You cannot imagine how excited I was to open my Le Creuset bread cocotte . From the moment I held it in my hands it was love at first sight! And since I wanted to release it in a big way, I decided to prepare this Panfoglia .
A bread inspired by one of Josep Pascual 's creations. I say inspired because I only carry out its shaping, the flours and formula used to prepare it are different. But, the merit remains entirely his since the shaping of the bread is, without a doubt, the most attractive part of the preparation.
The Panfoglia or Pan Foglia, would be translated as bread sheet . It is a bread that, in turn, is based on the famous Jura Tabatière Bread . A bread of French origin that owes its name to the similarity with tobacco packets or snuffboxes (in French, tabatière ).
The most striking thing about the bread is the upper fold that decorates it. To differentiate from the aforementioned bread, cuts are created in the dough flap in order to simulate a sheet. Once the second fermentation is finished, we will make decorative cuts in the leaf that will help to create a much more visual effect.
I assure you that it is a fantastic bread to prepare at home because it is not only easy, but it is very striking.
What's so good about baking in a bread cocotte?
Many things, but among them there is one that we can highlight especially. By cooking our bread in a cocotte, we will achieve a very marked expansion in our loaves thanks to the fact that we contain the heat and steam, generated from the evaporation of the bread, during cooking. It works the same way as a dutch oven .
The cocotte lid prevents the crust from drying out and sealing (as well as helping to contain the steam within it), something that directly affects the volume of the bread. If the crust dries out prematurely, we slow down the expansion of the bread and, therefore, its final volume. Without forgetting the correct development of the crumb. We will obtain breads with a more closed or tight crumb if the bread dries out, the crust, before time. Many more variables affect this last point, but this is one of them.
Another important point is the amount of heat that we manage to transmit to the bread . This is essential to promote its development and growth at the right time, before the crumb begins to gelatinize.
One thing to keep in mind about the cocotte is that we will not be able to bake very large loaves. We will have to cook loaves of 500-600 g maximum.
In conclusion. I am madly in love with this new gadget that is already part of my essentials among all the gadgets I have at home!
Ingredients (for 2 loaves of 500 g approx.)
Sourdough:
- 120 g of well-active 100% hydrated sourdough
For the sourdough:
- 300 g high strength flour (W=380)
- 240 g Callobre flour
- 360g water
- 10.8g of salt
Elaboration
First day:
- In a large bowl, mix the two types of flour together with the water, mix with your hands or in the KitchenAid until you obtain a homogeneous mass. Cover with a film or shower cap and do autolysis for 1 hour .
- Add the 120 g of sourdough and integrate well, mixing in the bowl itself and using a flexible scraper . If we do it in the KitchenAid, we knead at speed 1 with the help of the hook until we have a homogeneous mass. In case of kneading by hand, we move to a clean work surface, without any flour, and we begin to knead until we obtain an amalgamated dough.
- We will combine kneading with resting, in this way the dough will develop the gluten without having to work it excessively and, with the risk, of overheating it. Knead for 2-3 minutes and let rest for 5-6 minutes.
- Before letting the dough rest for the first time between kneading, add the salt and knead again until well integrated. Once it is fully incorporated into the dough we proceed to make the first rest.
- We alternate short and smooth kneading with resting until our dough passes the membrane test.
- Prepare a large hermetic container or a large bowl, grease with oil, introduce the dough inside and cover.
- We will leave a 6-hour block fermentation at room temperature (in my house it was 22ºC) with 1 folding once the first hour has passed since the block fermentation began . Let it rise until it grows 1/3 of its initial volume.
- Store in the refrigerator until the next day. In my case it was 11 hours and 15 minutes at 4ºC .
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Second day
We take the dough out of the cold.
- Remove the dough from the cold and let it temper for 1 and 1/2 hours. At this point, the dough will have doubled in volume.
We preform and form the bread.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into two equal pieces with the help of a scraper.
- We preform each piece in the shape of a ball, trying not to degas too much. Cover with film and let rest for 20 minutes .
- Dust the work surface with flour and proceed to form the panfoglia.
- With the help of a roller we stretch part of the preformed dough. We press, a little less than 1/3 of the mass, and stretch to form a tongue. Make sure that there is always a little flour under the dough that we stretch to prevent it from adhering to the work surface.
- We stretch until we give a length that covers the bread.
- With the help of some curly cutters , we cut part of the stretched dough in order to give it the appearance of a sheet.
- Brush the edge with olive oil and fold the stretched dough over the bread.
- With the help of a scraper we can finish giving the bread a little shape before making the second fermentation.
- Dust a linen with flour and place our bread on it. We must turn the bread to make the second fermentation so that the folded part is upside down.
- Cover with the linen itself and let rise for 5 hours at 21ºC.
We preheat the oven.
- We preheat the oven to 210ºC with heat up and down . We introduce the Le Creuset cocotte (base and lid) inside at the same time that we preheat the oven. In order to cook bread inside it, it must be very hot.
- We will place it on the rack and in the lowest part of the oven, the last slot. The ideal is to warm up 20-30 minutes before introducing the breads .
- We very carefully turn the bread dough, which is on the linen, onto a board previously lined with baking paper. The ideal is to make a quick movement to transfer the bread to the table, but you can do it with your hands and be very careful. The folded part should be facing up.
- Sprinkle a little flour on the surface and, with the help of a blade or lick, we will make decorative cuts on the folded dough in the shape of a sheet.
We bake the panfoglia.
- We open the oven, with the help of some gloves, remove the lid of the bread cocotte and place it on a wooden board.
- We put the bread in the Le Creuset cocotte , with the baking paper, put the lid on and close the oven door.
- We leave 20 minutes at 210ºC.
- After these first 20 minutes, we open the oven door, remove the lid of the cocotte with the help of some gloves and leave it on a wooden board.
We finish cooking.
- Lower the temperature to 200ºC and finish cooking without a lid . We left 15 minutes .
- After this time, we reduce the heat to 190ºC with air and leave it for 5 more minutes . In this way we favor the drying of the bread and we will improve the crust.
- Once we finish cooking, take it out and let it cool completely on a wire rack before opening it.
- To bake the other bread, remember that we must put the cocotte lid back into the oven and preheat for 20 minutes.
Grades:
- We should always use an active and refreshed sourdough, if not daily, with 2-3 soft drinks before using it.
- If you want to make the bread with yeast, instead of using sourdough, you must omit the preferment (sourdough) and add 60 g of high-strength flour + 60 g of water to the final dough. The amount of yeast to add should not exceed 2% of the final weight of the flour, that is, we will add a maximum of 12 g of fresh yeast or 4 g of dry yeast .
- Bread can also be made by preparing a yeast preferment.
- I have used high strength flour and Callobre flour , if you do not have these flours, try to use something similar to obtain the same result. If you do not have the same flours, you can use a strong or great strength flour and adjust the final hydration. The dough should be easy to handle and not sticky to the touch in order to handle and work well with it.
- If you use a baker's or strength flour, you can work with a hydration of around 60%.
- Autolysis is a process in which we allow the flour protein to hydrate before proceeding to knead. To do this, mix the flour with the water until smooth, cover and let stand. This step reduces the final kneading time.
- The membrane test consists of taking a portion of dough and stretching it between the fingertips. The dough must be able to stretch without breaking or, if it does break, it will do so creating a perfect circle. This step helps us to know the state of the gluten, the development of the dough.
- It is very important not to pre-shape the dough by exerting a lot of tension . We must carry out the joust.
- It is important to brush the sheet with oil to help it detach and rise during cooking.
- The Le Creuset bread cocotte must be very hot in order to bake the bread well . We must preheat the oven with her inside.
- It is not necessary to introduce steam in the oven if we bake the bread with the cocotte . The steam released by the bread itself, which is trapped inside the cocotte, will be more than enough.
- We must finish cooking without the lid to create crust and brown the bread.
- This sourdough bread has a shelf life of 2-3 days . We must cover it with a cotton cloth to prevent it from drying out.
If you like to make bread, you will surely enjoy making this Panfoglia . It is a fairly simple bread to carry out, despite what it may seem, and its result is incredibly attractive.
In addition, the decoration is totally optional. You can create the drawings you prefer or even use stencils to decorate the surface with flour or cocoa powder. I'm looking forward to seeing yours!
