A Pain Rustique Variation

Posting about this particular loaf has been a PITA in that twice my  pictures made the transition from the Picassa blog link to the posted page but the text didn't. When your typing style is hunt and peck, that's frustrating. I have to find a work around that's faster than what I've done so far.

The loaf is only adequate because I didn't follow the proper procedures from the recipe in J Hamelman's "Bread". I plead guilty to over thinking on this loaf. Shaping was supposed to be minimal, almost like a ciabatta loaf. Proofing, according to the directions, is a brief 45 minutes at room temperature. I used a retarded proofing and probably didn't help my cause.

Here are the ingredients and some notes on the procedures. I see potential but I'll have to find it in the "do over" loaf.

Poolish
70g bread flour
90g white whole flour
40g rye flour
200g water at 85F
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp active dry yeast
If using ADY , hydrate it in the water before mixing the ingredients. After mixing, cover the poolish and rest at room temperature for 12-14 hours.

Soaker
40g wheat germ
40g water at room temperature.
Start soaker about 6 hours after the poolish is mixed and leave at room temperature.

Dough
200g bread flour
70g water at 85F
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp kosher salt. Total weight of salt for the loaf is 7g.
All of poolish
All of soaker

Cucumbers have finally started showing up on my vines. They are a tangled mess even though I'm trying to use a trellis type system to support them. They won't need any more fertilizer for a while. The garlic isn't quite ready yet. I've dug up a few and they are still on the small side. All my peppers are starting to show fruit with the jalopeno plant being the first to deliver the goods. All my time spent staring at the tomato plants hasn't moved matters along there. I do, however, expect to have some ripe tomatoes by 4 July. A farm located by the Lawrence, KS airport is delivering its first pickings from the sweet corn crop today. A truck farmer at the local Farmers' Market has predicted that he'll have sweet corn, the "Temptation" variety, for Wednesday's market.

For me, fresh sweet corn says "Summer in Kansas" more than watermelon or a cold beer after mowing the lawn. Not that there's anything wrong with watermelon or cold beer but I can get both of those all year long. Fresh, local sweet corn is special.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.