Saturday, May 29, 2004


science run amok

so let's pick up from yesterday, hmm?

i awoke this morning with 2 chefs, or the starter bases for making the traditional french country bread, pain au levain -- one thin, which i had already begun to build ("refreshed" as the french say) towards the full levain, and one thick, which i hadn't refreshed.

obviously, i should continue with the refreshed one and just toss the other. but nope, not me.

out of some strange sense of curiousity, i refreshed 'em both to see what the difference will be, if any, in a finished loaf.

my guess is that the "unrefreshed" one made from the thick chef will be much more tangy, almost sour.

anyway, towards this end, i added to both:

  • 4 oz. volvic water
  • 3 oz. white whole-wheat flour
  • 5 oz. first clear flour

by my calculations, the "thin" batch is just about 65% hydration, while the "thick" batch is about 67%.

i prefer the bread to be between 66-68% hydrated, so i'll be adding a touch more water during the following stages to bring both up them up to 68%.

a well-hydrated loaf rises better, is easier to handle, and usually bakes up lighter. since these country breads have both whole-wheat and rye in them -- making 'em technically more pain de campagne rustique than pain au levain maybe if we wanted to be prissy about it -- we want to do everthing we can to get a lighter loaf.

no dense whole-wheat bricks here, thank you very much.

the wiggle in this situation is that the weather is a tad cool, just 68 degrees f. today. thus the once-chef-future-levain will be rising quite slowly.

i mean, like 10 hours until it doubles, probably. but in this case, that's a good thing. the wild yeasties and their all-good symbiotic pals i've been herding / growing / breeding make better-tasting bread in a slower, cooler rise.

10 hours seems like a long while, but hey, i began this adventure last monday so i'm not in any hurry. you really can't hurry this bread anyway.

however, long-time readers are aware that sunday here at bccy is the sacred pizza day.

how will i manage 2 one-kilo loaves and 2 14-inch pizzas at the same time in my bklyn apartment kitchen?

those who have seen my vintage magic chef oven (not much larger than a deluxe ez-bake, compared to the monster stainless steel models everyone has nowadays) know this will be a deeply strategic question. . .

umm, i'm still thinking that one thru. if worse comes to worse, i'll simply pop one levain into the fridge for a day. that allows me to put off making it into dough and baking it until monday.

this obviously doesn't solve all of my problems, however. 2 kilos of bread is alot for my house, even tho' we all remember that bread freezes quite well.

the entire planet knows my freezer is always filled with delicious fresh coffee. this week, gillies yrgacheffe occupies just about every bit of it.

i love that winey, floral, lemon-caramel-candy coffee! thus the second loaf will probably go to the sweet people in apartment 7C!

unless it turns out, you know, whack.

posted by fortune | 12:07 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments