Trying Something New...
Well, new for me, anyway... Actually, several new things... I'm a sourdough, rye and generally and wholegrain-ish kind of gal, but the Parental Unit requested crusty white French-style bread this week. So of course, I attempted to oblige. With the help of the resources and things I've learnt on here, (and a brain fart along the way) this is what I came up with:
INGREDIENTS
Poolish:
100g white bread flour
100g tepid water
1g dried active yeast
Dough:
Poolish
400g white bread flour
150g durum flour
315g tepid water
12g salt
2g dried active yeast
METHOD
Day 1, Lunchtime: Make the poolish by putting the yeast, water and flour in a bowl and mixing well. Leave till late evening - about 10 hours - at room temperature (That's about 17C here at the moment) until nice and bubbly.
Day 1, evening: First, put the flour and most of the water in a bowl, stir and leave for a couple of hours. Keep the reserved couple of tablespoons of water to activate the yeast. After the autolyse, add the poolish, the activated yeast and the salt. Combine and then knead well for around 10 mins. Cover and leave for around half an hour before doing a stretch and fold. Repeat twice more at half-hourly intervals. After the last S&F, put the bowl in a plastic bag and place in the fridge overnight.
Day 2, Afternoon: Remove dough from the fridge. Let it warm up a little at room temperature. Remove from bowl, stretch the dough gently and shape. Put the shaped dough in a floured banneton and place in a plastic bag. Preheat oven at this point. When dough has proved (about an hour-ish) tip the dough into the hot chicken brick (or whatever you wish to use to cloche bake bread) and score. Bake for 25 mins with the lid on at 230C and for a further 15 mins at 200C without the lid. Cool on a wire rack.
VERDICT
I think this has got to be the best crusty bloomer type bread I've ever eaten. Really, really good. And mum loved it too. Fantastic flavour, super crispy crust, chewy but tender crumb that's more open than what I usually get. The crumb was slightly glossy as well, almost like a sourdough in some ways, which I wasn't expecting.
Definitely a keeper even if the loaf was a little bit umm, rustic. But I think that was down to my shaping and scoring :-)
The dough was lovely, silky and super easy to handle - I think the autolyse made a big difference in how quickly and how well the dough developed. Also, I reckon I could get away with upping the hydration by another couple of percent next time without it getting to the sticky goo stage.
The brain fart ended up being serendipitous I think... I was a bit tired last night and forgot to take into account the 100g of water I'd already put into the poolish - a stupid mistake, I know. As a result I had a really sloppy dough - ok, I could have turned it into ciabatta I suppose, but that's not what was requested. So a one-handed go with the calculator to figure out how much flour I needed to bring the dough back to the 64% hydration I wanted and a quick reach for the nearest bag of flour - which happened to be a newly-purchased bag of durum flour - solved the issue in a pinch. Though it's not the easiest thing to do things like this with one hand jammed in a bowl of dough...
Of course, the baking supervisors sat there glaring at me in feline displeasure, because I'd promised them I'd make a bread with only four ingredients, but ended up using five... Oh, the shame... I think I shall have to soothe the girls' egos with cooked chicken, else they'll probably see fit to hack up a furball in an inconvenient place or something of that ilk, just to get their own back...
As a last thought, I'm wondering how to convert this bread into a tiger loaf... If I can figure out how to produce a tiger loaf, then that's definitely on the agenda for the future.
Comments
That looks totally yummy! Simple is sometimes sooo good, isn't it? I make a similar one only using my husband's light hoppy ale as the liquid in the poolish. As you say, very well behaved dough, fabulous crumb and crust and everyone loves it.
Bacon sandwiches on the horizon for breakfast - it's just the right sort of bread to do that. I wouldn't have thought to use beer as the liquid for white bread. I've done it with some of my wholegrain breads and I rather liked it. Maybe something to think of in the future if I can get my mitts on the right kind of beer.
As I said, for this one I use a light, hoppy ale. I used the dark mild for a heartier loaf with 100% Whole Grain / wholemeal flour. You can't really taste the beer in the finished bread but it does add a sweetness, almost.
I used to live in the UK; I really miss good bacon butties on white bread for breakfast...
So am a bit clueless about beer LOL!
It's got to be smoked bacon for me, and with butter. Don't have bacon sandwiches very often. Fried egg sandwiches are very good too. As you say, simple things are sometimes the best :-)
British bakes said bloomers they werent talking about their unmentionable undies or possibly even worse if they were French:-) I have no Idea what tiger bread is other than a bread that Tiger Woods would bake or bread you have to feed to Tigers because it is too rustic for mortal humans?
I'd like to say your bloomers are showing...... off! What a great loaf. Your Mom must be in floating on that bloomer air! and your supervisors aren't big enough to be tigers:-) Well done and
Happy baking Reynard
As it ticked all the right boxes for her :-)
Tiger loaf is a bloomer style bread that has a paste of sesame oil, yeast, water, salt and flour smeared over the shaped dough just prior to baking. The bread isn't scored - it cracks all over the surface as it bakes, giving it a stripy, spotty, tabby sort of look. Hence the name, I suppose. It's just a question of finding the correct ratios for the paste mix.
The girls might not be big enough to be tigers, but it doesn't stop them from trying ;-)
Great looking bake Reynard. Happy mistakes sometimes work out the best. Your crumb looks spot on and as you've said it must have tasted great. Some melted cheese and bacon on this bread would be drool worthy :0
A good third of the loaf is gone already. Just as well I've got a habit of writing down what I do, so I'll be able to make it again - or at least that's the theory. :-) A day old and the crust has softened, but the crumb is easier to spread butter on LOL
Yup,, agreed. Cheese and bacon toasties are divine, especially with a squeeze of bbq sauce. Cheese and onion is pretty good too :-)
This may be obvious, but I'm limited on time and wanted to share my opinion! With scoring, you could always try scoring larger loaves more, so it's a more controlled "explosion". At my bakery, loaves like yours are scored five times diagonally. As for the shaping, you can always tell if it wasn't the best if your score doesn't take, or when you get an oblong shape. The loaf can be reshaped when going into the oven after proofing, but only a little bit. Using a wicker basket or something similar such as couche can help save the shape. Also, keeping the room at around 80 degrees F helps keep a more consistent product. Overall very nicely done!