Baking a Miche: The Large-Format Country Loaf

A miche is a country loaf scaled past the point where your normal habits still work. This one uses 1,200 g of flour and comes out of the mixing bowl at 2,184 g, roughly two and a half times a standard 885 g boule. Yet it presents only about 1.8 times the surface, because surface grows as the square while mass grows as the cube. That single ratio explains almost everything that changes: the longer bake, the slower chill, the extra bake loss the longer bake brings with it, and the reason a 5.5 quart pot is now useless to you.

What makes a loaf a miche

Size and whole grain, in that order. Traditional miches run from 1.5 kg to 4 kg (3 lb 5 oz to 8 lb 13 oz) and carry a high proportion of coarse, high extraction flour. The loaf was built to last a household a week, which is why the crumb is close rather than airy and the crust is thick enough to protect what is underneath.

The version here sits at 2,184 g of raw dough and bakes down to about 1,900 g (4 lb 3 oz), which fits a 30 cm (12 inch) banneton and a domestic oven without anything exotic. Half the flour is whole wheat. That combination is the smallest loaf that still behaves like a miche rather than a big boule.

The formula: 1,200 g of flour, half of it whole

Add the first five rows and you get 2,184 g of dough. One loaf, no dividing.

Choosing the flours for a half whole wheat dough

The bread flour is carrying the structure for both halves, so it needs 12.5 to 13 percent protein. Weaker all purpose flour at 10 to 11 percent leaves you with a dough that fills the banneton and then relaxes in the oven.

Whole wheat absorbs 5 to 8 percent more water than white flour at the same handling feel, and half the flour here is whole wheat, which is why 80 percent hydration handles like about 76 percent in an all white dough. The bran also cuts gluten strands as they form, so the finished crumb will show holes in the 3 to 8 mm (0.12 to 0.3 inch) range. Chasing anything larger with this flour split will cost you more than it returns. The flour comparison covers what each type brings.

The levain: 15 percent of the flour, prefermented

• 20 g ripe starter
• 170 g water at 80°F (26.5°C)
• 170 g whole wheat flour

That gives 360 g of levain carrying 180 g of flour and 180 g of water, which is 15 percent of the total flour prefermented. Build it 8 to 10 hours ahead at 74°F (23.5°C) and use it when it has tripled and the surface is still domed.

Fifteen percent is a deliberate step up from the 10 to 11 percent a small loaf takes. A 2 kg dough spends longer at every stage, and a bigger seed keeps the fermentation ahead of the enzyme activity that half whole wheat brings with it.

Working out the water temperature for a 2 kg mix

Target dough temperature here is 76°F (24.5°C), two degrees cooler than a small loaf wants, because a mass this size generates and holds its own heat. Multiply the target by four, then subtract the flour, room and levain temperatures plus a friction factor of 3 for the longer hand mixing a 2 kg dough needs.

Four times 76 is 304. Flour at 68°F, room at 70°F, levain at 74°F and friction of 3 total 215. That leaves 89°F (31.5°C) for the water. In metric: flour 20°C, room 21°C, levain 23.5°C, water 31.5°C.

A 60 minute autolyse for bran to soften

Mix 420 g whole wheat flour, 540 g bread flour and 60 g whole rye with 780 g of water at the 89°F (31.5°C) the sum above gave you. There is nothing to hold back here: all 780 g of the final dough water goes in now, and the remaining 180 g of the 960 g total arrives later inside the levain. The salt goes in dry after the levain. Cover and rest 60 minutes at room temperature.

Sixty minutes rather than the 30 to 45 a white dough gets. Bran needs the time to take up water and soften, and bran that is still sharp when you start folding will keep tearing the gluten sheets you are trying to build. Longer than 90 minutes brings no further benefit and starts to slacken the dough.

Mixing 2.2 kg by hand without a mixer

Add the 360 g levain to the autolysed dough and squeeze it through in sections, working across the bowl in a grid rather than trying to fold the whole mass at once. Give it 4 minutes. Rest 25 minutes, then add 24 g salt and work another 4 minutes.

Use a container of at least 6 litres (6.3 quarts) with straight sides. A 2,184 g dough that rises 70 percent occupies about 3.5 litres, and you need the headroom above it to fold without spilling.

When 2 kg of dough heats itself

Bulk runs 4.5 to 5.5 hours in a room at 76°F (24.5°C). Push a probe into the middle at hour three and you will typically read 78 to 79°F (25.5 to 26°C): a mass this large loses heat slowly and fermentation adds a little of its own. That is the whole reason for mixing 2 degrees cooler at the start.

1. 0:45 first set of folds, four sides, wet hands
2. 1:30 second set, the dough should already resist a little
3. 2:15 third set, switch to coil folds
4. 3:00 fourth and final set
5. 3:00 onward, undisturbed and covered, until the dough has risen 60 to 75 percent

Folds at 45 minute intervals rather than 30. Gluten in a half whole wheat dough takes longer to relax between sets, and folding a stiff dough tears it. If folds are still a work in progress, the fold comparison sorts out which to use when.

Preshaping a piece this heavy

Wet the bench rather than flouring it and use a bench knife with both hands. Tip the dough out in one movement, fold the four edges to the centre, flip it seam side down and rotate it a quarter turn at a time while dragging it toward you. Six to eight drags is enough.

Bench rest is 30 minutes, five longer than a 900 g piece gets, because 2 kg of dough relaxes more slowly. The surface should look matte and slightly dry before you shape.

Final shape and the 30 cm banneton

Shape a tight round, stitch the seam closed across the base, and set it seam side up in a 30 cm (12 inch) round banneton. Bannetons of that size are rated for 1,800 to 2,300 g, so 2,184 g of dough sits near the top of the range and will fill it to the rim.

A 23 cm (9 inch) banneton, the size most home bakers own, tops out around 1,000 g. Trying to force a miche into one gives you a dough that mushrooms over the rim and sticks to everything it touches. If you have no large banneton, line a 30 cm mixing bowl with a floured linen tea towel: the shape will be shallower, and it works.

Why a bigger dough can retard longer

Retard 14 to 18 hours at 39°F (4°C). That is a longer window than a small loaf gets, and the reason is thermal, not fermentative.

The centre of a miche keeps fermenting at near room temperature for the first five hours in the fridge, so a shorter retard leaves the loaf underproofed in the middle and correct at the edges. That is the classic dense core in a large loaf, and adding fridge hours fixes it. The cold retard guide has the general case.

The vessel problem, and the two ways around it

A 2,184 g dough spreads to roughly 28 cm (11 inches) across as it springs. The inside diameter of a 5.5 quart (5.2 litre) round Dutch oven is about 24 cm (9.5 inches), so the loaf hits the wall before it has finished rising and comes out with a scorched collar.

• Large covered vessel: a 7 quart (6.6 litre) round pot or a 9 quart (8.5 litre) oval gives 30 to 33 cm (12 to 13 inches) of clearance. Preheat 60 minutes rather than 45, because you are now heating twice the cast iron.
• Stone or steel with a steam pan: load the loaf on parchment and pour 200 g of boiling water into a preheated tray on the floor of the oven. Two charges work better than one: 200 g at loading, 100 g at the 10 minute mark. Methods are ranked in the steam comparison.

Whichever route you take, score deeper than you would on a small loaf: 1.5 cm (0.6 inch) rather than 1 cm (0.4 inch). A thicker crust needs a bigger opening to release through.

The bake: 75 minutes, and where the dial moves

1. Preheat 60 minutes at 500°F (260°C).
2. Load, steam, and set the dial to 460°F (238°C). Bake 25 minutes.
3. Remove the lid or the steam tray, drop to 420°F (216°C), and bake a further 45 to 55 minutes. Lift a lid away from your face, and use a dry towel to pull a steam tray out: a tray that has just flashed 200 g of water will scald through a damp cloth.
4. Pull the loaf at 208°F (98°C) at the core, measured from the base into the centre.

That is 70 to 80 minutes total against the 42 to 45 a small loaf takes. The lower second stage temperature is what keeps the crust from carbonising over the extra half hour. If the crown darkens too fast anyway, tent it loosely with foil from minute 50 and leave the temperature alone.

Cooling a loaf this size

Give it 4 hours on a wire rack, 6 if you can wait. A 1,900 g loaf holds heat far longer than a 775 g one, and a probe in the centre will still read 100°F (38°C) two hours after it left the oven. Cutting at that point releases steam that belongs in the crumb.

Bake loss lands around 13 percent here, taking 2,184 g of dough to about 1,900 g of bread. A small loaf loses closer to 12 percent, and the difference is the extra half hour in the oven working against the miche's smaller surface for its mass. Weigh your first one, and every later miche has a number to be judged against.

Living with a two kilo loaf for a week

Cut the loaf in half through the middle on day one and freeze one half whole, wrapped tightly. Half a miche is about 950 g and thaws on the counter in 4 to 5 hours, or in a 300°F (149°C) oven for 25 minutes straight from frozen.

The working half keeps cut face down on a wooden board for 4 to 5 days without a bag. A thick crust is a moisture barrier, which is the whole reason large loaves were baked this way, and sealing one in plastic undoes it by softening the crust within hours. Storage options in general are compared in the storage guide.

The miche formula from levain to loaf

Every weight repeated, unchanged.

Levain, 8 to 10 hours ahead at 74°F (23.5°C), 360 g total: 20 g ripe starter, 170 g water at 80°F (26.5°C), 170 g whole wheat flour.

Final dough, 2,184 g total: 420 g whole wheat flour, 540 g bread flour, 60 g whole rye flour, 780 g water, 24 g fine sea salt, 360 g levain.

Overall totals: 1,200 g flour (600 g whole wheat, 540 g bread flour, 60 g whole rye), 960 g water at 80 percent, 24 g salt at 2 percent, 15 percent of the flour prefermented.

Schedule: autolyse 420 g whole wheat, 540 g bread flour and 60 g whole rye with 780 g water for 60 minutes. Add 360 g levain, rest 25 minutes, add 24 g salt. Dough temperature 76°F (24.5°C), water around 89°F (31.5°C). Bulk 4.5 to 5.5 hours at 76°F (24.5°C) with four sets of folds at 45 minute intervals. Preshape, 30 minute bench rest, shape, 30 cm (12 inch) banneton, then 14 to 18 hours at 39°F (4°C).

Bake: 60 minute preheat at 500°F (260°C), 25 minutes at 460°F (238°C) with steam, 45 to 55 minutes at 420°F (216°C), pull at 208°F (98°C) core, cool 4 to 6 hours. Finished weight about 1,900 g (4 lb 3 oz).