favorite

 have tried

This bread is exceptionaly good. A perfect balance between the taste of sourdough and wheat. The texture of the "mie" is airy and the crust thin and crispy.
I think the firm starter is the key for a good sourdough bread.
With only 1 cup of levain for 9 cups of flour all together I had doubts about the rising process. But those vanished when I can back home and saw the dough rising above the bowl! This is another category of bread, one attain by patience and devotion. I keep feeding and taking care of my levain since more than a year now and this morning I finally taste my "récompence".
I made 1 miche with half the dough and two little miche with the other half. I used the mix of rice and rye flour Chef UB suggested to sprinkle on the bannetone and it work out so well. Can you please tell me how you got that idea???!!! I also use table salt instead of the Normandy sea salt because I didn't made it at home.The cooking was much less time then the one written in the book. 20 minutes for the little miches and maybe 30 for the bigger one. This week-end we will make french toast out of it and will write about it.

Hi Sisi, Congratulations on your successful bread! Certainly, a firm levain is easier to manage and is more predictable. I have settled on 60% hydration, 50% white flour, 40% whole wheat flour and 10% whole rye flour levain. This formula is tolerant of infrequent and irregular or neglected feeding cycles than wetter hydrations. Keeping a constant 60%, means there is no guesswork when any increased hydration adjustments are needed, or increasing the amount of levain and its contribution to the total hydration of any formula. The “proofing dust” is my improved adapted blend suggested by the San Francisco Baking Institute (SFBI). My version is equal weights of whole rye flour and whole brown rice flour, applied with a flour wand.

Even though it is regularly flown in from Paris by a local French provision supplier, I have never had the pleasure of eating Poilâne’s bread. I have no plans to ever visit Paris. If I were to go to France, it would be to Normandy and Provençe.

My first trial of this bread was gratifying. Be forewarned, the making of this bread is not to be undertaken lightly. Depending on the current condition and composition of your levain or barm, this can be a three day process. But if you could SEE and taste the result (SEE- sharing of images is one of the features I believe would greatly enhance the 101-library experience), I believe that you would agree it worth the effort. Just ask Sisi.

I used my self milled organic Montana Hard Red Spring Whole Wheat flour and saw no need to sift out any of its American goodness just to try to approximate the inferior French flour. I reduced the salt to 1.74% and increased the hydration slightly to 68%. Next trial I will bump the hydration to 70%. Peter says a home mixer would not be able to handle the amount of dough here- about 4.7 pounds. So he instructs us to knead the final dough by hand for 15 long minutes! Not feeling up to that task, I challenged my 7-quart Commercial KitchenAid mixer, and it came through with flying colors. Fitted with its stainless steel dough hook, the “windowpane” test was passed in 7 total minutes of mixing on speed “1”, and it barely got warm.

The final dough was proofed in an oversized banneton, seam side down as in the Ken Forkish method. Seam side down, eliminates the need for scoring and contributed to the high profile of the baked loaf by restricting its sideway expansion during proofing. I believe this high profile also increased the bake time required by 10 additional minutes, in order to reach 200 degrees at the internal center. This is an example of why the use of a thermometer is crucial in determining when bread is thoroughly baked. I would not attempt to transfer the loaf to the oven stone without using parchment, and I recommend using semolina only- cornmeal burns at 500 degrees.

The finished miche was 10¼-inches diameter by 5½-inches high at the center of its dome, and weighed 4 pounds, 4 ounces! The crumb was nicely and evenly open throughout. The taste moderately tangy and deliciously wheaty, while chewy and with a crisp, dense crust.

Weather or not Peter’s rendition is a worthy replication of the genuine article, this is indeed an extraordinary bread- it is a magnificent loaf. There is simply no way- in “5 minutes a day”!

What a beautiful bread Chef_UB! Good idea about the picture. Isn't this bread excellent! Will you eat the whole thing?! I find it interesting that when you proof sean side up you do not score. I always thought it was too bad to score on such a nice pattern. I never used a thermometer while bread making but mabe the bread would be even better.

 have tried

It's been months since I bought my "couche" to make ciabatta. And today was the day! I added 1/4 cup of olive oil to the dough and used milk instead of water. I baked it for almost 20 minutes but it seems it was not quite an off. I realize I prefer NOT enriched dough for my everyday bread. The bread is good but not a ciabatta worth it's name. There is no big hole in the "mie" and the later is a bit too moist. So I won't call it ciabatta and will enjoy it anyway!

 have tried

I wanted to do that recipe for a long time but because of the bacon I holded back. With the cold season (even if it is not that cold yet!) I eat much more meat. Actually much more of everything!
This recipe is delicious. I served it with a soup and some grilled veggies. Delightful. Better to be a big family or invite many friends over because it is big and filling.

 have tried

This bread was a deception.
It rose well and looked good but I knew right away, just from the smell of it, that it was not the baguette of my dream. Actually it reminded me of that cheap portuguese bread I once bought in a bakery. So light and chewy...
This baguette had a chewy texture. What a shame for a baguette who's suppose to be golden and crispy. The texture of the "mie" was good but still a bit too dense to my taste for a baguette. The guess thought that bread was a succes but I know better!
I didn't see a big difference between this recipe and the one made with the Poolish.
The best baguette in this book is definitely the Pain à l'Ancienne one but my quest for the best baguette is not over! À suivre.

What a deception. Those little guys looked so good when they came out of the oven. The crust was hard at the touch but this is usually the case when the bread just come out of the oven. But half an hour later the crust was still really hard. And the breads were SO LIGHT. Like a puff of smoke... Indeed the crust did stay hard. And the "mie" was way too airy. I noticed while forming the buns that there was a lot of air in the dough. But I tought it was a good omen...During the first fermentation the dough rose a too fast, I should have punched it a couple of times, I guess it would have stock less air.

 have tried

Really good bread as pretty much all of Peter Reinhart recipes. The taste for orange and cardamome are a perfect blend. Serve with butter and a spoon of raw honey and enjoy the morning!

 have tried

All the breads in that book are extraordinaire! It is said that this one makes the best toast and it's pretty close. Still prefer the adanama bread for toast but this bread here is more nourishing.
I cooked it a bit too much even if less then the suggested time.
And the nice thing about this bread is that you can vary the grains and cereal you use.
I bake a lot of bread before warm days are upon us and the use of the oven will be out of question!

 have tried

I bought that book with "Healthy bread five minutes a day"a few months ago. All that time I practiced with the second book. It was some ok bread but tasting yeast a lot.
This present cookbook is on a whole new level. More complex. Much longer to make but so good.
I mean really good. The crust was crunchy but not too thick. The inside so soft.
My best bread ever! It is suggested to divide the dought in three but next time I will cook it in one whole ball. I I will make it again for sure!

This an excellent rustic but not too dense like bread.
Like it a lot!

 have tried

Those bread are worth of their name. It really taste the authentic panettone I used to buy in little Italia in Montreal. Not only the taste but also the texture and the smell. I made 4 panettone with one recipe and used dry fruits (cranberries, mangoes, cherries and abricots) instead of candied one. Strong taste of rum! Next time I will add little pieces of orange and citrus peel. I freezed some and will eat them on Christmas morning. A great tradition!

 have tried

Did replace the poolish by barm and did't like the result at all.
The crust was texture less and the taste dull...
It will end up in toasts!

 have tried

I didn't have walnut and was too lazy to go to the grocery so I omitted those.
It was really good. Used 10oz unbleached white flour and 6oz whole wheat bread flour.
Next time I will do the cinnamon swril.
So good serve with a hard paste sheep cheese.