Pain de Campagne

Another one of the rustic breads, simple and easy to shape, this week’s bread is intended to be shaped. There were so many to choose from and I was very excited to try some of the different techniques out. This dough is similar to the regular French baguette from last week, but it includes a small percentage of whole grain. The additional grain gives the bread more character and flavor, and contributes to the brownish-gold, country-style crust that distinguishes it from the white flour counterpart.

I had a number of choices to shape the dough, and I was anxious to try the epi or wheat sheaf. It looked fun to create a baguette in the shape of some wheat stalks, and I get to use scissors. However my technique proved to be lacking and I had to resort to youtube to see the actually shaping techniques. I should have kept it straight and cut along the face of the bread itself. Instead I just cut at the 45 degree angle from the side. I also used a suggested cutting technique on the boule shape here. It was fun and I think I’ll be doing the epi shape again, especially for a party since it does look good and acts like a pull-a-part bread.