BBA S&S: Pain a l'Ancienne
I joined the BBA Challenge and I knew at some point I'd have to make this bread. And I never lost my fear of it, either. I dread sourdough bread, too, but for different reasons (I'll cover those when I get to sourdough). If you read my BBA posts then you know I've been dreading this bread for awhile. I hit the "P" section of the book the first week in March . . . and it took me a full month to get up the nerve to bake this bread. Finally I decided to bite the proverbial bullet because it's not going to get any cooler and this bread is going to have to be made at some point or another. I may as well make it before the summer heat kicks in, right? Besides, I joined the BBA group because I really wanted to bake my way through The Bread Baker's Apprentice, and there isn't one good reason to be so scared of this bread.
Many of the BBA breads involve a preferment or a biga, but this bread is a little bit different. For pain a l'ancienne you simply mix together the bread flour, yeast, and salt with ice cold water and immediately stick it in the fridge overnight. I only made 1/2 of the recipe because I thought that 6 loaves of bread were a bit much for a singleton and her dog. The next morning I took the dough out of the fridge, and it took the better part of four hours for the dough to wake up and grow. So far, so good. This was actually much easier and less time consuming than almost all of the hearth breads I've baked up to this point.
This is a very, very, very sticky dough. It reminds me a lot of the ciabatta dough actually, and that was a good omen (I loved ciabatta). You don't really handle the dough that much as you're shaping the loaves, but I just have to mention, I loved working with this dough. It's unruly and sticky, but it's fun to try to get it under control. I slightly goofed up shaping of the loaves, though. You see, I made 1/2 a recipe of dough, but I was following the shaping directions for a full recipe. Now, normally halving a recipe doesn't really matter in terms of the assembly directions, but in this case, it does matter a litte bit. The main issue was that I ended up with loaves that were stretched a little thin . . . to say the least. As far as scoring the bread is concerned -- what a pain! I have a very, very sharp serrated knife that I only break out on gala occasions, and it didn't do anything for this bread (well, it did, but only after I sawed a bit). The scissor trick didn't work very well, either, and next time I'd be tempted to leave the bread unscored.
The recipe states that you can bake these loaves on the back of a baking sheet (as I did) or on a baking stone. I was so lazy with the baking stone. You see, it was already really warm the day that I baked these loaves, and my oven is old and any time I try to take it past 400 degrees it really sputters and gasps for breath. I can get it up to 500 degrees (the recipe states 500 degrees, or 550 if your oven will go that high) but the second I open the door the temperature drops to 450 again. My baking stone is in the shape of a circle (not so great for baking loaves of bread but wonderful for pizza) and I didn't feel like preheating the baking stone, so I baked the bread on the back of the baking sheet. The next time I bake this bread I'll make sure I use the stone, because I'm 110% positive that it will make a big difference. As you can see in my pictures, the top of my bread got very, very dark. But the bottom of the bread was very light. I think that the baking stone will fix this disparity in top vs. bottom coloring and done-ness.
I can't believe that I made this bread in my own kitchen. It's so amazingly good, and it's not even 1/4 as difficult to make as I thought it would be. The flavor of the bread is out of this world. Or at least, out of my kitchen! It tastes like really, really good bakery bread. It's chewey and delicious. I ate mine with some goat cheese and it was snack nirvana. The only thing missing was a glass of wine. I wish I could describe the flavor of this bread, but I'm at a loss for words. Maybe it's ethereal? It's SO GOOD. And I stretched my bread too thin, skipped the baking stone, and I have a geriatric oven. I can only imagine how much better this bread can be under different circumstances. Actually, it's sort of hard to imagine it being better because it was so tasty! Peter Rheinhart has really accomplished something miraculous for the home cook in the case of pain a l'ancienne.
And . . . if you're in search of the elusive bubbles in your bread, look no further than the pain a l'ancienne because it's just dotted all over with bubbles. It's actually kinda fun, don't you think? So, to sum up a long, long post:
1. There's nothing to be scared of
2. Because this bread is super, super simple
3. And, even more importantly, very, very, very tasty!
4. Make it just as soon as possible!
I have every intention of making this bread again soon because I want to do some things a bit differently next time:
1. Divide up the dough properly.
2. Use the baking stone.
3. Leave the unbaked loaves unscored.
I want to give a special "thank you" to Amanda of Fake Ginger for encouraging me to make this bread. Honestly, without her feedback I'd probably still be stuck, with my head in the sand, avoiding this delicious bread. And that would be a sad case in every which way. For more BBA S&S breads, check out these blogs: Pink Stripes, Shortbread, Grandma's Kitchen Table, Gatti, Fili e Farina, Lethally Delicious, Blue Ridge Baker, Tea and Scones, and of course, The Corner Loaf.
Continue reading here: BBA S&S;: Cinnamon Swirl Bread
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