On Mar 11, 12:24 am, viince > wrote:
> Our flutes have .5 percent yeast, and 20 percent rye starter.
>
> We make only 2 breads without any yeast : The Pagnotta (poilane style
> miche) and the 100% rye.
On Mar 11, 12:24 am, viince > wrote:
> Our flutes have .5 percent yeast, and 20 percent rye starter.
>
> We make only 2 breads without any yeast : The Pagnotta (poilane style
> miche) and the 100% rye.
I can testify (from consuming) that the rye sourdough starter addition
is very important part of the character of the bread Vince makes,
essentially I would say for adding flavour and keeping qualities. I
think Vince will agree that that since starter is rye fed the day
before use, it's peaked in terms of C02 production, done full drop and
gone to the sour before use.
Personally I have been experimenting with trying to produce a pure
sourdough 'baguette' the last few weeks. I am not even certain that
classically there can really be such a thing as a pure sourdough
baguette, that the type is not intrinsically and historically a post
commercial yeast Parisian invention. For instance in the professional
baker's book Vince recently lent me "Le pain, l'envers du décor"
http://www.amazon.fr/dp/2914449054/ there are 5 recipes for baguette
including one 'baguette au levain' but even here for 1700g main flour
there is 500g levain naturel (55% hydration) and 3g yeast. Another pro
baker friend starting a new bakery where they tried to make all breads
100% sourdough has given in and added a touch of commercial yeast to
his baguette.
Still I persist to try and create something which 100% sourdough that
is both recognisably sourdough and at same time has both crunchy crust
and fresh fluffy quite open and varied crumb of classical baguette. I
should mention I do have benefit of true French flour from Vince's
place (all their flour is French). So far I don't have possibility to
make the regulation length and weight (
http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/
viamichelin/gbr/tpl/mag5/art20080301/htm/tour-gastro-meilleure-
baguette-paris-2008.htm) because my winter domestic oven is just that
in dimension, domestic. In fact its very rare for any baker in UK to
attempt this, usually the UK baguette however authentic it claims to
be is heavier and shorter, partly I think to avoid the strict demands
of time and space of the traditional form, partly because the thinner
cross section means keeping qualities are such buying bread twice a
day is really required, which UK customer will not do and partly
because normal UK use is for sandwich rather than chopped/torn eaten
with food without butter etc
Anyway I am working with variations of my current favoured method, a
combination of sourdough starter at a poolish type hydration (around
100%) refreshed to peak activity before use and pre-ferment or 'rotten
dough' i.e. a portion of dough saved over from previous baking, very
sour and gone gooey. To begin with I tried 22% (baker's percentage of
flour in addition to main/final flour) rotten dough and 22% starter, 1
hour autolyse before addition of starter and the rotten dough and
about 6 and half hour total rising before baking with initial final
dough temperature of 19C rising in heated room to 22C, but
essentially this gave a crumb that was too rigid and gelatinous for
baguette. So I reduced to around 14% rotten dough and 15% starter and
whilst crumb was lighter/fresher in texture this had effect of
requiring up to 12 hour rising which since I am preparing to bake out
doors again soon is not suitable (not enough daylight yet). So I moved
to higher percentage of starter so faster but now tipped to crumbly
crumb. Now I have gone back to 14% and 15% but without any warmed
water in final mix (initial final doudh 12C) and cold kitchen over
night rising - so total 18 hour rising. Finally I think results are in
right direction and can fit when I move to outdoor oven. various pics
http://www.myplot.org/oven/gallery.p...e=6&project=13 and the
gallery pages before
A main problem is both my own lack of real shaping prowess of a
professional such as Vince and limitation of my domestic oven, I have
been baking these baguette 2 at a time in a steep sided quite deep
oven tray with foil over top for 1st half hour + my domestic oven will
not go over 200C however long I pre heat so I think burst of heat from
tray floor is limited. Result is I very rarely get a nice cylindrical
cross section + I cannot really slash with freedom because of these
sides to the tray. Having said this the balancing act between of
hydration between getting an open crumb and retaining a cylindrical
cross section (without one of those curved baguette baking trays to
cheat) is very fine - somewhere between 59% total hydration and 62%
with French flour (more like 67% with a stronger flour but you will
not get some proper crunchy crust).
We shall see when I get to my outdoor oven what transpires ...
yours
andy forbes