Pagnotta at Baker D. Chirico, Melbourne

You were the one who recommended me to go visit Baker D. Chirico!   

No, I did not meet Daniel Chirico.  I don't normally bother with anybody during my trip.   I was delightfully surprised to see bags and bags of Laucke unbleached bakers flour sitting in a corner of their small but very lovely bakery.   So, [b]that[/b]'s the white flour they use!   I maintain that choice of flour is very important for artisan baking.  Not all flour is good enough.   

You asked if I'd gathered any tips on anything they do to produce the crumb.  I often think that there is little secret in any trade or craft.  I do not know exactly how or what they use to produce the lovely Pagnotta, but other procedures that we already know about, through the net, produce different but equally lovely (or close to equally lovely) results.

Do you remember the Poilane procedure which uses pate fermente?  After I did Gerard Rubaud’s miche, MC took my photos and showed them to Gerard.  She came back with a valuable comment from Gerard.  He said that if I put salt into the levain at the first couple of stages of elaboration (as he does, which I overlook), it will slow down the speed of fermentation and, in the process, different acids and flavour compounds will develop.  So, that’s what I have been doing lately – Poilane + Gerard Rubaud.  The result has been amazing.  Even in a simple white bread, the flavour is deep.  I make sure that there is some whole grain flour in it, be it Teff, Buckwheat, or Spelt flour, not just Rye and Wholemeal flour, up to 15% but no more than 30%.  

I have no doubt the bread that comes out of your oven is as good as most bread in any bakery.

Shiao-Ping

I visited [b]Brioche by Philip[/b] of Philip Chiang at 208 Commercial Road, Prahran.  Their sourdough baguette has been chosen as the best sourdough baguette in [b][i]the foodies’ guide to Melbourne, 2010[/i][/b].  As I was leaving, I saw a newspaper clipping pasted on their glass door, true to Chinese style, about “the best five sourdough bakeries in Melbourne” of which they are one.  (I can’t exactly remember the article title or which newspaper or, indeed, which date.)  I looked down the list and there was only one that was not on my list to visit.  Again, I can’t exactly remember but I think those five were:  Dench, Baker D Chirico, Brioche by Philip, Phillipa’s, and Irrewarra.  At the time, I didn’t bother to check the credentials of the article because I think these things are subjective at best.  You mentioned Noisette.   I do like Noisette; and I like Il Fornaio, too.

I was looking at my [i]the foodies' guide to Melbourne, 2010[/i], and on page 11, it lists the ingredients of Baker D. Chirico's Pagnotta.  They are unbleached white, wholemeal, rye and spelt (same as for Gerard Rubaud's miche).  They are biodynamic stone-ground flours.

I love your “king, queen, and the whole [color=red]damned[/color] empire” comment.  Quite right.  I am currently reading European history.   

You said you “would LOVE to achieve a crumb as spectacular as the Chirico ones” that I photographed.  Do you often photograph?  Asians often do, and I am one of them.  I am constantly amazed how photographs make something look better than it actually is.  (That goes with all my home baking that I show on the net.)  I often wonder why home breads taste better than bakery breads.  I think we home bakers have one advantage and that is our bread is consumed at the most optimal time.  Have you ever had one bad teppanyaki?   When the ingredients are fresh, and are freshly cooked, how can they be bad?

I can’t remember in which post I talked about aleurone; maybe it’s in my Poilane post. It’s a shame that it is a very long-winded post.  You have to cut through the crap to get a good point.  Aleurone is something home bakers don’t look into, but the pros are serious about.  The vitamin- and mineral-rich aleurone layer is also the main source of flavour compounds.  That is why it is good to add a small portion of good stoneground wholemeal flour, or other whole grain flours.       

On a separate note, when I was having Pagnotta, you know what it reminded me of?  Hamelman’s Five-Grain Levain ([i][b]Bread[/b][/i], page 174)!   Even though there were no visible “grains” in the Pagnotta crumb as in Five-Grain Levain, both breads were exceptionally moist.  There is some very useful technique in Hamelman’s Five-Grain Levain.  Have you ever tried making it?  I am thinking to use the technique in a miche style of bread. 

(1) I can't exactly remember how I did it, but I think I dissolved the pate fermente slowly with recipe water.  I think as my pate fermente had a fairly high hydration (75%), it would have been airy and bubbly once it was properly fermented, so I couldn't have cut it up.   If the hydration were lower (or if it were under-fermented), you could have cut it up into small pieces and add them into your final dough ingredients.   That said, if you find that your fermented pate fermente could be cut up, there would be nothing wrong to cut it up, instead of painstakingly trying to dissove it in water.

(2) I would not leave it longer than 3 days.  If you know that you won't be able to use it straight away, why not put it into the fridge way before it's fully fermented.  In fact, I would remove it after a couple of hours at room temperature.

Shiao-Ping