Pain de Campagne

 

    Last week I baked Pain de Campagne from Peter Reinhart’s book The Bread Bakers Apprentice Mastering Extraordinary.   I’ve made almost every bread in this book now.  I have still have a few to go.  The Pan Champagne starts with a pre-fermented dough, and was pretty straight-forward to make.   While kneading the dough my beloved Kitchen aid Artisan Mixer was stopping completely on low speeds.  This can’t be good.  Wayne looked up how to fix it on the internet, but was afraid he would make it worse.  He convinced me to order a new KA 600.  It arrives tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to seeing how well it does.  I thought about a Bosch, but the KA is made in the United States.  My mother is smiling down on me (she was a huge advocate of buying USA made products).  Anyway more about mother’s crusade in a minute, back to bread.  The book says this is a great bread for shaping.  I divided my bread into two parts.  One part I made a boule that I snipped with scissors and made little spikes.  The other I attempted to make into an epi.  Instead of resembling a sheath of wheat, it look more like a cactus with bad DNA.  I will keep trying until I get it right.  It was not a super aromatic bread, but of course any bread baking smells great.  The bread itself had a great crust, chew, and flavor.  The pre-ferment does add flavor.

     Back to my mother’s crusade.  I think about the year we had a tee shirt made for her for Christmas with the American flag on it and writing that said, “Buy American, Put America Back to Work.”  And yes, the tee shirt was made in the USA.  I know I’ve mentioned her shirt before, but I keep hearing on the news about people needing jobs, and I think about how many things we don’t make here anymore.  It’s nearly impossible to buy clothing made in the USA. It wasn’t until 2009 that Congress mandated that military uniforms be made here.  This year I am determined to buy only products made in the USA for Christmas.  Toys for small kids can be found on the web in abundance if you look.  For older kids, it requires a little more effort, but there are some cool toys out there.  (Wood Lincoln Logs are not even manufactured here.)  You can do a search for products made in the USA and find all sorts of products including clothing.  Some things may cost a little more, but you are keeping an American working.  I know my mother would be pleased.