Tourte de Meule

French country bread

Tour de France is something very popular and known by almost everyone. But Tour and Tourte de Meule? No worries, in order to bake this recipe, you don’t have to be a cycling superstar. Just the hand-kneading part could result a bit more exhausting than normally. But believe me: this will be rewarded with a super aromatic open crumb edition of this quite well known french country bread classic: Tourte de Meule

Paris – Verdelot – Moulins Bourgeois

The first time I got in touch with this beautiful bread tradition was last July, when I was invited by the godfather of flour , Manfred Schellin (bongu.de), to join him for a baker training in Paris, France. Even more precisely: in Verdelot (80 km away from the city) in the traditional and very well known french mill “Moulins Bourgeois“. Since 1895 the mill is in hands of the Bourgeois family and stands for high quality flour. Their main focus areas are: supplying classic french boulangers (within a quite huge radius of 200 kilometers) and the export of their magic flour power.

100  workers are doing their best to get roughly 500 tons of wheat milled – every single day! The major part of Bourgeois’ grains (conventional and organic), among the best wheat sorts all over France, are cultivitaed pretty close to the mill itself.

Stoneground T80 Label Rouge

So lets talk about the characteristics of a very special flour from David and Julien Bourgeois’ mill: the stoneground T80 Label Rouge wheat flour. Label Rouge is a seal of quality issued by the french Ministry of Agriculture. Only food with the highest quality level receive the label. There are very strict regulations and controls on that. As for wheat flour: it is forbidden to use insecticides after harvesting.

So what makes T80 so special? It is a stoneground flour with a very high water-absorbing ability and it features your bread with a unique taste character. Tour de Meule (that’s how the flour is called in France) means “round  millstone”. So let’s clear up the recipe name: it means that the majority of used flour in the recipe is stoneground T80 . And as you traditionally bake a round loaf (like a cake) in France with this flour – the bread itself is called “Tourte de Meule” (Tourte = cake).

Steinmühle Moulins Bourgeois

Tourte de Meule feat. Open Crumb

No #brotokoll recipe without a challenge: at first, I was chasing after the taste I was still remembering from my time in France. At second, I wanted my Tourte de Meule to become part of the #brotokoll  Open Crumb Sourdough Series with an irregular and pretty wide opened crumb. I was having a tinker with that as this very special flour has sometimes a quite stubborn character while you are working with it (but hey…would you be happy if there was somebody mixing, stretching, folding or even salting you?).

For an open crumb, dough strength and extensibility is a must (to be able to hold the gases produced during the fermentation process). Besides the right amount of levain, an extended retardation of the final loaf was tipping the scales. Not less important: the leavening power of the sourdough. As I consider my starter a creature of habit, I (nearly) always use the same type of flour for building the levain (french: sourdough) as I normally use for doing my regular feedings. But for the main dough: this loaf received 100% french stoneground T80.

Et Voilà here it is: the #brotokoll Tourte de Meule Open Crumb Edition. Super airy crumb, great ovenspring, mild  and great taste and a dark and crunchy crust.  Commercial yeast? No need for that.

Happy Baking!

A huge Thank You to Manfred Schellin, Maxime Debat, Debora Kadne and Julien Bourgeois for these amazing days at Moulins Bourgeois!

Check out these great impressions from my journey to this amazing french mill in Verdelot.

Print recipe

Tourte de Meule

TA (Hydration) 176 (76%)

Ingredients

• 274 g T80 french flour available at bongu.de
• 118 g Levain
• 194 g Water cold
• 7 g Salt

TA (Hydration) 176 (76%) Ingredients 274 g T80 french flour available at bongu.de 118 g Levain 194 g Water cold 7 g Salt

Instructions

Levain

3-4 times fed - for the last feeding (to build your levain) apply a ratio of 1:2:2 (Starter: Flour : Water).
Use your levain at an age of 4 to 5 hours (let it rise at an ambient temperature of 25 degrees Celsius).
I highly recommend using the same flour for building the levain, as you are using it for your usual sourdough feeding. Check out my sample feeding-schedule in the recipes "Lime story" and "Moulin Ruch".

Autolyse

274g T80
194g Water (cold)

Mix all the flour with the indicated amount of water let the dough rest well covered for 4 hours at room-temperature (Autolyse). I would recommend you to start the autolyse at the same time as building your levain.

Main dough

Autolyse
118g Levain
7g Salt

Add your levain to the autolyse dough and mix it by hand for 5-10 minutes (follow the instruction-video in the basics-section: Basics | Open Crumb - Sourdough Series | Kneading). You may add some water if the dough appears to stiff (the french T80 has a great water absorption) Cover the dough and let it rest for 20-30 minutes. Now add the salt and knead another 2-3 minutes. Put the dough into a greased container and let it rest well covered for 1 hour at an ambient temperature of 25 degrees (the temperature should stay at that level during the whole bulk fermentation).

Bulk fermentation | Lamination | Stretch & folds

Moisten your working surface with water, release the dough onto the surface and laminate (follow the instruction-video in the basics-section: Basics | Open Crumb - Sourdough Series | Lamination). Be careful: the T80 dough is much more dlicate as the common strong breadflour dough. Return the dough into the greased container and let it rest for 30 minutes. Perform a strong set of stretch & folds and let the dough rest for 45 minutes. Lightly stretch and fold and let it rest again for 45 minutes. Lightly stretch and fold a second time and let the dough ferment until it achieves a volume increase of approximately 30-40%.

Shaping

Release the dough gently onto your floured working surface and shape it, following the instruction-video (Basics | Open Crumb - Sourdough Series | Shaping). Let the dough rest for 5 minutes (sealed side down).

Final proof

Let the dough rest (sealed side up) in a floured banetton for 10 minutes at room temperature. After that, retard it well covered (cover it after 10 minutes in order to let the whole dough cool down all over) for 18-20 hours in your fridge (5 degrees Celsius).

Bake

Preheat your DO (including the cover) in the oven for 45-60 minutes at 250-270 degrees Celsius. Load your bread (after cutting it with a razorblade at an angle of 45 degrees) directly out of the fridge and cover the DO. After 20 minutes baking time at 250 degrees Celsius remove the cover and reduce temperature to 230 degrees Celsius. Now bake your loaf for another 20 minutes (total baking time: around 40 minutes) until you achieve your desired crust.

Recipe Notes

The indicated recipe quantities are for 1 loaf of 593g.

Check out my sample levain-building timetable at the recipe Lime story.

Do you have specific questions or issues? Contact me via the contact form. I am happy to help you.

Tourte de Meule - Christmas Variation: sprinkle the dough during the lamination step with  a 50-60g mix of nuts and dried fruits!