Hi All,
You may have noticed that lately I'm trying to teach myself how to bake fairly complex breads that I've yet to tackle. I'm posting this one because it was so damn good and took some extra work to get right. For those who may not be aware, Poilane is a very famous bread baker in Paris who's known for his large, 4lb. miche made with a specific cleared whole wheat flour (www.poilane.com). I used Reinhart's Poilane formula. I acquired some very high quality, high protein (12-14%) hard red winter flour (www.bluebirdgrainfarms.com) containing all of the wheat berry components (germ, bran & endosperm) and sifted it to just keep a small percentage of the bran and germ. I baked it in a cast iron dutch oven, as Chef B. demonstrates in his sourdough loaf video.
The result - very unique and extremely complex flavors. A fairly dense crumb, complex wheat flavors followed by a nice sourdough tang. The crust has strong coffee and caramel-like flavors and there are crunchy and chewy textures. I baked 2.5 lb and 1.5 lb. boules. I've no doubt that my result is not even close to Poilane's, but I'm happy even if it only shares some of the flavor and texture qualities.
Note: I should mention that Poilane's boule is a flatter loaf, spread out more. I could have tried to replicate this original shape by proofing in a different bowl, scoring differently and baking directly on the hearth.
