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World Bread Day: After Hours

When Zorra suggested a World Bread Day event back in October I had no idea how many people would participate: over 100 bread recipes were submitted. I was extremely impressed with the round up as that many posts to post about might have turned into a headache. I was even more imoressed when she suggested an "After Hours Party" in which we could try somebody else’s creation and post about it. I think I spent hours on it but I actually went through every post, yes, I am that dedicated to bread! I discovered new blogs, plenty of great recipes and amazing photographs.

I finally settled on a multi grain bread as this is one that we like the most in our house. I found it on The Barmy Baker, a blog written by Jen out of California. Click here to see her original post and picture.

Rustic Pain de Campagne or Muligrain Bread, from Jen, adapted from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice :

1 recipe pate fermentee:

1 1/8 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/8 cups unbleached bread flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp instant yeast

3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp water, room temp

Mix flours, salt and yeast in a bowl, add the 3/4 cup water and stir until everything comes together. If you feel things are a bit too dry or stiff, add the other 2 Tbsp of water and mix in.-Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 6 minutes or until the dough is soft and pliable and tacky.Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and turn the dough to coat the top with oil. Cover and allow to ferment for 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead to de-gas, return it to the bowl, cover it tightly and place in the refrigerator overnight or up to three days.

1 recipe "soaker" for the seeds:

3 Tbsp whole flax seeds

2 Tbsp sesame seeds

3 Tbsp cornmeal (coarse ground if you can find it)

1 cup water

Mix all together, cover tightly and refrigerate overnight. The seeds and cornmeal will soak up a good deal of the water.

For the rest of the recipe:

1 3/4 cup unbleached bread flour

1/3 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp instant yeast

2 Tbsp wheat germ soaker, from above

1/2 cup lukewarm water

Remove the pate fermentee from the refrigerator, cut into about 10 pieces, cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit at room temp for an hour to remove the chill.

Sift flours, salt and yeast together into a bowl with the pate fermentee.

Add the soaker and the water and stir until the mixture comes together (you may need to add a little more water).

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is soft and elastic. Lightly oil a large bowl and place dough inside, turning it to coat in oil. Cover and let bulk ferment for about 2 hours, or until it doubles in size.

Gently remove the dough from the bowl so as to de-gas as little as possible. Divide the dough into 2 pieces and gently shape into batards. Sprinkle cornmeal lightly onto sheetpans, or a peel and place the loaves on the sheetpans. Cover with plastic and allow to proof for about 1 hour, or until they are about 1 1/2 times their original size.

Preheat your oven to 500f. If you are going to use steam, put your pan in the oven now, and get some water heating about half hour before you are going to bake the bread.

When the loaves are ready, uncover and slash the loaves as you see fit. Either slide the loaves from your peel to your baking stone, or slide the sheetpans into the oven. If you are using steam, pour a cup of the hot water into your steam pan and shut the door (beware of evil steam burns!) After about 5 minutes, lower the oven heat to 450f. After 5 more minutes, if there is still any water in the steampan, remove it carefully. Bake for at least 20 more minutes, checking the loaves and rotating as needed. The bread should be a deep golden brown, and feel light for it’s size.

Thank you Jen for a wonderful recipe! It was an intense labor of love but the end result was quite worth it!

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Comments


Brilynn November 5, 2006 um 2:42 pm

I remember looking at that recipe and thinking it was best left for a day when I had more patience. Good for you for seeing it through!


Anonymous November 6, 2006 um 2:20 am

I so need to get going on this.
This looks like a good bread.


Lauren November 6, 2006 um 4:52 pm

I looked through all of them too – so many amazing breads. I have yet to tackle on yet.

Yours look so good!


Jen the Bread Freak November 8, 2006 um 8:38 pm

Beautiful! I’m so glad you tried out this recipe :). I really need to get myself going and try out a few of the lovely recipes from World Bread Day.


Jen the Bread Freak November 8, 2006 um 8:54 pm

Oh, also just wanted to say I think your blog is wonderful 🙂


Anonymous June 26, 2008 um 3:27 pm

Hi,
Just a quick thank you for posting this recipe! We are painting and took the book shelf down and packed the books for the time being. Well, I can’t find the Bread Baker’s Apprentice and really needed this recipe. I can’t believe it is somewhere in the pile of boxes…
Thanks again,
Pam
Sebastopol, CA.


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