French Country Boule

Saturday, July 1, 2006


I remembered I still had part of a package of French Lalvain Pain de Campagne starter, the faux sourdough starter I'd used for the Low-Risk Sourdough bread, and this seemed like a good time to use it up. Although since this boule recipe calls for only 1/16 of a teaspoon of Lalvain starter, I didn't use it up--I have enough left to make many more loaves of this country boule, which is just fine with me.
This was another of those three-day breads. On Thursday, I made the liquid starter; on Friday, I mixed the starter with the flours (bread, rye, and whole wheat) and let the dough rise twice. This morning, I shaped it and let it rise again, slashed it in an adorable starfish shape, and baked it.
I had just enough time to eat one little slice before going to 10:00 yoga. I'm afraid that the bread put me in a non-yogic frame of mind. Instead of staying in the present, as we're so often told to do, I was thinking about having another slice of bread as soon as I got home and wondering whether I'd eat it plain, with butter, or with butter and jam.
The butter, no jam option won out. I figured I'd just spent an hour in yoga, so why not have a little butter on it. I'd sweated enough to justify jam, too, but I do like the basic and pristine bread-and-butter combination. I did take home enough yoga to remember to eat the bread mindfully, as opposed to greedily, which is nice because then it lasts longer.
I also decided that this bread would make an excellent sandwich, which it did. I made a tuna sandwich (my current favorite way to make a tuna sandwich is to add chopped roasted almonds, thin slices of fresh basil, and some capers to the tuna, plus just a smidgen of mayonnaise).

This is a very delightful bread. It's a smallish loaf, so I think you could probably make two in the KitchenAid without much trouble, and if you could, it would be an excellent idea.