Pain de Tradition Française

Saint John Valley Bread | Pain complet | Pain brioché

PAIN DE TRADITION FRANÇAISE

   According to the décret du 1 septembre 1993 de la République Française any bread in France pretending to be traditionally French had to meet certain conditions: no freezing whatsoever in the course of its elaboration; to contain no additives (excepting 2% bean flour, 0.5% soya flour and 0.3% malt flour); to be composed exclusively of a mixture of baking (panifiable) flours, potable water, and kitchen salt; and to be fermented with baker's yeast (saccharomyces cerevisiae) and/or levain. Article four allowed the addition of a tiny amount of yeast in the last kneading phase, 0.2% by weight of flour.
    Of course, the French writ does not extend to Grand Manan. We have used the appellation as a guide, to the extent of using only unbleached and or organic flours, no bean nor soya flours and occasionally, when the enzymatic qualitities of the organic white flours appeared to droop, we have added malt flour. Our salt for most of the period since 1993 has been sel de Guérande, and until 2014, we used ''fresh, wet yeast'', the local wholesale name for that kind of yeast.
    Under the heading of pain de tradition française, we make four breads daily, baguettes, boules, demis and miches, in two separate doughs. The larger breads are made with a dough that is fermented in bulk overnight, with divisionn, shaping, baguettes closeup on cooling rack

final proof and bake early the following morning, while the baguettes are made en directe,
usually the first dough mixed and kneaded in the day, around 05h00. Both doughs feature an autolyse of 15 to 30 minutes, slow mixing, in cooler weather a bassinage at the end of kneading of 5-10%, and a détente of about 30 minutes before shaping. Division and shaping are done by hand. Proofing is sur couche (on linen clothe).

(Photo of baguettes, 10 May 2007, by Richard Rice)

MICHE (Photo by Richard Rice, April 2005)
miche on display rack

Miches are large 'patty-cake' breads, shaped by patting , or more often by rolling pin, after detente and then baked without the cutomary period of final proof. Consequently, they emerge from the oven an hour and more ahead of the other breads from the same dough, and are consistantly ahead of them in flavour, texture and keeping - bearing out a maxim of Raymond Calvel, "toujours jeune de fermentation".

BOULE (photo, Richard Rice 3 October 2007)

The boules and demis are both 'cut' at the same dough weight (500g), shaped, proofed and baked together. The different shapes, hence their names, result in breads with slightly different characteristics, mainly a relatively softer crumb and crust for the boules. Essentially, the difference is rooted in the relative thickness and smaller surface area of the boule. It may be pointed out that a baker in French is a faiseur de pain en boules, un boulanger.

DEMI (Photo, Richard Rice 16 September 2004)

DEMI (made and photographed at home by the baker, 11 April 2010)