Well I guess I am going to have to try this recipe... I need to make some bread soon so this will be it. Why do you use 600g as your standard flour measurement for a loaf. I'm more used to 500g - which fits most bread tins/bannatons - most UK recipes use 500g. Is it a French thing?
I think you'll struggle to replicate this exactly but it shouldn't be too hard to get close. The Francine Pain Multi-Cereales flour is a bespoke mix and rather thin on details as to its composition - there's some rye in there (no indication as to how much), plus sunflower & lin seeds. Given that you're going to reduce my quantities down anyway (from 600 to 500), you could try something along the lines of 400g strong white, 50g rye, 50g buckwheat - plus 1 tsp each of caraway, sunflower & lin seeds. I've settled on a wet dough (slapped but barely kneaded), then a fair amount of bench flour after the first proving in order to get a 'shaped' loaf. There is something elusive and enchanting about the sarrasin/caraway flavouring - and cold for breakfast with some Bonne Maman apricot jam, then it's one of the nicest things I've ever tasted, and certainly the best bread I've made in 34 years.
A 500g loaf doesn't go far in August (too many to feed). I use 600g for 'big breads' because they fit my oven tray. Yesterday was complicated and confusing (but probably no different to the day before) - I had planned on making a 600g sarrasin/caraway and a 480/500g pain de campagne (in my sparkly new banneton) and the cornbread - but was told not to make too much because of uncertainty regarding certain third party's movements/plans. I really don't like making so much bread that then isn't eaten and ends up being given to the chickens - so I appreciated the warning, and made less.
A French thing? you're kidding.....this is 'Basement Baking' at its finest - we don't take any notice of any local or national fads - this is ours, and ours alone. We are driven by taste and texture (and as long as the taste isn't too strong for the 3 year-old) then I carry on using my instincts together with feedback from the neighbours. In that sense, this 600g loaf has reached 'perfection' because no-one can think of how to improve it.
I wish you
courage with your first attempt. If, having made it and tried it, you shrug your shoulders and say "it's OK" then you've failed. But if you get it right and experience the OMG moment - then you'll realise what I've been banging on about for the last 4 weeks, and why E was so moved back in July that she tried to post her thoughts on here (that should have told you something at the time).
Thanks for tidying-up the recipe above (noted for the future)
More info than you probably wanted - no-one else will read it anyway (too many words apart from anything else)
