Just Baking

Over last weekend, I decided it was time to try making a boule (a round) instead of the loaves I’d been trying out, which have been sandwich loaves, batards or baguettes.  Unfortunately, I didn’t leave myself enough time to make the pain l’ancienne from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice that I want to make.

Instead, I turned to the ever-trusty King Arthur Flour site, and used their recipe for French country bread.  It used a very simple poolish made the night before, to be added to the dough the next day.

I used organic bread flour, and used the whole recipe to make one boule.  It rose for about 2 hours, then I finished shaping it, trying not to handle it too much.  I wanted bigger holes in the bread.

What I got was something with somewhat bigger holes, but not the size I’m looking to produce.  The bread still turned out great, though.

The reason I’m writing here on Just Baking is to share what I’m learning, from a beginner’s view.  In light of that, I am going to start sharing my high and low points on each entry, starting with the low points.

Here were the low points of this bread:

• I handled the dough too much between the first and second rise (fermentation), which deflated some of the larger gas bubbles, which I really wanted to keep.  Next time, I need to shape it better before starting the fermentation so I don’t have to do much of anything other than to slightly press it down between to the two rises.
• I didn’t know how I wanted to slash the dough.  I ended up with 3 lines intersecting 3 other lines.  It looked fine, but I want to play with other ways.  I may try doing 2 lines instead of 3, and do a flour stencil in the middle.  It might be kind of cool to try.
• It takes a longer time for a boule to cool down than a baguette!  This was a low point only in that I had to wait!

The high points included:

• The extra protein in the flour I used resulted in a nicely chewy bread.
• The caramelization in the crust tasted fantastic!
• I tried storing the bread cut side down on a cutting board, and it seems to work really well, without having to wrap the boule.
• It’s easy enough to make that I know I can improve on it.

What fun would a bread recipe be if I got it right the very first time?  The results are still better than I can get at most local places, and I got to fill up the kitchen with the smell of great bread!