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his past weekend, as I mentioned in my beef stew post, I made some European hearth bread. The recipe was a bit different from what I’ve used for baguettes; it used less yeast and allowed more time to rise. The poolish used only 1/8 teaspoon of yeast, in fact.
I was busy last weekend, so I not only had a slow rise on the bread, I refrigerated it to retard the rise even more. And it does make it take a lot longer! I want to try more breads with slow rise, as I think the flavor reflected that.
I used King Arthur Flour’s European artisan style flour, and that probably added to the flavor, too. The baking hotline at King Arthur Flour was helpful, as the dough was too dry, so I called them about how to add more water without over doing it, and they gave me good answers that allowed me to keep going.
This bread is baked at a higher temp; it calls for 425, and I baked at 415 convection/bake. I slashed the bread diagonally, and I wish I’d slashed it even deeper, as the slashes created great crust! The higher temps resulted in the crunchiest crust I’ve done so far. I sprayed the oven and the loaves with water before baking, and I had a pan of water under the baking stone. Next time, not only will I slash more, but I’ll do full convection at 415. As it was, it only took 25 minutes to reach an internal temp of 200, instead of the 30-35 the recipe called for at the bake setting.
This is the best bread I’ve baked. My wife and I had a whole loaf before we knew it. One thing I learned from reading my new book, the Bread Baker’s Apprentice, is that the crust gets its flavor from the Maillard reaction, the same thing that creates all the flavor on a seared steak… I’m finding that bread and grilling are closer than I realized! I’m assuming that toasting bread makes it taste so good from the same reaction.
I’m learning to play with the dough a bit, getting to know the feel of the dough a little bit better, though I have a LONG way to go still. It’s going to be fun learning more, too!
January 16th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Wow - I am very impressed since you say you are a beginning bread baker! Those loaves look incredible. Very, very nice job!
January 16th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Curt,
Can you send me the recipe for that? I’m going to make some artisan French bread this weekend and it will be interesting to compare recipes.
January 16th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
You are killing me!! First I read the stew post and then the bread! Tell your wife, she is a lucky lady to have a hubby that can not only cook, but bake bread! Bread and pasta are the way to a womans heart! Forget the chocolate! Great job Curt!
Laura
January 17th, 2007 at 1:50 am
Curt, your bread looks awesome! And you’re definitely using the right flour and the right bread book! I love King Arthur…both the flour and the company and Peter Reinhart’s book is wonderful! Be careful spraying the water…I don’t know if you read my post on my oven glass door shattering but it was a nightmare
January 17th, 2007 at 6:52 am
Kristen, thanks… I’ve only been baking at all since September, but I’m trying to learn quickly.
Dave, I’ll find it again and send it off.
Laura, my wife made me blackened tilapia last night; it was nice to get dinner cooked for me; she won’t admit it, but she can cook just fine!
Nicole, I didn’t read about the oven door yet, or I just missed it. I’ve been spraying just toward the back of the oven, and avoiding the light covers, too! I can imagine how much of a mess the oven door shattering would be.
January 17th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Curt,
it only took a tiny drop of water to shatter my oven glass into a million pieces! Of course the oven was probably 500 degrees so the glass melted my kitchen rugs! Anyway, I think it was in Peter’s book that I finally read about this happening and learned that you should lay a kitchen towel over the glass when spraying just to be on the safe side
So that’s what I do now!
January 17th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Nicole, I haven’t gotten to that advice yet, but I’ll definitely start, as I’m using temps around what you’re talking about.
January 20th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Pain a l’Ancienne
My first attempt at Pain a l’Ancienne from Bread Bakers Apprentice. This recipe was interesting and very different. Rather than two rises, you make the dough using ice cold water, put it in fridge overnight, take it out the next