BBA: Poilane-Style Miche

      The thirty-third Bread Baker's Apprentice challenge (from the book by the same name authored by Peter Reinhart) is Poilane-Style Miche, and is found on pages 242-245.  

      Using the barm from the original sour dough I made for this section of the book (and by now with multiple dividings and feedings the barm smells sour and has a nice tang to it), I made a half portion of this bread as from all accounts, the full-size recipe looked huge and probably not easily consumed by us in the time it would take to eat it before it got stale.  This is the bread pictured on the cover of the book so I was excited to finally get to make the cover recipe after all this time.  (It's the little things, right?) 

      The ingredients:  barm, medium-grind whole-wheat flour, water, and salt. 

      This is a two-day bread, one to make the soaker and firm starter, and the next day for the assembly, rising times, forming, and baking.  I am always amazed that using so few ingredients, and sometimes seemingly the same ones over and over, how different the breads turn out.  I think this is part of the charm of baking bread, just seeing/tasting the variety of results.
      This bread had a nice fine texture (I guess I was expecting a more coarse texture from the whole wheat so I enjoyed having it be such a nice texture), great taste and chew, and we all enjoyed it for just eating out of hand and sandwiches for lunches.  It had a slight sourdough flavor, I guess I was expecting more, but I will keep my starter going to try to achieve more in that regard.  

      I also need to work a little on forming the loaf, and it was the first time I had a chance to use a lame to score the bread so the results were not stellar, but I will keep working on it as it is a fun little tool to have on hand.  I might make this one again actually as we liked the taste and it was fairly easy to make/bake. 

      You can visit the main group and marvel the breads.  I'm getting there...Slow and Steady.  Our next challenge:  Pumpernickel Bread, found on pages 246-248.