Pan Poilane

[janprimus]

I was very inspired by Peter Reinharts book the Bread Bakers Apprentice. His thoughtful writing style and obvious passion for his craft are inspiring. I experimented this weekend and made my very own Pan Poilane. Poilane himself calls it a miche, but the rest of the breadbakers in Paris call it Pan Poilane since it is such a distinctive bread. It involves a long fermentation and it came out just wonderfully. Not quite as much rise as I had hoped for, but this was the first bread I have baked in a few years. I got about a 3.5 inch rise out of a 16 inch round loaf, not bad. I did this in my home oven which is an Imperial commercial kitchen oven with a large pizza stone, not a baker. I am so looking forward to having my outdoor oven... Anyway, the crust was fantastic. I had a pan Poilane last summmer when I was in Paris and this is not it, but it is so much closer than anything else I can get around here even with the artisinal bread boom we are enjoying. Is bread really catching on around the country like it is here? We must have 4 or 5 places just in our county that are producing truly great bread. It is fun to see and greater to experience. Last week I had a baguette with moroccan oil cured olives mixed in. The crumb was awesome, lots of huge holes and a very tender crumb with grand cruncy crust.
Get out there and bake something.

FYI, that is my son Oscars head behind the bread. He is 10.

[Fabio Allodoli]

Hello just visiting the latest posts and notice you e-mail about the bread. I love bread and you are teasing me. I did not see a recipe fro the bread. Just kidding but if you don't mind sharing the recipe I would love to have it. My name is Fabio and I am in the process of building anoutdoor oven, kitchen. The process is a long one right now since I am unable to do much work on the unit since I hurt myself at work, my son is doing most of the work with my supervision. I am from Florence Italy and I am getting ready to write to my cousin in Florence for the recipe of the famous Pane Di-prato, she and her husband owned some delie's in Florence and dealt various vendors, hopefully she'll be able to get me some other recipe's as well. The pan Di-Prato bread, looks much like the picture you have, and it used to be very tall as far as thickness and color. Any way keep in touch and if you can share the recipe that would be great. As soon as I hear back from my cousin, I'll post some of the recipe's, and picturtes of my project.

Thank you.

Fabio.

[janprimus]

Poilane's Bread

Recipe By :Bernard Clayton's book on French Breads
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Bread-Bakers Mailing List Breads
Hand Made Sourdough Breads


Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon powdered milk
1 package yeast
---
2 cups warm water
3 cups bread flour
---
flour
salt

The procedure is to make a starter three days ahead by mixing
one cup of whole wheat flour, one cup of warm water, one
tablespoon of powdered milk, and one packet of yeast. This is
allowed to sit, covered in a warm place for 24 hours. Then
two cups of warm water and three cups of regular or bread flour are mixed
in and this is allowed to sit for 24 hours. The final day you add the
final flour and salt to make the bread.

I would think this approach could work for a lot of bread
making to make it more in the sourdough style. I have found
surprisingly different tastes by using different company's
whole wheat flour. My favorite is Gold Medal. I have varied
this recipe by using honey instead of powdered milk for a
friend with severe lactose intolerance. I even, on occasion,
added some rye flour at different stages, both for variation and
to come closer to the actual bread made by Poilane, who has his
own special wheat raised for his bread.

From Socko47@aol.com
Stolen from http://www.bread-bakers.com recipe archive.

[janprimus]

I also found the Poilane website and they will ship one of their miches to you here in the states for only 36 Euros. Only...