Pain de Campagne

So I made a sort of easy rustic bread yesterday called pain de campagne, finishing up a two day process. I have recently found out I really enjoy baking bread, so I am going to try and do it at least once a week. Many of the breads I would make take 2-3 days.

INSTRUCTION:

On day one you make a pâte fermentée. This is a pre-ferment to give the bread more flavor. Other pre-ferments are a biga or a poolish. Poolish is more of a slack dough whereas pâte fermentée and biga are more stiff. The pâte fermentée requires equal parts bread flour and unbleached white flour (8 oz.), 3/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp yeast, and 3/4 cups of room temperature water. If you haven't worked with bread before, make sure the water is actually about room temperature or near it. If it is cold water it will make the dough really stiff, and you do not want that. After you sift together the dry ingredients pour in the water and hydrate all the flour, you might need a little more water, that's fine. The recipe says to knead for 6-8 minutes. Kneading works the gluten to form bonds, if you under-knead the bread can crack and if you over-knead the bread can get too chewy. Thanks to youtube I found a pretty good instructional video on how to properly knead bread dough (How to Knead) since I imagine most people don't have a KitchenAid stand up mixer. Not to mention, I prefer to knead by hand.

After you've done this, you put it in a big bowl roll it around in a little oil, put saran wrap over the top and let it sit at room temperature for about an hour. It just need to swell to about 1 1/2 times its original size. Once you've done that, put it in the fridge until you're ready the next day.

I took mine out roughly 24 hours later, but I don't think that really matters. Cold fermenting is really slow anyway. It can stay in the fridge like that for up to 3 days. I think in the future I might do that and see if it tastes any different. Anyway, you take out the pâte fermentée and cut it into 10 pieces and let it sit, covered, for an hour, to take off the chill.

After an hour, pour into a bowl, 8 oz. bread flour, 1.5 oz. whole wheat flour, 3/4 tsp yeast, 3/4 cup of lukewarm water, and the pâte fermentée. Mix these into a course ball, sprinkle the counter with some flour, put the dough on the flour, put a little flour on your hands to prevent it sticking to you, then start kneading 8-10 minutes. It should not be very sticky, but kind of tacky. It should be soft as well. I usually do 10 minutes to be thorough, and I like a chewier bread. Once you've completed this, put it in a bowl, roll it in a little oil, and cover it for about two hours or until it doubles in size.

Once this step is complete (yea, I know it's a lot of steps) you take out the dough, and being very careful not to degas the dough cut it into 3 equal pieces. Bread Baker's Apprentice said to use a dough scraper or a serrated knife, but I used a regular santoku dipped in cold water so it wouldn't stick to the dough. Then you shape the dough, the easiest is a boule (here is another nice video illustrating how to shape a boule courtesy of youtube). Once you've done this, put the boules on some flour or parchment paper, mist them with oil (I just rubbed them with oil by hand, lightly) and cover them with saran wrap. Let them hang out like this for about an hour.

Once they have proofed for about an hour, heat the oven to 500 degrees. We will be preparing the oven for hearth baking. Put a pan in there while it heats up. Once the oven is preheated put a cup of water in the hot pan. Steam is essential for the hearth baking. I use a baking stone, but if you don't have one you can use a baking sheet. Sprinkle the baking sheet with semolina or regular flour and transfer the dough to the sheet. Stick the boules in the oven, close the door, and count to thirty, then mist the inside of the oven with some water. I have a gas oven, I don't know if this makes a difference to where you can mist. Count to thirty and do it again. After the misting, lower the temperature to 450, bake for 10 minutes, turn the sheet 180 degrees, then bake for 10-15 more minutes. The crust should be nice and golden. I would let this cool off for about an hour or so. Bread right out of the oven is such a nice smell.

Thoughts:

I really enjoy this bread. I know the task seems a little daunting at first. I mean, when I first started baking I was slightly annoyed by the idea that it took 2-3 days to bake a couple loaves of bread, but it is worth the wait. The flavor is a lot more developed and complex when you use a pre-ferment, and there is something really satisfying about the idea that you just made something that delicious. It also doesn't seem as long when you find out making a sourdough culture takes about 4 days. I have made a culture, but I sort of forgot about it...let's just say my fridge smelled like bad beer for a couple days.

I personally really enjoy the pain de campagne because I like a hard outer crust. And it is a pretty versatile bread in terms of aesthetics because it is really easy to shape. I made a fendu, and a coronne. A fendu is sort of like a short baguette, or a hoagie roll in a way. A coronne sort of looks like a big donut. There are some more shapes and patterns you can put in the bread, some are easier, some more difficult. I would really enjoy a brotform bowl for shaping and proofing my bread. It adds little lines in the bread and makes it look attractive.

This bread doesn't have big air pockets like ciabatta, it's more like a french bread sort of crumb. You can really taste the wheat come out in the flavor which is a nice change from french bread or ciabatta, or anything like that. I really enjoy this bread particularly because of that. I love wheat bread. A few pictures were taken, hopefully they will be posted soon. I am sorry in advance for looking like a bum in the pictures.

Well, hopefully this post inspired someone to go bake some bread.

Vegan Tunisian Vegetable Stew

Today I was looking in my Moosewood cookbook I got for Christmas from my sister and I came along a stew that I thought sounded pretty good. It is a Tunisian stew that is pretty hearty. I am a really big fan of soups and stews at the moment due it being winter and pretty cold in Chicago (it was 10 degrees today and I am told it is just beginning to get cold).

It doesn't take too long to make and it is rather healthy. The stew is primarily cabbage. I personally really enjoy cabbage, and since it's cheap, stays well in the fridge, and is a readily available item I try and use it fairly often. There is a Korean Cabbage Stew that I particularly enjoy, but that's another post.

Initially, overestimating the amount the cabbage would reduce (three cups of it), and not really thinking about the amount of space the chick peas would take, thought the stew wouldn't be as hearty as I normally enjoy it, and cut some potatoes. This was premature and I ended up eating that separately. The spices were a nice blend - 2 tsp coriander, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp turmeric. While it simmered it was pretty aromatic. The kitchen smelled like cinnamon, it was great. The recipe also takes cayenne, which I have been out of, so I replaced it with some paprika. It added a nice pepper flavor, but none of the kick. Next time I will have to use cayenne. The cinnamon was a nice touch, it mingled nicely with the coriander flavor. The stew is in about 28 oz of diced tomatoes, not drained, which was mostly absorbed by the vegetables. There is also a green pepper cut into thin slices (like the cabbage and onions in it). I am not normally a big fan of green pepper, but with the seasoning and the cabbage, it was a nice addition.

I am a pretty big fan of the recipe and would like to make it again, maybe with fewer chick peas and more potatoes, but then, that is quite a number of vegetables. Maybe I could leave the green pepper out? Then again, I really enjoyed the color and the flavor it added, whereas I am not sure the potatoes would bring much to the table.

I toasted some slivered almonds for the servings, but I forgot to put any on mine. Jessica put some on hers and said it was good - I should have gotten her to expound on that thought. I think the almonds would have brought a lot to the texture, considering everything in it is a rather soft vegetable, or bean.

It is a shame I didn't start my breads pre-ferment yesterday so I could have had a nice fresh baked bread with the stew. Looks like I will have to make another stew tomorrow with my bread.

Details on the bread tomorrow.

Hopefully I can use a roommates camera and get some pictures of the bread.

For starters.

Let me preface future posts with this: I am not a vegetarian. At least, I would not call myself a vegetarian. I abstain from animal products due to a personal issue with industry, production, and ecological sustainability. I do not like the idea of calling myself a vegetarian and then bailing on the commitment. So, I won't.

I do, however, pretty much only cook and bake vegetarian and vegan dishes. Many of my posts will be about food and baking (I particularly enjoy baking, though I don't do it as often). Some of my other posts will be about good things I eat and the places where I eat them. I am a pretty critical person, so often the focus of the posts will be critiquing and trying to record how I enjoyed certain aspects of these dishes.

Some of my other posts will be off topic and ridiculous. It happens.

Sooner or later I will get a camera so I can take pictures if I decide I would like to try and present my food in a fancy way.

Well, hopefully, this will be fun and people might be able to find some entertainment in my ridiculousness.

Enjoy.