My Farmer's Market Journey

I'm going to follow in @joshfoxbreadco (Golgi70's) footsteps with my own Farmer's Market blog! I own Amber Artisan Bread, a cottage food operation located in Prosser, Washington.

After waiting an agonizing 4 months to get through the layers of beurocracy, I finally have my permit and am selling!

This week, I sold $100 worth of bread in 2 hours at my 8,000 head town's farmer's market.

Since I can only take individually approved items, I decided on only a few items: Country Levain, Wholewheat Levain, and Baguettes. Next week I'm going to do 100% Rye as well.

I took 18 baguettes, 4 Country Levain, and 7 Wholehweat Levain. Originally I made 10 levain, but 5 got lost because I thought my oven was on but it was not! Won't do that again. A lot of the difficulty was making my bread fit into my high school day schedule. So I used my lunch break to autolyze doughs and feed starters, then when I came home at 3:00 PM I basically baked straight until 11:00 PM. Next morning, it was get up at 5:00 AM and bake off the retarded Country Levain loaves.

My levain and wholewheat do draw heavily off the Tartine method, but it uses a firm starter rather than a liquid.

COUNTRY LEVAIN:

50% AP Flour, 11.2-11.7% Protein (I used Shepherd's Grain Low Gluten)

50% Central Milling Type 85 Flour

86% Water

2.2% Salt

17% Levain (Firm - 60% Hydration, 50% AP/ 50% WW, 50% Starter. 3.5 hours @81F)

3 hour Autolyze. Short Mix, DDT 81-83F. 3.5 hour bulk with 5 folds. Preshape Round. Shape Oblong. Proof 30 minutes. Retard 10-11 hours @45F. Bake at 480 with Towel Steam for 20 minutes, then vent for 30-40 minutes, rotating as needed.

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WHOLEWHEAT LEVAIN:

30% AP Flour, 11.2-11.7% Protein (I used Shepherd's Grain Low Gluten)

70% Whole-Wheat Flour (Split 50-50 between Hard Red Wheat and Hard White Wheat)

95% Water

2.25% Salt

15% Levain (Firm - 70% Hydration, 100% WW, 40% Starter. 3.5 hours @81F )

3 hour Autolyze. Short Mix, DDT 81-83F. 3.5 hour bulk with 5 folds. Preshape Round. Shape Oblong by "Stitching" Method. Proof 30 minutes. Retard 10-11 hours @45F. Bake at 480 with Towel Steam for 20 minutes, then vent for 30-40 minutes, rotating as needed.

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BAGUETTE: 

95% AP Flour (Shep Grain LG - 11.2-11.7% Protein)

5% Wheat Germ

75% Water

1.8% Salt

.16% IDY

Autolyze 30 minutes. DDT 65F. Mix. Bulk 1 hour with 3 folds. Retard for 21 hours @42-43F. Divide, Preshape Oblong. Rest 45 minutes. Shape in 2 stages, depending on tenacity. Proof 30-45 minutes. Bake with steam 18 minutes, then vented as needed until browned to a reddish tinge.

AND... PICUTRES!!! Which can be found on my instagram feed, @amberartisan.

Left: Preshaped dough. Levain on the right side, wholewheat on the left. 36 pounds of dough! Yahoo!

Right: Baguetes rising in their couche. Shaping still needs work, obviously!

Left: Wholewheat Cooling on Racks. Nice ears for such high hydration, if I do say so myself.

Right: Baguettes in the market transport tub.

Left: Levain cooling on the cooling rack.

Right: Wholewheat Crumbshot.

Left: Baguette Crumbshot.

Right: Levain Crumbshot.

Left: Giant gluten bubble!

Right: Dough covered hands, the photo button was pressed using my toe, so it is still a selfie!