Bread is something I enjoy, but something I could live without. I find that funny in light of the fact that I have enjoyed following the Bread Baking Babes since their inception. Working with their breads they challenge us to has caused me to learn to not be afraid of wet dough. I used to continue adding flour and more flour and even more flour until I got a firm dough ball. Now, I have trouble adding all the flour that a recipe calls for.
This month, we were challenged to make not just bread, but things such as a seed culture, a barm, a firm starter and finally a rather large loaf of bread. I could have used the sourdough starter I have in my fridge, but I wanted to experience the whole process. (I am kind of like that you know!) Well, to be truthful, I am so glad I did. I really love the smell and taste of this starter (okay, not that I have eaten the starter straight, but the bread it produced).
The bread was to be made almost entirely out of whole wheat flour, something that is really only available in certain shops at certain times. Mind you, I can go to any supermarket or corner store and find quinoa flour, amaranth flour, pea flour, fava bean flour, sweet potato flour, purple corn flour and well, you get the idea. But there is NO whole wheat flour. I think someone would make a small bundle by marketing this idea as there are many expatriates that I am sure would buy it up. But anyway…
So, I bought the closest thing I could to whole wheat flour. It is called wheat flour but really it looks like white flour mixed with whole bran or something of that sort. My not-really-whole-wheat-flour produced some loaves of not-so-poilane-style-miches. The strange thing was the dough looked rather good with the flakes of wheat something-or-another but after not long of baking, it developed this snow white, sticky coating around the outside. While all the breads I saw from the bread baking babes were dark brown, mine looked as though they needed more time in the sun. They are a strange white tan color.
When I sliced into them, I found them to be dense; very, very dense. They were tasty, but very heavy. I made two loaves because I can wrap them and save them so much easier than one large loaf. After a day or two, they seem to be crumbly dry.
I plan to purchase whole wheat flour (whenever I run across some) and try these again. As well, I also plan to use the starter from this to make some other breads. Maybe you would like to try making this bread as well? Check out the recipe in it’s entirety at What Did You Eat?
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Poilane Style Miche is being served up as the Bread Baking Buddies challenge of the month. This months challenge was hosted by Shersis of What Did You Eat?
this looks great, though i admit i am not a bread person either and could totally live w/o it!
Live without bread? That’s not life! Haha… as you may see, I love bread… but I would never dare to make sourdough bread from scratch! Great job!!
Every month Gretchen! Yes! I so love that you’ve got the same problem I do now, it really has changed the way I add flour to a dough – I’m much more relaxed about it now.
Actually I have eaten starter straight – not the bucket full but just to taste it.
And yes this is a fairly heavy bread. Very interesting about the color! I felt I had to be careful or it would have gone black.
Really love the grain in yours.
Nice job -that’s an involved prep technique. Any chef would be proud to have completed the Poilane technique!
Great job! I think the bread looks great.
Ulrike fron Küchenlatein
So now I need a dictionary to define all the bread terms. I love bread – it hates me. I try to avoid it – you’re making it very difficult. Your bread looks like fun and likely something I’ll need to learn before long.
Your bread looks great, Gretchen! That was quite an undertaking. Well done!
Poilane was one of the first places I sought out when I was in Paris. It’s so not fair that we can’t get bread like that here unless we make it ourselves!
wow… beautiful gretchen!
Totally with you on being able to live without bread… but there’s something about homemade bread that’s just so alluring. That and sourdough. If I had San Francisco sourdough with every meal, I would be a very happy camper.
I totally empathize with not being able to find the stuff you need for an American recipe in a foreign country, btw. I can never find the kinds of beans I need in France… I’m the queen of substitutions.
I love bread! This one looks great, the type of bread I would ruin my short and long term diets for:)
Ok~ I can’t imagine not needing bread. Most meals I jokle about only needing the bread and dessert. I’ll skip everything lese. heh
The whole wheat flour is really curious to me! I can’t imagine why that is the one flour you don’t have there. Maybe the internetz can deliver King Arthur’s to you? They have an amazing unbleached white whole wheat that I use and no one notices.
I’m so sorry that you weren’t included! I’m correcting that right now1 The bread is beautiful–thank you for taking part in BBB!
Are those whole wheat berries? Looks like it’d be great thinly sliced and lightly toasted.
Sometimes it’s very hard to make a recipe, when they don’t sell the right flours in your country. But you’ve tangled the technic and gave it a great shot!
Again, I admire your perseverance, it’s tough to recreate a recipe with totally different flours. Too bad it didn’t work out like you deserved.
Do you guys have mills in Lima? I get the most fantastic WW flour at the mill here in Huanuco. Seriously, if you don’t have access I’ll bring you 5 kilos or so next time I come to Lima! It’ll be a great excuse to meet up for lunch again!