Pain a l'Ancienne {bba}

It's been quite a while since I've posted a hearth bread on this blog.  Truth be told, I don't bake many hearth loaves; most of the bread consumed in our house is in toast form, so I'm usually baking bread in loaf pans to be sliced and toasted for breakfast.  And (maybe because I make so many sandwich/toast loaves) I'm not very comfortable baking hearth loaves. 

At any rate, Peter Reinhart's book The Bread Baker’s Apprentice has a hefty share of free-form loaves, so I inevitably get some practice as I make my way through the book as part of the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge - an endeavor that I am still erratically pursuing, although I will be skipping the part of the challenge that deals with sourdough starters.  It's a bit too much of a challenge for me right now!  Anyway, enough digression. 

The next bread from BBA is the Pain a l'Ancienne, a venerable baguette in which all of the flavor of the wheat is unlocked via a process of delayed fermentation at controlled temperature, ie, using cold water and storing the dough in the refrigerator for a time.

Although it sounds pretty complicated, if you follow Reinhart's directions it comes together fairly easily.  I'm still not very confident in my bread-shaping abilities, but my loaves turned out decently and I have to say the aromas wafting through my kitchen as the bread baked were tantalizing!

n.o.e.'s notes:

-  I made half recipe of this bread, which yielded three baguettes.

-  I have to admit that I didn't keep many notes when I was making this bread, but you can see step by step photos of how this bread is made on this post by BBA Challenge founder Nicole.  Members of the Challenge are asked to not post the recipe.

-  The crust of my bread developed a beautiful golden color, but the crumb was a bit denser than I would have liked - some big holes would have been lovely!

 I ordered this cool bamboo cutting board here after hearing about it from Jaden of Steamy Kitchen

the verdict:

I served this bread to my to book group, and it was a resounding hit with everyone.  I was smitten with the chewiness and flavor of this bread; in fact it might be the best loaves that I've ever baked!
If I had my druthers, I would have preferred large airy holes inside, but who can quibble when the bread tastes this good?

BBA Slow & Steady: Mulitgrain Bread Extraordinaire Roundup

Although I am dreadfully behind on posting our results, the bakers of the Slow and Steady subgroup of the BBA Challenge are still working their way through the book. Several of them have pressed on into the sourdough section and are currently nearing the end of the book The Bread Baker's Apprentice!

Their progress has inspired me to pick back up and post the next in the series of Slow and Steady roundups. We all baked the Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire sometime back in 2010, but better late than never, right? Here is how the bread, which is famous for turning out extraordinary toast, turned out in our kitchens:

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Leslie of Lethally Delicious baked this recipe as rolls, and found the flavor to be "rich and deep." Read Leslie's post: BBA - Multigrain Bread Extraordinare

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The fourth time's a charm, and after a few failed attempts at making the soaker for this bread, Jessica of The Singleton in the Kitchen, with brown rice on hand, found the bread easy enough to make. As for the taste: she didn't find it to be "bread nirvana" but she reports that the toast was a pleasant way to begin her day. Her post: BBA S&S: Loafin' Around

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Natalia of Gatti, Fili e Farina
loved this bread so much that she got hungry for some when she was writing her post.
her post: BBA Slow and Steady: Multigrain Extraordinaire

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Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table thought that her bread wasn't much in the looks department (I beg to differ!) but loved the taste. Her family enjoyed this bread as toast, grilled cheese and sandwiches. Her post: BBA: Mulitgrain Bread Extraordinaire

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I baked this bread and posted it before the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. In fact, this bread is what convinced me to purchase Reinhart's book (I baked the bread from versions of the recipe I found online) See my post here. The bread makes such great toast that it's worth keeping little bits of cooked brown rice and other grains in the freezer so that the bread can be baked on short notice.