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British Bread Adventures Pt 4
Poilâne Bakery – London
My fascination with Poilâne bread began over 10 years ago with a publication in Smithsonian magazine on the venerable bakery. Poilâne bakery began in Paris in the 1930’s and expanded to London in 2000. Several years ago, as a birthday gift to myself, I overnighted a loaf of their flagship 2 kg miche to my home to share with friends. We also had some of our own freshly baked sourdough bread on hand. Among our guests, there was no clear favorite. I was both inspired that my bread measured up and disappointed that the Poilâne loaf wasn’t as amazing as I’d fantasized about.
We still haven’t made it to Paris, but Denyce and I visited their Elizabeth Street London location on our recent travels around the UK. I realize it’s sacrilege to speak disparagingly about Poilâne bread, but I’m still not getting what the fuss is about. I’m wondering if the London bakery does things differently from Paris. We had a chance to watch the baker at work and I was surprised to find that they turn out a loaf of bread in about 3 hours, start to finish. I have this idea that a quality bread requires long fermentation, quality organic ingredients and natural leavening.
Based on my own observations (please watch video below and see references sited), here’s how their signature loaf is made:
Using these ingredients:
PoiIâne bread is way better than an average store bought loaf, but I have to wonder if a 2 hour total proofing time is adequate time to develop the flavor and nutrition profile of a world class bread.
And here’s a another potential issue that came up during our visit. At the 7 minute mark of our video, Denyce asks the baker what kind of yeast he’s using. On the Poilâne web site and all over the internet, this particular bread is exclusively referred to as sourdough leavened. Yet, to my ears at the time, I heard the baker say the yeast comes from a “cube” in the fridge. A cube? Fresh (cake) yeast comes in a cube, not sourdough starter. There’s a big difference. What do you hear him saying? I’m really hoping I was just misunderstanding him or vise versa. If anyone can clarify or substantiate this information, by all means please let me know.
We had no plans or expectation to be allowed an impromptu visit with the baker while he was at work. Sorry about the poor video quality shot on my smart phone and I wish I had asked a few more questions of the baker. It also would have been nice to get footage of the entire baking process but that wasn’t feasible. I felt we were pushing our luck as it was. I do make something of an effort to not be the “ugly American” when traveling outside the US. I’ll just save it for our website 😉 .
See Bread Adventures, Pt 1.
See Bread Adventures, Pt 2.
See Bread Adventures, Pt 3.
References:
“Bread Winner” – article from New Yorker Magazine
“Behind the scenes at Poilâne bakery” – Ann Mah blog post
“Lionel Poilâne” – Wikipedia
British Bread Adventures Pt 4