BOULE And BATARD

French Bread.

Boule

Basic French bread Boule, the round sourdough is the standard country bread; apparently, it is readily available at the bakeries in Paris.  Another popular shape is 'Batard'.   I have wanted to bake the sourdough bread in my kitchen, and so far the bread is only alright instead of perfect.
There are techniques on how to make sourdough bread.  I have been using several methods, and the result varied.  But this time I tried a new technique, the preparation and the kneading process of wet dough and baked in ceramic with a cloche, I could use La Creuset pot, and the result is not too bad, in fact, it looked rustic.

 The downfall was handling hot pot with the cloche.  It was hard and made me nervous.

The Sourdough cooking course shares the recipe, and technique how to bake basic sourdough bread.  I was so glad to have found this site on the web, and I decided to give it a go.  A little modification I did that was how to prepare the leaven.  I used 100g liquid sourdough starter instead. And for the flour, I used strong plain white flour.  Cooking salt instead of sea salt.

Ingredients:
100 g sourdough starter
500g strong white flour
10 g salt
Dusting the banneton with plain flour
Semolina to sprinkle the bottom of the baking surface

Beautiful Sourdough Bread Boule with A Rustic Look. 

 Boule.   Freshly baked on a Large Tajine

Doesn't it look beautiful, it has a good crust.  In fact, it sings when the bread is cut, with clear and crisp sound.  Very Pleasing!  However, the crumb is not airy enough, but the bread has a good flavour.

The crumb is dense and not airy

 The bread has a good flavour, the crust is hard and crisp, but the crumb is not good enough.  It is not very enjoyable to eat.  Wasting is not my style, a good breadcrumb can be made out of the bread, that's what I may do.

As I wanted to try to bake the Boule in a hot oven with a Super Stone La Cloche a gadget that I don't have, I used my large tajine instead, and it works reasonably well.  As I said before, it is hard to handle as the whole tajine is hot and heavy.

Talking about the equipment for baking the sourdough bread could be done in the oven with hot stone (pizza baking stone), or bake in baking bread with a cloche and of course the regular baking in the hot oven, by putting the dough on a baking tray.

The Process of preparing the Sourdough 

Based on the Sourdough cooking course.

Mixing

Autolyse the flour with starter and water first

Place the three ingredients in a large bowl, mix together.  Cover with a clean damp cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Folding

Adding the salt after, or using delayed salt method,

Mix the salt with a little water, and dimple your fingers into the dough to allow the salty water and salt distribute evenly through the dough.  Leave for 11 minutes.

The salt added o the dough.

After 11 minutes resting, lift and fold the dough over, do a quarter-turn of the bowl and repeat 3 times at 30 minutes intervals with a final 15-minute rest at the end

( I must say, this instruction is not clear to me, I did what I understood, did I do the right things?

Shaping

Shape the dough lightly into a ball then place into a round banneton dusted with flour.  Dust the top with flour, then cover with a damp tea-towel.

Proofing

Leave the dough to one side until it is 50% bigger then transfer to the fridge, and leave to prove therefor 8 -12 hours.

The dough at final proofing and ready to be baked

Scoring the Dough Before Baking

Freshly Baked Bread the Boule

Successful in baking sourdough bread is not by reading a lot of theories and technique, but by doing it, and it could take years to achieve.  An expert says, she still makes mistakes sometimes.

The next baking sourdough bread, I will try to use this terracotta pot-Schlemmertopf, and I think it is going to work, it has deep enough lid.  It won't be a boule but a long loaf - a batard.  I know it is not going to be easy to handle a hot dish, but I must find a way to do it better, and I shall!

Come to think of it I may be using the lid only for the cloche of my baking stone.  It should work.  Another option is using a La Creuset Pot

This time I am following the recipe of Vanessa Kimble for the guide, however, I change one of the ingredients, I will be using the plain flour instead of mixed flours.  I must follow the directions and the techniques religiously.

BATARD

Sourdough Bread

The pot for baking the batard

Ingredients

300g water

100g sourdough leaven

500g plain flour

10g salt and 15g water

Make a loaf of a " Batard."

The Preparations

The night before: the leaven

The Leaven

Mix, 2 tablespoons of the sourdough starter, with 50g filtered water, 50g white plain flour, mix all together and leave, covered on the side of the kitchen. In the morning it will be lively and bubbly, ready to bake within the evening.

Started in the Morning

In a large bowl whisk the water and starter, and mix well.

Add all the flour and mix until all the ingredients come together into a large ball.

Mix

Cover with a clean damp cloth and let the dough rest on the side in the kitchen for between 30minutes and 2 hours-this what bakers call Autolyse

To Autolyse

Fold

Add the salt mixed with the water and dimple your fingers into the dough to allow the salty water and salt to distribute evenly throughout the dough.  Leave for 10 minutes.

The dough  after a long rest

The dough and the salt, rest 10 minutes.

Folding
The very first, lift and fold the dough over, do a quarter turn of your bowl and repeat three more times. Repeat three times at 30 minutes intervals with a final 15 minutes rest at the end.

After the first lift and fold
At 10.24

The repeat of the lift and fold (1)
At 10.54

A repeat of the lift and fold (2)
At 11.24

A repeat of the lift and fold (3)
The dough is smooth and elastic
At 11.54

Pictures of pulling the dough followed by folding the dough - Pull and Fold

I made a note, write down the time, to make sure that I did it right, how many times I have to fold.

Shaping

Shape the dough lightly into a 'batard', and place on a tray lined with a clean tea towel dusted with flour, sim up. Dust the top with flour, then cover with a damp cloth.

Shape the dough into a Batard

Clean tea towel dusted with flour.

The batard on dusted tea towel ready for proofing

Cover the batard with a clean damp cloth to prove

Prove

Leave the dough to one side until it is 50% bigger then transfer to the fridge, and leave to prove for 8 to 12 hours.  My Batard was in the fridge from 2 00 pm until  7am in the following morning.  The dough was in the fridge to prove for 17 hours.

The look of the dough after the long proofing in the refrigerator.

I decided to bake it in the next morning and used the Le Creuset pot for instead.  It's heavy and hot, hard to handle, but I did it.  It worked beautifully.

Putting in a pot for baking, I placed in a large baking paper sim side down and scored it well.

The scoring maybe not perfect yet, but it is a skill in itself.  I will get there eventually.

The bread was baked for one hour in a hot oven at 220 degrees C, and I took the lid off, and continue baking for 22 minutes on a lower heat.  The bread looked beautiful.

One Hour Baking Bread

The final finished baking the bread

Batard-Freshly Baked

The crust is so beautiful and chewy. The crumb is soft and showing the holes as a good crumb sourdough should be.

I am so pleased and proud that I managed to follow the recipe properly and enjoying the reward, the 'Batard' was baked to perfection, at least almost.

To see my sourdough bread baked very well was excellent, the scoring could be done better even though it spat beautifully.  It has a proper colouring, while the 'ears' (which is not quite pronounced - has a dark brown colour.

To look back, the baking of the Boule was not good enough, but the Batard was Better. Overall, No disappointment at all.

So far, I have done justice to learn the primary technique. Next time, I will try to bake sourdough bread with walnuts.  It is going to be the challenge, but I am ready.

Until Next Post

Susy