Month: August 2019

Miche aka Traditional French Sourdough

I have wanted to make this bread since I started baking naturally leavened bread. It is based on the bread baked by Poilâne Bakery in Paris. Of course mine won’t be the same since I am not using the same flour, water, salt or starter.

The version I am doing is from a recipe on Breadtopia (no affiliation) but again the same comment from above about ingredients applies.

This covers two weeks of making the same recipe with tweaks between the two attempts. The first week I followed the recipe as written. The main tweak the second week was to add more water to both the leaven and the dough the second week. Next was to reduce the bulk fermentation time from 24 hours to 22 hours and final proof was 4 hours vs 5 hours. Finally for mixing and kneading the dough I used the Kitchenaid mixer with dough hook the second week. All photos are from week 2 unless otherwise noted.

For flour I am using King Arthur Organic Bread Flour, King Arthur Organic Whole Wheat Flour, Hodgson Mills Organic Whole Rye Flour and Bobs Red Mill Organic Spelt Flour (I have no affiliation with any of those companies).

The process for the dough is slightly different than most of the other sourdoughs I have made. On day 1 a leaven is made. In this case it is made with a higher percentage of starter than I typically use, all the whole wheat flour and water. It is mixed and then sits on the counter covered for 12 hours.

Day 2 the dough is made. The dough is mixed with some of the bread flour held back. The dough is then kneaded by hand for 10 minutes adding some of the held back flour if the dough becomes sticky. At the end of kneading the dough should be smooth and tacky but not sticky. The difference is difficult to describe but obvious when achieved. This is a stiff dough. It was a fair amount of work for me with my compromised breathing. I could have used the mixer and dough hook but I wanted to feel the dough develop by hand to know what should feel like. When I make this again I most likely will use the mixer. The major difference with this dough is after it is kneaded, it is placed in an oiled bowl, covered, and placed in the refrigerator for 24 hours. There is no further work on the dough until the next day.

On day 3 the dough is removed from the refrigerator, shaped into a boule and placed in a 10” banneton to proof for approximately 5 hours.

The Formula

Ingredient	Amount	Bakers %
Leaven
Water	200 g	85%
Starter	120 g	51%
Whole wheat flour	236 g	100%
Dough
Water	274 g	54%
Leaven	556 g	110%
Bread flour	250 g	50%
Spelt flour	170 g	33%
Rye flour	85 g	17%
Total flour	505 g	100%
Sea salt	13 g	6%

Note: the salt percentage looks high but is based on the total flour in both the leaven and the dough.

My Process

1. Weigh ingredients for leaven in a medium sized mixing bowl.
2. Mix ingredients thoroughly.
3. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let stand on counter 12 hours.
4. Weigh ingredients for dough.
5. Mix the leaven into the water in a large mixing bowl.
6. Add the rye and spelt flours to the mixing bowl and thoroughly incorporate.
7. Add the salt to the mixing bowl and incorporate.
8. Slowly add the bread flour and incorporate by hand. Do not add all of the bread flour yet. The dough will become very stiff.
9. Remove the dough from the from the bowl to a surface floured with some of the reserved bread flour. Knead dough by hand for 10 minutes adding more of the reserved bread flour when the dough becomes sticky. The final dough should feel tacky but not sticky. The best way I can describe the difference is that sticky dough will stick to and remain on your fingers, tacky dough will feel tacky but not stick to your fingers.
10. Oil a large bowl with olive oil, place the dough in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
11. Place bowl in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
12. The next day remove the dough from the fridge. Pre-shape into a boule.
13. Let rest covered on counter for 30 minutes.
14. Final shape into boule and place dough seam side up in a floured 10” banneton. Place banneton in a plastic bag. Note, proofed dough will fill or be slightly above the top of the banneton.
15. Let dough proof 5 hours.
16. 1 hour before proofing is complete, pre-heat the oven to 485F. 15 minutes before proofing is complete place a roasting pan in the oven.
17. When proofing is complete, invert dough on to a parchment covered peel.
18. Slash dough with lame.
19. Remove roasting pan from oven. Transfer the dough on the parchment to the baking stone. Spritz the dough with water from a spray bottle and cover with the roasting pan immediately.
20. Bake 25 minutes with the dough covered.
21. Remove cover and bake an additional 20 minutes uncovered with the oven set to 450F.
22. Remove bread from oven to a cooling rack. Let cool completely.

The first time I made this the dough reached the tacky stage and I still had 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the bread flour left. Week one the dough was over proofed after 5 hours and there was no oven spring. The flavor was excellent, probably the best tasting loaf I’ve ever made. There is a complexity to the flavor that just can’t be achieved using just white wheat flour. The crumb was tight and soft when first sliced. The next day the bread already seemed dry. That made the decision to make the bread again the next week, with some changes.

The changes in the formula were to increase the water in the leaven by 10 grams from 200 grams to 210 grams and to increase the water in the dough by 16 grams from 274 grams to 290 grams. This time I only had about a tablespoon of flour left when the dough reached the tacky point.

The changes to my process were in steps 5-9 to use the mixer with a dough hook, in step 11 to reduce the time from 24 hours to 22 hours and in step 15 from 5 hours from the time the dough went into the banneton to 4 hours from the time the dough came out of the fridge.

This time I got nice oven spring. The crumb was nice and soft with a more uniform tight texture and slightly more chew from better gluten development. I left the original formula and process because if someone uses different flours than I did, the original formula and proceeded would be the logical starting point.

This has become one of my favorite breads and will show up frequently in my bread making rotation. I think when I next make this I may try an herbed version.