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Scott Mangold: Test-Baking with Local Wheats

This year as last year, it was tough to make a choice between all the workshops, lectures, roundtables and demos offered at the Kneading Conference West and on that gorgeous Saturday morning (the last morning), I would especially have loved to attend one of the events taking place in the outdoor tent area instead of hanging out in the lobby kitchen, which is where Scott was giving his demo. But local grains were calling and local grains I picked!
I am glad I did. Sott gave us useful pointers which I am happy to share here. I took copious notes and so did my friend and fellow SHB/bread blogger breadsong who was sitting next to me. When she heard I was going to write up the class for this blog, she very kindly sent me her notes. What follows is an amalgamed summary of what we both wrote down. Thank you, breadsong!
The whole wheat Scott Mangold is currently baking with at Breadfarm, his beautiful bakery in the Skagit valley, is milled nearby at Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill but it is grown in Whatcom county. Stephen Jones, Director, WSU Research and Extension Center at Mt. Vernon, is seeking to grow locally flavorful wheat that could be used by bakers and Scott hopes to be able to make a Skagit Valley bread one day. Meanwhile he tries the flours he can put his hands on with varied results: local wheats are inherently inconsistent. Even when working with them as individual varieties, there will be variability in flour performance because of the climate and the weather.
For this morning’s demo, Scott picked Camas Red Fife (12.8% protein), Renan (a standard French varietal, 12.3% protein), Hedlin Farm’s Bauermeister (10% protein – last year’s crop as this year’s is fairly low in protein) and Red Russian (14.6% protein).

Scott describes the in-bakery test bake system that he has devised for himself: when he gets his hands on a new flour, he always begins by taking a small amount which he mixes in a straight dough, then ferments and bakes. The process never varies, which makes later comparisons much easier. He strongly recommends that we too, at home or at the bakery:

Take detailed notes about times, temperatures and water amounts
Rely on feel: as the flour absorbs the water, the dough feel may change. You may have to adjust hydration to get the consistency you are looking for (keep notes on the amount of added water)
Make note of the dough temperature at the end of the mixing

As bakers, we need to keep in mind that:

Flour is at its best within 24 hours of milling. After that, it needs at least two weeks to oxidize properly
When protein is concerned, quality trumps quantity: The speed of dough development correlates with the quality of the protein: glutenin provides elasticity and gliadin extensibility. Spring wheat has higher levels of protein but these proteins are organized in a less compact way. Winter wheat’s dormancy period during the growing season makes for a better perfoming protein
The quality of the protein is what determines how long the dough needs to be mixed. When gluten develops poorly during mixing, use the stretch and fold technique

What goes on in a dough

Yeast consumes sugar and produces gas (the warmer the dough and/or the more leavening it contains, the faster it happens)
Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) produce lactic and acetic acids. If using a pre-ferment and a long fermentation, acidity is produced even in yeasted breads. Acidity strengthens the bonds of gluten. The colder the dough, the slower the production of acidity
Enzymes are at work: amylase converts starch to sugar and protease weakens the gluten. Enzymatic activity is less temperature-dependent and more time-dependent
These three phenomena are “happening in a dance together”

Enzymes

Amylase is activated in the presence of water and breaks down complex sugars to produce simple sugars that the yeast can feed on. Amylase activity is measured by the flour’s falling number (an information which is seldom to be found on the bags of flour available to home bakers). A high falling number (ex: 400) means that the flour is a slow mover and will be good for long-fermented doughs. A low falling number (ex: 250 or less) means that amylatic activity is high. Amylase brings a nutty flavor to the bread
Protease‘s role is to denature protein: it helps increase the extensibility of the dough by softening a strong gluten. Salt is a protease inhibitor and is good for a loose dough which it helps tighten
Using more pre-ferment or a riper pre-ferment to boost acidity will strengthen protein bonds. You can adjust the temperature of the pre-ferment to influence the level of acidity
Protease activity and amylase activity go hand in hand: they increase with time

Pre-ferments

When we use a pre-ferment, we are extending the time when the flour is wet, thus increasing enzymatic activity and acidity: we allow the amylase to break down more complex sugars into simple sugars that the yeast can feed on and the increased acidity counters the increased proteolytic activity (the weakening of the gluten by the protease)

Poolish (liquid pre-ferment): when it is ripe, its surface will dome and it’ll be bubbly. An upward “curl” will be visible at the edges. As it continues to ripen, the surface will become concave and sink in and it will show lines. The poolish is then at its prime
Biga (stiff pre-ferment): use a poke test. Use it when it feels the same as a fermented dough ready to shape or bake

Soakers

Whole-milled wheat yields a flour which contains much more active enzymes
Peter Reinhart‘s technique (epoxy method) when baking with whole wheat is to let the processes happen prior to the mixing by using a soaker
A soaker is basically a long autolyse: it allows for enzymatic activity in the absence of fermentation and acidity. The protease acts on the gluten and the amylase creates sugar which is not consumed by yeast since no yeast is present
In a nutshell, a soaker yields more sugar, uses more water and makes the dough weaker. If you suspect that the dough will be too weak, use salt in the soaker

Autolyse

Do an autolyse: the autolyse allows for full absorption of the water into the flour, facilitating the bonding of the protein molecules and the development of the gluten. It also jumpstarts enzymatic activity. At the bakery, Scott uses a modified autolyse, soaking flour and water overnight in the walk-in. Then in the morning he uses 15 or 20% of this autolyse in each mix without doing a new autolyse for each. He learned the technique from Jeff Yankellow who used it for Team USA 2000
Hydrate the autolyse at 70% (in regular baking, whole wheat would require a much higher hydration, maybe 85%, as it loves water)
Let the autolyse rest 20 minutes

Mixing

Add yeast, disperse in the mixer and let it incorporate for a few minutes before adding the salt (salt is a tenderizer and breaks down protein)
Periodically evaluate the development of the dough in the mixing bowl (windowpane test)
If the proteins are not strong enough, you will weaken the gluten if you continue mixing. Use more folds
Don’t mix too fast: it weakens the dough
Stiffer doughs generate more heat during mixing
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is a strengthener for weak doughs
Desired dough temperature for these tests is 75°F at the end of the mixing

Fermentation and proofing

The more time for fermentation, the more alcohol (and flavor) is produced: flavor results from a combination of sugar and alcohol. If the yeast consumes all the sugar, you’ll get a flatter-tasting loaf

Evaluating the dough

Scott is following the method devised by Cliff Leir of fol épi bakery in Victoria, BC, to evaluate the dough as it comes out of the mixer: he takes two ounces of each mix, forms small boules and leaves them to sit, covered, next to each other so that he can compare the rise to spread ratio of each and assess proteolytic activity (degree of gluten weakening by protease)
For each dough, after 30 minutes of bulk fermentation, check to see how quickly it is fermenting and how is the gluten handling the fermentation. Do a tug test: what is the dough’s resistance? Test elasticity: does the dough stand up or fall back down after being tugged (standing up is a predictor of good loaf volume)? Is the dough trapping gas? Stretch another gluten window and see how the gluten is holding up/developing. A good gluten window will be hard to break at that stage
After 45 minutes of bulk fermentation, check the dough again: how is it inflating? Do a poke test (as you would for a proof test), does the dough push back? If the dough holds your fingerprint, it could mean that the gluten is strong enough to hold down the rise; the gas produced by the yeast is being held tightly; there will be more pressure in the loaf and smaller holes in the crumb. Does the dough feel sticky or release water?

Note: The dough may be fermenting but could be releasing gas if it is porous (it happens when gas is escaping but you don’t see any holes in the surface of the dough). When it is time to shape, check to see if the dough is collapsing. If the proteins are breaking down, you will have small holes and a homogenous crumb.

Variables in fermentation and proofing

Rapid fermentation/slow proof: the yeast is running out of sugar. Next time, reduce the amount of leavening and use a soaker instead of a pre-ferment
Rapid fermentation/fast proof: enzymatic activity is high. Sometimes the dough will get wetter and softer. Next time you might want to decrease hydration. Do not use a soaker
Slow fermentation/slow proof: low amylase activity. Use both a pre-ferment and a soaker but decrease the amount of leavening in the pre-ferment to give yeast more time
Slow fermentation/fast proof: very rare. Sometimes it is a good thing, but if it isn’t, just don’t use that flour again

Compensating for flour deficiencies based on test results

If the flour contains a high percentage of protein, next time:

Do an autolyse
Under-mix (a web of gluten is a lot like thread count on a sheet: the less you mix, the fewer the connections between the strands)
Stretch and fold (more frequently)
Boost acidity by using a riper pre-ferment or more pre-ferment
Increase hydration
Bump up proteolytic activity by not salting the pre-ferment or soaker

If the quality of the gluten is poor, next time:

Reduce fermentation time
Increase leavening
Pre-ferment a greater portion of the flour
Bump up acidity: use pre-ferment when at or past its prime
Stiffen up the dough by decreasing hydration (but you’ll lose some flavor)
Don’t use a soaker

If dough is hyperactive, next time:

Decrease the amount of leavening in the pre-ferment
Decrease fermentation time

If poor rise and no color out of the oven, next time:

Give amylase more time (use a soaker)
Increase the quantity of pre-ferment (giving more time to amylitic activity)
Extend fermentation time (more folds), so that the amylase has more time to cleave the sugar off the starch

The results of the testing are mostly relevant to those of us who have access to the same flours as Scott. But just to give you an idea of the conclusions he was able to draw for himself in case he wanted to use these flours again, here is what he found:

Camas Red Fife: Seems fine for baking purposes. Add water. Use an unsalted soaker. Use a pre-ferment (small amount). Decrease the yeast and increase fermentation time
Renan: Increase hydration to make the dough softer. Increase the amount of sugar available to the yeast by using a soaker with salt and a pre-ferment
Hedlin Bauermeister: Slow it down by half, do more folds, bump up acidity by using a ripe pre-ferment and maybe use a soaker
Red Russian: Bump up acidity by using a ripe pre-ferment. Do not use a soaker

Such pointers are what we are looking to get out of these tests. Scott is encouraging: “It is a lot of information to wrap your head around but once you see the various adjustments that can be made, it is fairly straightforward.”
He adds: “We have years of work ahead of us here in Western Washington. We need to find wheats that are resistant to rust while looking for flavor and long fermentations. We have a miller but no storage capacity (such as the grain elevators in the Midwest). The miller could conceivably make a blend of local wheats but his mill isn’t equipped to mill white flour. Also, our customers do not buy lots of whole grain breads, so we cannot completely switch over. But we would still like to use local wheat, so we need to find a solution.”
Right now grain is mostly grown here as a rotation crop and sold to Asia as pastry wheat. Farmers usually lose money on it but it is good for the soil. If they could make money on grain, they could grow more. They would make more money off of the commodity market. As for the baker, he would get a better product than when he buys from the Midwest something that was milled last year and doesn’t offer good nutrition.
There are ways to make white flour more nutritious, for instance going for a higher extraction flour. Cliff Leir (who mills his own flour) soaks the wheat for a minimum of eight to ten hours, which softens the bran. When milled, the bran pops off in big flakes which builds up in a catch sifter and the whole aleurone layer and germ make it into the white flour.

Results of the test bake

Kneading Conference West 2012

Don’t you love it when you find yourself in a crowd of people and experience an overwhelming feeling of togetherness and belonging? I know I do although it doesn’t happen to me very often because outside immediate circles of intimacy, love and friendship, I am usually an outsider looking in. Having now lived in the United States for as long as I have lived in France, I am truly bicultural. In practical terms it means that due to the twin sets of references I carry in my head and heart, I never completely blend in on either side of the Atlantic. Truth be told, I cherish (and maybe nurture) this internal divide: exile is very much my country of choice and I have come to rather enjoy the exquisite ache of nostalgia and longing, especially in today’s connected world where the other side is only a click away.

Still I love to belong as much as the next person and at the Kneading Conference West, this year as last year, I found myself both part of a larger whole and at one with it. Loosely defined, the Conference (co-sponsored in part by the Bread Bakers Guild of America) is a gathering of bakers (both home bakers and professionals), millers, growers and brewers all interested in bringing local grains back to their communities. Last year we mostly talked about reviving cultures which had thrived in the Pacific Northwest since the nineteenth century before agribusiness decided it would be more profitable for these grains to be grown on a massive scale in the Midwest. This year, we discussed moving forward and finding ways to sustain the renaissance of local grains overtime, be it wheat, barley, rye or spelt, to name only a few.

Having grown up on local food (my grandparents grew, raised and foraged for a large part of what we ate, not to mention the hunting for small game that went on in the fall in the nearby woods), I have a deep respect for terroir and man’s connection to the land and I love it that there is a movement afoot in America away from industrial and processed food. I still remember my shock when we moved to New York in 1979 and I first saw baguettes at the supermarket. I picked one up from the bin where it stood, wrapped in plastic, among several other pale companions, I lifted it out. To my surprise and consternation, it bowed deeply forward and remained that way all the way home. Due to the then-prevalent preference for overmixing and fast fermentations, bread was generally mediocre in France at the time we moved, so it isn’t as if I had left behind a continent of fragrant and crusty loaves. Still I had never seen such pliable bread and it was depressing. It took many years, the publication of Nancy Silverton’s Breads of the La Bread Bakery and my discovery of levain before we had baguettes on the table again on a regular basis.

So the local theme is one which resonates with me but it wasn’t until keynotes speakers Andrew Whitley of Bread Matters and Naomi Duguid, co-author (among many other books) of Flatbreads & Flavors: A Baker’s Atlas – a book I own since 1997 and still always open with a sense of wonder – started talking about their experiences that it all coalesced in my mind. Nancy Silverton and many other talented bakers after her taught us traditional French methods of bread-baking focusing on gentle mixing and long fermentations. Such baking is mostly based on a type of flour that offers reasonably consistent results because it comes from a blend of grains chosen for their baking properties, that is to say commercial white flour.

If we want to use more local grains (and we do or we wouldn’t have been attending the Conference), we must accept the fact that our bread may not turn out exactly the same day after day. To get as close as possible to the crumb and crust we like, we need to learn how to compensate for the variability built in local wheat. The good news, as Scott Mangold cheerfully put it during his excellent workshop on test baking local whole wheat flours, is that, in the process, we will become better bakers. But growing to love the taste and texture of these local breads as much as those of the white baguette we may still hold as a gold standard will require keeping an open mind and educating both ourselves, our families and our friends (in the case of the home baker) and our customers (in case of the professional baker). As we slowly incorporate more local whole grains into our baking, the payoff will be huge however in terms of flavor, diversity, nutrition and the environment.

The way I suddenly understood it, our new role, as bakers, is to build upon our knowledge of traditional French bread-baking to help strengthen and sustain our communities here in America. What could possibly induce a deeper sense of finally belonging in this French woman who emigrated from her native Paris years and years ago and now bakes in the Pacific Northwest?

Of course I am lucky to live in a part of the country where (although much remains to be done), grains are already being grown, milled and made accessible to local bakers and brewers. If such is not the case where you live but you have access to a spot where you can grow what you like, you may want to read Growing Small Grains in Your Garden by Bob Van Veldhuizen. “A summation of many years of agronomic research into growing grains in Alaska scaled down to the typical home garden,” it might give you some ideas on ways to get your family to kick off the white flour habit, even if you only have a balcony and your crop yields one tiny loaf… Should you decide to embark on that particular project, you may also want to read William Alexander’s 52 Loaves, the lively account of a home grower/miller/baker’s odyssey.

This year as last year, the Conference took place on the charmingly bucolic grounds of Western Washington State University Mount Vernon Research and Extension Center. Chaired by Stephen Jones, the Center’s Director, it offered many different lectures, classes and workshops, not to mention evening tastings of local beers and ciders and, on the very last afternoon, a tour of the Hedlin Family Farm, BreadFarm Bakery and Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill. I didn’t do the tour but I took as many classes and attended as many lectures as possible and I will report here on what I saw and heard. So please stay tuned!

Related Farine posts:
Andrew Whitley: Bread Matters (keynote address)
Naomi Duguid: Bread Over Time (keynote address)
Kneading Conference West 2011
Scott Mangold: Test Baking with Local Wheats for Home and Bakery
Finnish Barley Bread (ohrarieska) (a Naomi Duguid recipe)

Other related posts:
By breadsong : Kneading Conference West – Day 1, Day 2 & Day 3
By Floyd Mann (The Fresh Loaf): Kneading Conference West – Part 1 & Part 2
By Naomi Duguid: Notes from the Skagit Valley
By Rhona McAdam: Kneading with a k
By Teresa Greenway: Kneading Conference West – Part 1 & Part 2

After I throw in a couple of flatbread and cracker recipes, not to mention the formula for the powerfully seductive barley-cheese-and-aged cheddar bread baked at the Conference by Andrew Ross from a British recipe adapted by Hannah Warren, my hope is that you too will want to answer Naomi Duguid’s call to bakers: “Go back to your home or bakery and add at least two products than contain whole grains to your repertoire as well as at least one item made largely with a grain other than wheat”… It may not sound like much but if we all do it and buy our grain locally, seeds of change will germinate in our communities and grow to make a real difference.

A Toronto Baker Discovers French Boulangeries

David Aplin, co-owner of Cliffside Hearth Bread Company with Camelia Proulx, his wife and business partner, recently sent me this lively (and deliciously vivid) account of his tour of French bakeries during a summer trip to France with his family. I so enjoyed reading it that I asked him if I could post the story. He kindly agreed and even sent me some pictures.
I have yet to meet David and his wife or to taste their bread but, as he recently wrote on facebook, he bakes “with wild yeast and love” and the ingredients listed on the bakery’s homepage (flour, whole grains, water and salt) are so straightforward that I am already hugely interested. If I ever make it to Toronto and if David and Camelia don’t mind a visit from a nosy bread blogger, Cliffside Hearth Bread Company will be at the top of my list!

Ze miche

Boulangeries, boulangeries and more boulangeries:
A Baker’s Vacation

My wife and son and I just returned from our first trip to France.
It was supposed to be a vacation, but we combined pleasure with business and visited as many boulangeries as was possible.
France in general was a lot of fun, but specifically it was a real eye opener to visit the bakeries. There were as many differences between them as there were similarities.
At each stop we tried to purchase at least a baguette traditionelle, a pain aux céréales, and some sort of méteil or seigle as we are rye bread lovers. We realized that almost every boulangerie had an outstanding looking pâtisserie display so added to the bread purchases were various tartes: lemon, apple, raspberry, etc.
We stayed on Rue Chapon and Boulangerie Julien was less than three minutes away, however it being August they were closed. Many people told us not to visit Paris or France during August as “everything is closed”, however as we are also bakery owners it was the only time for us to consider a visit. Yes, there were many places closed, but we had no trouble at all finding places that were open.
Besides making the obligatory pilgrimage Chez Poilâne on Rue du Cherche-Midi, we checked out Maison Kayser, Dominique Saibron and many places whose names I forget. We also visited some of the boulangeries under the Banette moniker, franchise places with very average offerings.
At the more prestigious places it was hit and miss. Chez Kayser, brand maintenance was obvious, bread suffered. Saibron was simply outstanding, beat Kayser hands down. Poilâne was excellent, what I expected, we lived on that miche for the rest of the day as we hiked around Paris.
We passed a Paul shop but didn’t go in…the line was too long! The bakers were out at the side having a smoke break. I peered inside and saw the wonderful sight of an Artofex mixer full of dough, set on first gear and slowly turning, the arms gently lifting and folding the wet dough. A sight I will never forget.
There were some unexpected surprises too, we bought an amazing pain aux céréales from a Bio-Marché supermarket, it was cut from a giant sized loaf the size of a small car. We asked the counter girl who supplied them with their bread, but between our lack of French and her lack of enthusiasm we never found out.
There was also a tiny place on the Ile beyond the Notre-Dame cathedral. An old baker wearing a blue and white striped cardigan and looking every bit the typical Frenchman had baguettes traditionnelles that were flat and curved, not much to look at, but amazing flavour and texture.

We left Paris after only four days, I could spend a decade wandering the streets and visiting different boulangeries.

Le Pont du Gard

We went south to Avignon and stayed at a mas in the country outside Chateaurenard. From there we made day trips to various places, again with varying degrees of success. There was a good place in Chateaurenard called Festival des Pains, good baguette and a pain aux céréales cut like a ciabatta, almost a meter in length. In Rognonas we found two places both with very good baguettes traditionelles.

In Rognonas

However, the best boulangerie we had the pleasure of visiting was Le Farinoman Fou in Aix-de-Provence. A very impressive bakery. Bread only, no pâtisserie of any kind, no drinks or coffee, no bread slicer…just like our place: A temple of bread.

At the Farinoman’s

We left with a bag of stuff, two “Olympic”-sized baguettes, a demi-miche, a pain aux céréales and a seigle. The baguettes were devoured in a few short minutes as we browsed the weekly marché nearby, we went back and bought two more.
Crispy and chewy, these were baguettes on another level. The flavors were incomparable and nuanced: dried fruit, honey, roasted grains, mild fruit acidity. Simply outstanding.
The shop is very small, perhaps less than 500 sq. feet. Our place is 740 sq. feet and we’re always moaning about how small it is, but Farinoman (as most other french bakeries) is tiny. Small in size but big in quality and flavour, as I said the breads were outstanding, falling in that delicious zone between light and heavy, everything had a good crust but the crumb structure on all of the breads was…voluptuous, chewy but not in the Poilane style at all.

***

Don’t you wish you could drop everything and hop on a plane? I sure do… Thanks, David!

100% Whole Grain Spelt & Kamut Pavés

Maybe because it is summer and I bake constantly to feed my family, I find I have become a minimalist when it comes to bread: I like doughs that require minimum intervention on my part (an autolyse and a few folds and they are on their way) and yield loaves that bring smiles to everyone’s face while providing good nutrition (the more whole grains the better). These pavés (pavé is French for cobblestone) satisfy on all counts.
The inspiration came from a facebook post by French SHB Thierry Delabre who created a half-kamut and half-spelt bread he called a “fanette”. Thierry used a firm levain, hydrated the dough at 75% and retarded it for 16 hours at 43° F/6° C. The result (which I wish I could show you but the pictures are on facebook, not on the web) was a beautifully golden rustic loaf.
I had freshly stoneground whole kamut flour which I had bought across the river in Ontario the day before and I had a bag of Quebec spelt grains I could mill but I was all out of mature firm levain and I couldn’t go beyond eight hours’ total fermentation time as we needed bread for dinner: there have been six of us here at camp in upstate New York for the past ten days and I don’t believe I have ever seen such bread eaters as these three little kids – one seven-year old and five-year old twins. I bake and bake and barely keep up. Whenever they are hungry, bread is the first thing they ask for, quite often with no adornment, not even butter, like true bread purists! It keeps me pretty busy but I love knowing that the taste of bread is being passed down to their generation.
Plus they see me mix dough everyday, usually when they are having breakfast. Maybe one day when they are all grown-up and crave honest bread, they’ll remember that all it takes is a big bowl and two hands and they’ll want to learn how to make their own. One can only hope, right?
I didn’t have a working firm levain but I had plenty of the liquid variety and it smelled so good I had to bake with it or I would be tempted to eat it with a spoon (just kidding!). To come back to the kids (and I promise I won’t mention them again in this post), another thing that goes straight to my baker’s heart is that they all three love the fragrance of levain and breathe it in with relish whenever they have a chance (they say it smells like bread!). Ok, so enough with the grand-kids and on to the dough.
I decided to borrow Thierry’s idea and go for a 100% whole-grain loaf that would be 50% spelt and 50% kamut but I would use liquid levain and I would up the hydration a bit. Like him, I would do one post-fermentation fold in lieu of pre-shaping and cut the folded dough into rectangles without further shaping (hence the pavé shape). Unlike Thierry – whose dough had a different consistency – I wouldn’t score.
The bread came out seductively “moëlleux” (a French word I always have trouble translating: it means “mellow”, “tender”, “cushy” and “smooth” at the same time -it can also mean “sweet” when applied to wine- and I don’t think there is an exact equivalent in English) and yet it is the word that comes irresistibly to my mind when I think about kamut. Spelt tends to be a bit drier in the mouth but it is sweet and fragrant in its own right and combined, the two grains conjure up the scent and taste of summer itself, sun-baked fields and all. These pavés may not be much to look at: I lack couches here at camp, so they spread a bit as they proofed, especially because both kamut and spelt are low in gluten, but they do pack a wallop in the mouth.

Ingredients: (all organic)

493 g whole kamut flour
493 g freshly-milled whole spelt flour
749 g water
295 g mature wheat levain at 100% hydration
18 g salt

Method: (hand-mixed)

Mix both flours with all the water until no dry flour remains and let rest, covered, 20 to 40 minutes
Add the levain and mix until incorporated
Add the salt
Cover the dough and let it rest, doing as many folds as necessary to obtain medium soft consistency
When the dough is ready (it took about seven hours at my house with folds every thirty minutes for the first two hours but then the outside temperature was otherworldly hot and we had the A/C on all day), transfer it out of the bowl on a floured surface and fold it once over itself length-wise forming a long rectangle (no overlapping)
Pre-heat the oven to 470°
Using a wet dough scraper, cut the dough into four even pieces
Transfer the pieces to baking sheets lined with parchment paper (heavily dusted with semolina) (as mentioned before, I have no couches here, hence the paper, but if you can, it would be better to proof the pavés upside down on heavily floured couches, turning them right side up prior to baking)
Cover and let rest for 30 to 45 minutes
Bake with steam in pre-heated oven (470°F/243°C for 10 minutes then lower the oven temperature to 450°F/232°C and continue baking for another 20 to 25 minutes, turning the loaves half-way through to ensure even baking (again these temperatures are given solely as an indication. Here at camp, the oven is small, very old and rather weak and I have to crank it up to the max. I actually set it on 500°F+ for the initial 10 minutes and on 470°F for the remaining 20 minutes or so but, from past experience with my regular home oven, I would say 470° F and 450°F should do the trick. If your oven is very efficient however, these temperatures might need to be adjusted down)
Cool on a rack
Enjoy!

The Whole Spelt & Kamut Pavés go to Susan from Wild Yeast for this week’s issue of Yeastspotting.

Gérard Rubaud’s Apprentice Loaf

The Apprentice Loaf is Gérard Rubaud‘s teaching bread. He has developed the formula in collaboration with two of his former apprentices, Trenton and Justin, largely in response to customers’ request for more whole grains. It is still a work in progress (what isn’t with Gérard anyway?): his parting recommendation to me when I left was to adjust the hydration down.
The picture above is of one of the loaves I made at home based on the formula. Gérard wouldn’t have given it his quality control stamp as he doesn’t do grignes (the ears in the crust): his customers eat his bread mostly for breakfast and in sandwiches and grignes get in the way. Plus he himself doesn’t like the hard bite or the concentrated taste. So he always scores his bread shallowly and at a sharp angle. I am the opposite: I adore anything crusty: grignes, quignons (bread endings), etc. Since my only “customers” are family and friends, there is enough of both textures in any given loaf to satisfy everybody!
To my mortification, I forgot to take a picture of the loaves Justin kindly gave me for my grandchildren (they were not to be sold and he had enough for himself and his friends). When I reached my daughter’s house, the kids -who are huge bread fans- were so happy to see my load of loaves (and hopefully me as well) that I forgot all about photography! When I remembered the day after, there was still a half-loaf left and I took this shot of the crumb.

Neither Justin nor Gérard were satisfied with this batch: the loaves were overhydrated and as you can see, they didn’t get enough of an oven rise. I used a tad less water and my crumb came out a bit tight (see shot below).

I’ll keep working on it until I get it right. Meanwhile my little grandkids pronounced my loaves to be even better than the apprentice’s (Sorry, Justin! They are seven- and five year-old and a fiercely loyal bunch. I am sure that if they had met you, they would have said both our breads were equally good.). As it is, the seven-year old granddaughter said: “Wow! This is so good. The best bread ever. As good as an artichoke!”. Since artichokes are her favorite food in the world, I consider it a huge compliment.
And truly the bread is good. Spelt tastes endearingly sweet almost as if a dollop of fragrant honey had been added to the dough during the mixing, a practice which Gérard (who despises adding to bread dough anything but the -very- occasional walnut, olive or flax seed) definitely wouldn’t condone.
Gérard’s Apprentice Loaf Formula

76% unbleached all-purpose flour
24% freshly milled whole spelt
82% water (to be adjusted as needed)
2 to 2.6% salt (according to taste)
17% levain at 58% hydration (percentage to be increased in the winter as needed)

My adaptation of the formula

Ingredients: (for four loaves scaled raw at 627 g)

1028 g unbleached all-purpose flour
252 g whole spelt (I used freshly milled as does Gérard)
972 g water (Gérard uses all of the water for the autolyse but I like to reserve about 50 g in order to adjust the hydration later as needed. So I used about 900 g+ for the autolyse and added the rest as I mixed. This may vary each time I make the bread as it depends on the flours, the weather, the temperature, etc.)
31 g salt
253 g mature levain at 58% hydration

Method: (this dough was mixed by hand)

Mix both flours with the water until the flour is completely hydrated and let rest, covered, for about 40 minutes
Add levain to the autolysed dough and hand mix until incorporated (Gérard recommends pulling long filaments off the levain instead of cutting off chunks as they incorporate much more easily. Not only did I follow his recommendation but I placed these long pieces of levain on top of the dough during the autolyse, so that everything would be exactly at the same temperature. It worked beautifully but I got a surprise: the dough actually swelled up as it usually never does in the absence of a leavening agent and I can only think that some of the wild yeasts from the levain transferred to it even without mixing. Which means that it wasn’t a real autolyse…)
Add the salt
Mix until incorporated and adjust the hydration as needed
Cover and leave to ferment for 4 to 6 hours or more (depending on room temperature), giving the dough a few folds as needed
Scale at 627 g and pre-shape as a boule
Let rest, covered, for 20 to 30 minutes (again depending on room temperature)
Shape as a batard
Let proof about one hour or until the dough stops bouncing back under the gentle pressure of two fingers
Bake with steam in pre-heated oven (470°F/243°C for 10 minutes then lower the oven temperature to 450°F/232°C and continue baking for another 20 to 25 minutes, turning the loaves half-way through to ensure even baking (again these temperatures are given solely as an indication. I am spending the summer in a little cabin where the oven is small, very old and rather weak and I have to crank it up to the max to get a rise out of my bread. I actually set it on 500°F+ for the initial 10 minutes and on 470°F for the remaining 20 minutes or so but, from past experience with my regular home oven, I would say 470° F and 450°F should do the trick. If your oven is very efficient however, these temperatures might need to be adjusted down).
Cool on a rack.
Enjoy!

Gérard Rubaud’s Apprentice Loaf is going to Susan from Wild Yeast for her weekly edition of Yeastspotting.

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