

I just mixed David Snyder's Bouabsa sourdough baguette formula.  Maybe tomorrow night I'll try it in a batard.  

Lovely bake.

 

Franko's picture
Franko

Hi Lindy,

 If you mean one of the small ones, I really tried picking it up by it's one good ear a'la Hamelman, but couldn't hold on to it for too long. If you mean the large one, I was too disappointed in the look of the blessed thing to even bother, but yes, it would have been pretty easy. Thanks for saying it was a good bake, since it was really just a stop gap sort of thing to tide me over till I can make something with my reluctant rye sour.

Regards,

Franko

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hello Franko, So glad you've found success with your RF poolish and like the resulting flavor - noted for a future attempt with this flour - thanks!
And your two smaller baguettes are two of the straightest I've ever seen - excellent shaping!
from breadsong

Franko's picture
Franko

Thanks Breadsong!

You'll be pretty pleased with the flavour I'm fairly sure. The RF really lends itself to this type of preferment, more so I feel than a levain as far as bringing out the full taste of the grain.

After watching the Hamelman videos I just did what the young baker(don't recall his name) did with his peel by using it to straighten out the loaf. Works like a charm!

Regards,

Franko

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Lovely Bakes, Franko! nice baguette shaping. The hearth batard looks lovely!

Very Nice!

Franko's picture
Franko

Thanks Khalid!

Appreciate your comments on the baguette shaping, although the big one was pretty poor IMO, the 2 little ones were OK. The hearth bread is just one of those easy to make but very tasty loafs that I don't make often enough, but plan to do more of in the future.

Best wishes,

Franko

 

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Nice looking loaves Franko. I really admire your bread scoring skill.

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

Franko's picture
Franko

Nice of you to say Sue! Thank you very much.

Franko

teketeke's picture
teketeke

They look awesome, Franko.  I never heard of Red Fife flour honestely.  I will study and  try it soon :) 

 I am learning a lot from you, Thank you

Akiko

Franko's picture
Franko

Thanks Akiko!

You may have to do a bit of searching to find Red Fife for sale, although I remember LindyD posting a link to a mill in the US that sells it, on one of my earlier blogs. I'll see if I can find it and pass it on to you.

Franko

ananda's picture
ananda

Hi Franko,

I wanted to post on your thread earlier today, but work is just soooo busy!

Awesome bread; I'm with you all the way.   I made a similar style of bread in College today; will try to post more soon.

Here's a photo of the middle of the loaf meantime [1kg boule].   Sandwiches tomorrow seem so enticing.

Really great to see you posting such fantastic bread, and I'm looking forward to reading more about your rye adventures!!!

DSCF1683

 All good wishes

Andy

teketeke's picture
teketeke

It is looking great crumb, Andy!   As everbody knows, You and Franko are professional bakers.    

Sincerely,

Akiko

 

 

Franko's picture
Franko

Hi Andy, Thanks!

Well the loaf I made is nothing fancy, just a rustic bread but it meets my needs and has good flavour, so I'm happy with it. As for rye adventures, if I can ever get this starter to behave I might be able to have some.Doing my best to keep it warm and fed properly but it just doesn't seem to want to cooperate...yet. It will eventually, but in the mean time it's kind of gumming up my production schedule. Nice looking loaf you've got there Andy! It does look very similar to the type of crumb I have on mine, so hope you enjoy your sandwiches as much as I did mine.

Cheers,

Franko