Meteorites

It’s October and time to visit Farine. BYOB chooses Farine as the Featured Blog of this month. I love to have a look around the blog of MC; she visits mills and bakeries, talks with the bakers and millers, shares her knowledge and back home she bakes the bread herself. And now we can bake along with MC.

Because she has a lot of great looking breads it was hard to choose and I just went for the title: the Meteorite. The photo showed a kind of rocklike bread. It looks tempting. MC uses mostly organic flours and loves to mill her own. Of course we can find organic flour and mill our own. But our budget doesn’t allow it yet. Maybe when our pensions come? We are happy we found unbleached flour and the difference is indescribable. I will write more on another occasion. So, I will use what’s available.

As you can see we had two impacts of meteorites. The first impact was on a rainy day. It’s still rainy season and normally I go with the (weather) flow. I feel I have to, because living in tropical Thailand means 4 months of hot weather, 4 months of rainy weather and 4 months we call winter. Thai winter means the hot weather starts at 10.00 am instead of 08.00 am. We love Thai weather and this is the only place I have baked bread. Normally my loaves turn out pretty ok in this weather. But this time I over proofed the loaf. The taste was good, but the crumb was too tight and it looked more like a comet. Like most people I like to show the most beautiful loaf I baked, but today I also show the other one.  

the Comet

I couldn’t leave it like this, MC deserves nice looking bread, and I needed to bake another meteorite. Tonight I will prepare the firm starter with a little bit of salt to delay the process due to hot temperature and tomorrow it’s time for another meteorite.

The second meteorite turned out much better. The meteorite is 100% hydration bread. Did you ever make a loaf with 100% hydration?! I didn’t. At first it looks like thick pancake batter, but with a lot of faith and many more stretches and folds it began to look like bread dough. I decided to use my ceramic pot because I didn’t want another comet. It was a good decision, the hot pot gave the extra help to the dough and it looked like a rock. The other help came from the extra flour preventing it sticking to all that came in it's orbit. 

Thank you MC for this recipe; we loved the flavor of the loaf. I always thought ciabatta is the most difficult bread to bake because of the high hydration, but then you showed me the Meteorite. There’s always room for improvement and something to learn, that’s also why I love baking bread.

Don’t forget to visit MC’s Blog Farine; there’s a lot to enjoy and learn over there.

Specifics
Name                               Meteorite
Adapted from                    Farine’s Hubert of Moulin de la Rémy
Yields                               1 loaf
Dough temp.                     24°C
Levain build                      8 - 12 hours
Mixing                               4 – 6 minutes
Autolyse                            20 minutes
Fermentation                     1 hour
Stretch/Fold                      as many as you need
Shape                               none
Proof at roomtemp.            30 minutes
Prepare steam/bake           1 hour
Bake 230°C                        40 - 45 minutes

This is what I used:
Bakers formula                  %        grams
Unbleached flour                100     500

Water                               100     500
Salt                                   2.1     10.5

Stiff Levain                      grams
Unbleached flour               95

Whole Wheat                    5
Water                               75
Salt                                  pinch
Mature Culture                   15

Final Dough
Bread flour                       500
Water                              500
Salt                                 10.5   
Stiff Levain                       60

This is what I did:

Stiff Levain:  the evening before (8 - 12 hours) I mixed the ingredients for the levain. I left it in a plastic container with a lid for the night in my kitchen.

Baking day:
The final dough: I added flour, yeast and water in the mixing bowl of a spiral mixer and mixed until all was well combined. After 20 minutes I added the levain and mixed it. Then I added the salt and left to rest for 15 minutes.

I mixed it briefly and left it another 15 minutes. Because of the ‘batter-soup’ I did this again.

Bulk Fermentation: transfer the dough to a slightly oiled container, cover and leave for 1 hour. Stretch and fold the dough as many times as you think is enough. I think I gave it 5 times.

Shaping: I place the dough on the floured work counter and left it to rest for 15 minutes.
Transfer the dough to a floured linen couche, covered with a plastic bag.

Pre heating: I pre heated the oven to the maximum and placed the ceramic pot on the baking stone.

Proofing: I proofed the loaf for 30 minutes.

Preparing and Baking: When the oven is hot enough I very gently placed the dough in the sizzling hot ceramic pot. Closed the lid and closed the oven door. 

I baked the loaf 15 minutes with lid and then quickly removed the lid from the pot. I baked the loaf for another 30 minutes until nicely brown colored.

Cooling: Let the loaf cool completely on a wire rack.

I send this to Susan’s YeastSpotting and to Bake Your Own Bread

What did you bake this month? Don’t forget to show it!