Getting the oven ready

A long day today. We started straight in with making the dough for today’s loaves: about a dozen large pains de campagne, some pains méteil (half wheat, half rye), and some small loaves using the same dough as the pain de campagne with almonds, walnuts, raisins, and cinnamon added.

There was a lot of dough: seven tubs with about 4 kg of dough in each, so there was lots of opportunity to practise mixing, folding, and shaping. I always find it so helpful having an expert on hand — lots of tips for working more effectively with better results.

We left the dough to prove in bulk, had lunch, then shaped the loaves and put them in bannetons. After that we got exercise hauling and breaking up wood, and Thibault started the fire in the outdoor oven, which he built himself. Thank goodness it is outdoors, it was another scorcher. I can tell you it is quite a palaver baking bread in a wood-fired oven … I think I’ll stick to electric. But two of the would be professional bakers will have wood-fired ovens. We all got a go at slashing the loaves and sliding them in as fast as possible.

Everything took a little bit longer than it should have done, including getting the oven up to temperature, so some loaves were a bit over-proved, but when Thibault opened the oven after only 25 minutes, we were really pleased with the results, especially the large pains de campagne (extra). Juliette sliced one of the small fruit loaves while it was still warm; it was delicious.

The three of us staying in Murat didn’t get back till after 8 o’clock — we were exhausted. Dinner was another salad in a different quiet bar, which again had masses of meat in it, more than I could eat. More bread adventures tomorrow!