Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Pain a l'Ancienne

A few simple ingredients: bread flour, salt, yeast, ice water & cornmeal for dusting...
Ingredients combined & mixed by machine for 6 minutes on medium speed...I was expecting a much more wet dough as the book suggests...but the end result was sticky - yet dense & firm...Into the fridge to retard overnight...
The next morning - taken out of the fridge to dechill for a few hours...
Three hours later...
Ready to shape...
Lots of flour...
Rectangle...
Cut in half...
Then one of the halves cut into three...scored & into a 550'degree oven with steam pan in place for hearth style baking...
The result: beautiful!
Golden & light...
Crisp & airy...
I had to bend one of the bagettes because it was falling off the side of the pan...
The inside was moist & the outside very crunchy...
A wonderful bread to "mop up" flavors of sauce from pasta or just plain olive oil & balsamic & olives...
I decided to use the other half of the dough for foccacia...carmelizing onions...
Golden brown...
Prepping the pan...
Toppings of olives, carmelized onions, goat cheese, provolone cheese & garlic olive oil...Then proofed at room temperature for only 30 minutes...the book states to proof for 2-3 hours...but I just wanted to see what happened...if it became more like pizza or a flatbread...or actually foccacia...
Beautiful! Baked at 500'degrees for a couple minutes & then turned down to 475'degrees for an additional 15 minutes...
The crust was unbelievable! So golden & crisp!
YUM~!
Here is a slice from the inner pan - the bottom crust was light & the dough very airy & held the toppings well...I would say it turned out most like a deep dish pizza crust with a softer foccacia-style bread in the middle...

I will definitely be making this bread again...it was wonderful...the actual flavor of the bread was a bit lacking...but I think the texture & crumb made up for it...

2 comments:

  1. That focaccia had me drooling over the keyboard!

    Wonderful!

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  2. What a creative solution to shape the dough into a C since it wouldn't fit. Reminded me of Susie, but using a different letter. I also thought this was a fantastic bread. It still amazed me that the crust was so crisp on this one and the inside had an amazing chewy texture.

    Your pizza looks fantastic.

    PS Nice polish colour!!

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