Application Guide

PAIN À L’ANCIENNE Makes 1 round loaf
Pain à l’ancienne is daily bread for much of rural France. A country relative of the
pain de Paris and the baguette, pain à l’ancienne is a more rustic bread because it is
made with a bit of whole wheat flour. You will get the best results from a stone-ground,
coarse grind of whole wheat flour; you want lots of flecks throughout the loaf. When I
stayed outside of Cahors, near Villefranche de Rouergue, I visited a baker who worked
alone in what looked like an abandoned stone cottage. He baked loaves like this one,
and we leaned over a crooked stone fence and called out to him to buy his bread. He
left his oven inside the cottage, walked into the yard, and handed us the large round
bread over the fence. The crust was incredibly dark, almost brown-black, a darker
crust than I was used to. This loaf needs to be baked in the oven—if you have a La
Cloche (see Technique: Baking with a La Cloche Ceramic Baking Dish), use it, but the
bread bakes nicely on baking sheets, too.
1
1
/
2
-POUND LOAF
For the pâte fermentée:
1
/
2
cup water
Pinch of sea salt
1
1
/
4
cups bread flour
1
/
2
teaspoon SAF or 1 teaspoon bread machine yeast
For the dough:
1
1
/
4
cup plus 1 tablespoon water
2
1
/
2
cups bread flour
1
/
3
cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons gluten with vitamin C
2 teaspoons light brown sugar or malt powder
1
1
/
2
teaspoons SAF yeast or 2 teaspoons bread machine
yeast
3
/
4
cup pâte fermentée
368