Greetings:
I am looking for a recipe for a Provencal bread mentioned to me in France by an artisan baker. The bread is made in a "millefeuille" style (i.e. rolled / 6 turns) but the material between the layers of dough is water (not butter). According to the baker the steam produced by the layers of water create an interesting crumb.

The baker called the bread a "beaucaire" -- but that term seems more of a geographic term (referring to the area / city of Provence rather than to a particular recipe) than an actual recipe name.

Can any of you out in baking land help?

Thanks:

Debbie

By Doucefrance (Doucefrance) on Saturday, July 29, 2000 - 07:54 pm: Edit

Debbie,
Pain de Beaucaire is actually the name of that bread.
Recipe:
900 g of "levain" (8 hours)
2,5 kg flour (type 55)
1,5 liter water
55 g salt
5g fresh yeast in the levain.
Basic temperature 56*C.
Knead 12 minutes at 1st speed.
Bake 30 minutes at 250*C.
When you take the dough out of the mixer, flatten it on a wooden surface with your hands.
Let sit 30 minutes, flatten again with your hands and fold in three like croissant dough.
Let stand again 30 minutes and flatten with a rolling pin to 2 cm thick. Wet the whole surface.
Cut the dough in two, put the two pieces on top of one another. Let stand 30 minutes.
Cut 500g pieces and lay them flat on a baker's couche sprinkled with flour.
Let rise 3 to 4 hours.
This recipe was given by Roger AUZET, Meilleur Ouvrier de France Boulanger.
Good luck
Helene

By DML on Saturday, July 29, 2000 - 11:34 pm: Edit

Dear Helene:

How kind of you to send the recipe for pain de Beaucaire. Many thanks for your speedy reply.

And since no good deed goes unpunished...I some questions about the recipe:

The recipe calls for flattening the dough after it comes out of the mixer...I assume this would be a flattening into the standard rectangular shape one would use when rolling out croissant dough?

What is the ultimate shape of the bread? The recipe calls for cutting the dough into 500 g
pieces and laying flat on a couche -- are these square pieces? rectangles? something else? Sounds as though there's no final shaping of the loaf and no scoring prior to baking...

Finally -- what's meant by the term "basic temperature" (as in "basic temperature of 56*C.")

Again, thanks for your help -- I really appreciate it.

Debbie

By Doucefrance (Doucefrance) on Sunday, July 30, 2000 - 06:32 pm: Edit

Yes, it is flattening in a rectangle like croissant dough.
You will end up with a rectangle and the 500g pieces are cut from the short side. When you put them on the baker's couche you have little rectangles made of two layers of dough. They will be laid down with the "glued" part in the center facing up. The bread will look like two long rolls stuck together when it comes out of the oven. There is no shaping or scoring.
The basic temperature of 56*C is the temperature of the flour + the temperature of the workplace, and the difference between those two added and the 56*C would be the temperature of your water.
So you need to adjust your water temperature to get to that final number.
Helene

By DML on Wednesday, August 02, 2000 - 02:13 pm: Edit

Helene:

Thanks for your help...

Debbie

By Rubble (Rubble) on Sunday, August 06, 2000 - 01:11 pm: Edit

Helene or Debbie:

This bread sounds very interesting and I want to make it, but could you answer questions that I have about the formula?

1) The first ingredient is "levain" (8 hrs). What does this mean? I know what levain starter is, but what does "8 hours" mean?

2) I don't think I understand the "basic temperature" equation. Is it the actual temperature of the flour or the dough? I actually went to my kitchen and measured the temp of my flour and added this number to the temp of my kitchen. The sum of these two numbers was 145. I converted the 56C to fahrenheit which is 134F and subtracted it from 145. Is 11F really the correct answer?

3) Debbie mentioned that pain de beaucaire was made in the millefeuille method, yet the formula has only one turn (if that) and only one application of water. Are there more folds and turns than this?

Thanks for your time! (..and I apologize if I'm overlooking the obvious -- I'm just a rookie!)

By Doucefrance (Doucefrance) on Sunday, August 06, 2000 - 06:28 pm: Edit

1)8 hours is 8 hours old.

2)About the temperature, if your sum is higher than the basic temperature, that means you need to put cold water to get to the final temperature. This is not the final temperature of the dough, this is what you start with.

3)Yes there is only one turn, but it symbolicaly is the millefeuille method.

Hope this answers your questions, and good luck.
Helene