BBA Challenge #22, Pain de Campagne, and BBA Challenge #23, Pane Siciliano

Installment number eight on my year of baking my way through Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. One French bread and one Italian bread.

BBA Challenge #22, Pain de Campagne

Pain de Campagne is French "country bread." The recipe for Pain de Campagne also typically contains a small amount of whole grain (wheat, rye, or cornmeal) flour. It can be shaped into roles, epis, boules, batards, etc. and is baked in an oven on a stone and with a steam pan. In the book, Peter Reinhart, says he learned the formula for this recipe from Professor Raymond Calvel in France. This is the same professor with whom Julia Child consulted for her bread chapter in her second volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. 

This bread requires a pate fermentée, which is a pre-ferment made up to three days before you make the bread. It's a smaller piece of dough which is allowed to develop flavor over time. It's made from flour, salt, yeast, and water, allowed to rise, and then refrigerated. 

I shaped my dough into one big boule and let it rise in a brotform. (You can also use a well-floured cloth-lined deep bowl to proof the bread if you choose to make a boule.) Then, I cooked it in a preheated cast iron combo cooker turned upside down. I removed the hot pan from the oven, dumped the bread into the frying pan, slashed it, covered it with the deeper pan, and put the whole thing in the oven. After twenty minutes, I removed the larger pan and continue to bake the bread. This captures the moisture from the dough to create a steam oven without the steam pan. 

When I removed the bread, the thin, crispy crust crackled and "sang." 

Would I make again? Yes

Google BBA Challenge #22 for other bakers' experiences.

BBA Challenge #23, Pane Siciliano

This bread requires three days to make:

• Day 1: Making the pate fermentee.
• Day 2: Building the dough, shaping the loaves, and refrigerating overnight. 
• Day 3: Proofing and baking.

This bread contains 40% semolina flour, which is a grainy yellow high-protein wheat that has a really nice, sort of nutty flavor. The finished loaves are supposed to be shaped like an S. I'll need to work on my shaping skills. The recipe calls for three loaves, but I made two larger loaves. 

I sprinkled toasted sesame seeds on one loaf, and black sesame seeds on the other. 

Would I make this bread again? Definitely. 

Google BBA Challenge #23 to see other bloggers' experiences. 

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