Panotta/Miche
My wife and I have been taking Italian language lessons in a small group for about 2 years. Our teacher was born in Palermo and trained to be a teacher from 16 years old through University. She has lived in the US for about 15 years, and she misses Sicily a lot, including the bread.
Tomorrow, the class is meeting at some one's home to view an Italian movie and have a potluck. Our teacher has given me a pretty clear idea over the past two years of the kind of bread she likes best, and I've concluded that the miche I learned to make at the SFBI fits the bill. So, that's what I will take, along with one of the Pane Valle del Maggia.
The formula and procedures for the miche can be found here: Miche from SFBI Artisan II - 2 kg. The only modification I made is to substitute 20% whole wheat for an equal weight of AP flour in the Final Dough.
This is a 2 kg loaf. It's about 3 times the size of the Pane del Maggia I also baked today. To give you an idea of their relative sizes, here's a side-by-side photo of the bannetons I used for each:
When sliced, the crumb was well-aerated but not very open.
The crust was very crunchy, and the crumb was chewy. The flavor was moderately to severely tangy, like an old-fashioned San Francisco sourdough. I think the whole wheat's main contribution was to increase the acetic acid flavor. I enjoyed the first taste. I sliced the bread and took it to the potluck, when eaten 60 to 90 minutes later, it seemed much less sour. It was very good and was well-received as was the Pane Valle del Maggia that I also brought. (That's code for "Everyone loved them ") One of my classmates wanted to know where in Fresno I found it. The few slices that were not eaten with dinner were distributed by the hostess for others to take home. She assured me she kept enough for her breakfast.
David
Comments
I hope your italian teacher raves about the bread.
For my own baking endeavors I use the following:
Then I take all of the racks out of the oven before preheating.
Very nice looking loaf, David.
David
David: Another winner. It looks wonderful. Phyllis
David
Looks like a whopping success. How does the 80/20 split compare to using the T85? Should be relatively similar I would think. I have a couple big bakes this week (well for home bakes anyway) but I have this miche on my to-do list as per your recommendation
Josh
I will slice the miche before leaving for the potluck tonight. I may not have time to post crumb photos or tasting notes until tomorrow, but I promise I will.
In the meantime, from my memory of past bakes, the high-extraction flour has its own unique flavor. I've never found an AP/WW mix that even came close. However, this time, I not only added the WW but did not leave out the toasted wheat germ. So, this will be a first for this flour mix. I have high expectations.
David
week on breads with large amounts of poolish or biga that weren't French or called rustic and old like 100 years or so) earlier and ran across a bunch of them but also one was a bread from Italy that I had never heard of before - Pignotta from central Italy, a large miche like yours and also made as a roll in Northern Italy and a smaller loaf is made all over Italy that has raisins in it.
I couldn't find one that was a SD or one that had any whole grains in it - so it went on the bake list for this Friday - how fun. Yours looks great in every way and I'm sure the crumb is just as good as the crust even with with the 20% whole wheat - Lucy loves that . Great baking as usual David. Now Lucy can pump it up to 40% whole grains and hope for a similar outcome.
Happy baking David..
Nice baking David. This still ranks very high, if not right on top, on my all time favorite list. I am sure your teacher will love it. So this would be SFBI Miche with Increased Wholegrain, then? It would be a sin to leave out the toasted wheatgerm. The toasted wheatgerm is this loaf''s defining characteristic. I remember how excited I felt when I smelled it toasting for the first time.
Happy potluck,
Syd
This is still a great bread. I hope some of those who have joined TFL since the last wave of SFBI Miche bakes pick up on it and give themselves a treat!
David
David
So where did you tell him you found it?
I like the idea of slicing at home since you never know what is available elsewhere to do the job. do you slice it and kept it all together wrapped in anything? I somehow feel like we start drying out as soon as it is cut and worry too much.
I sliced half the miche and, keeping the half together, placed it in a plastic bag with micro perforations. It kept moist for the necessary time.
David
Yum, Looks delicious David, As always! I like you 20% increase in whole wheat.
thanks for sharing,
Khalid
David
You have some very lucky classmates. :) I don't know if I will ever need to make a 2kg loaf, but when I do, I will try the SFBI miche formula you posted in the Artisan II blog post.
First, it's a very congenial group, and we have a wonderful teacher. Second, as I'm sure you know, one of the pleasures of baking is the appreciation of those for whom you bake. Third, it's harder to justify making a 2kg miche unless one has a group to feed.
However, you should know that I usually cut this miche into quarters, wrap each seperately and freeze what I'm not going to eat within a few days. This bread tastes better when baked in 2kg miches than it does baked in smaller boules. I'm not sure why, but it's true. It is very good thawed, but it is best when not frozen and eaten on day 3 or so.
David
That is why. :)
According to my sources (7 day trial expiring shortly) larger loaves retain more moisture during the bake. Might it be that for this loaf you are noticing this impact on the crust and crumb?
Larger breads also last longer but that has no applicability, I am sure, when you cut it into quarters and freeze it.
Sounds like a wonderful group, David. Many years ago I took a French language immersion class that met every Saturday morning.We were not allowed to speak anything but French even on day 1. But on the last day we could converse in English since it was (food) party day. We would chat over baguettes, Camembert and lovely French pastries. Sadly I didn't continue my lessons.
I am always hesitant to freeze my bread, but it seems like many TFLers do. I guess it's due to the large number of loaves we all bake. But it is good to know that the miche quarters and other breads do freeze well.
-Mary
Hi, Mary.
Well, I can't think of any bread that is improved by freezing, but some do better than others. I think the breads that thaw out with least difference from fresh-baked are rye breads. In general, I have the impression that moister breads do better than those with drier crumbs. In addition, some breads, for example baguettes, are pretty good thawed by putting in a hot oven for just a few minutes (like 375dF for 7 minutes) then left on the counter for 5 minutes. Other breads seem better if just thawed at room temperature, for example thick crusted breads.
David
What your "sources" say is true, but there is also some sort of chemical difference, presumably happening during proofing, because there is a difference in taste.
David
My free trial for Bread has expired! Darn this technology! I recall reading, I believe in this book, he references that larger doughs ferment differently and that this is why we have bulk fermentation of larger amounts of dough.
I don't know why that would be, but of course, I don't know 1/1000th of what there is to know about bread. Thanks for encouraging me to read Bread. I will be baking a loaf or two from it before the year ends....