8/27/2010 - French Bread

French bread made according to the formula in BBA begins as a preferment called pate fermentee, which means "fermented dough" or "old dough". As with any preferment, the delayed fermentation of the pate fermentee allows the enzymes time to work on the dough while the yeast is dormant, improving flavor considerably. The formula for pate fermentee is almost identical to the list of ingredients that is added to it the next day to make the final dough - 1/4 cup more flour is added, but that's hardly any difference at all. So, you basically mix, knead, and rise half a recipe of French bread dough, put it in the fridge overnight, and then add the other half to it the next day. I've read that it's common for bakers to simply set aside a bit of dough from each batch to add to the next day's bread, which would make sense if you were baking French bread every day.

This bread had excellent flavor, but I was too rough with it in the shaping phase and it lacked the open crumb you want to see in French bread. This is an ongoing issue with my bread and something I need to continue working on. I attempted to score this bread, which is something I generally avoid for reasons you can see in the picture. I think I just need a better, sharper knife, or even a lame to really do it right.