My Homemade Pain de Campagne 自家製鄉村麵包

I have not baked any bread for several months since I had my surgery. As my recovery is good and it is time for practising baking now.

Today I am going to make a Pain de Campagne, ie. Country bread, using just the four basic ingredients: bread flour, water, salt and yeast.

In order to achieve a soft and chewy open crumb structure, I will use the Poolish method.

不經不覺已有數個月沒做過麵包，隨著身體康復得七七八八，決定要練習一下了。

今次會做個鄉村麵包，材料只是簡單四種：高筋麵粉、水、鹽和酵母。

為了令麵包組織較細緻柔軟，提升彈性，會使用中種法預先發酵麵糰。

Pain de Campagne recipe 鄉村麵包材料 :

Ingredients 材料	Grams/ml	Baker’s %
Poolish 中種
Bread flour 高筋麵粉	150	75%
Rye Whole grain flour 祼麥粉	50	25%
Instant yeast 快速酵母	1	0.5%
Water 水	200	100%
Main dough 主麵糰
T55 Bread flour 法國麵包粉	200	100%
Instant yeast 快速酵母	1.5	0.75%
Salt 鹽	15	7.5%
Water 水	100	50%

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Preparation of Poolish 中種製作

Mixed all the ingredients of the poolish thoroughly. Covered with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for about 18 hours.

把中種材料混合，攪拌至沒有粉粒。蓋上保鮮膜，放置室温約18小時。

Preparation of Main Dough 主麵糰製作

Mixed all the ingredients of the main dough and the poolish together.

As this was a 75% high hydration dough, it was very sticky and hard to handle using traditional kneading method. So I used the Autolyse method and the Stretch-and-Fold technique to speed up the gluten to form a nice networks of strands. By the way, there are a lot of discussion on these techniques available in the Internet and I will not repeat here.After about an hour of Autolyse and several round of Stretch-and-Fold, placed the dough into the refrigerator for the first low-temperature fermentation.

When finished, lightly pressed the dough to release the gas and let the dough to relax.

Shaped and rounded the dough for the final proof.

Here came my two little partners for today: Cast Iron Dutch Oven and the Banneton Proofing Basket.

把主麵糰的材料和預先準備好的中種混合。

由於總含水量高達75%，麵糰較黏手，難以一般的搓麵方式來處理，因此會先來個水合法 (Autolyse)，再利用拉展、折疊 (Stretch-and-Fold) 的技巧來增加麵糰的筋性。網路上有很多關於這些技巧的介紹，我在此也不再重覆了。

經過約一小時的水合法和數次的拉展、折疊後，將麵糰搓圓，再放入冰箱作第一次的低温發酵。

完成基本發酵，為麵糰排氣、休息。

接著為麵糰做型，稍為搓成圓形即可。

今次又要出動這兩位弟兄。

Dusted the banneton proofing basket with flour and placed the shaped dough into the basket for the final proof.

When the proofing was about to complete, put the cast iron dutch oven into the oven and pre-heated to 250ºC.

Put the dough into the pre-heated dutch oven with the smooth side facing upward. Used the bread lame to slash an arc over the dough surface. Closed the cover and baked for 50 minutes.

After about 20 minutes, removed the dutch oven cover and lowered the oven temperature to 220ºC and baked until the crust turned golden.

Actual timing should be adjusted based on the type and power of the oven.

先為發酵籐籃灑上高筋麵粉，把搓好的麵糰放在籐籃中，作第二次發酵至約兩倍大。

在發酵差不多完成前，把鑄鐵鍋置入焗爐中，預熱至250ºC。

小心地將發酵好的麵糰反轉放於鍋內，利用割刀刻上一度彎紋，合上蓋焗五十分鐘。

約二十分鐘後，打開鍋蓋，降温至220ºC焗至包面呈金黃色。

實際時間需視乎焗爐火力大小作調整。

Let the bread to cool down in room temperature.

把完成的麵包置於室温冷卻。

Time to check the end product now.

The crust was crispy while the crumb was soft and chewy. Good work!

Personally, I think the crumb was not as airy as I wished, probably due to using a relatively high proportion of Rye flour. Seems I have to make some refinement here in order to get a nice open crumb structure in the near future.

In term of taste, it was totally acceptable and the bread carried a rich taste of wheat that I really loved.

好，始終都要交功課了！

一刀切下去，皮脆內軟，過了第一關。

可能因我用上25%的祼麥粉，𥚃面的氣孔稍細，這一點需要再作調整。

味道方面，咸度適中，帶著濃厚的麥香，喜愛麥包的我收貨了。 🤣

What do you think?

你又覺得如何呢？