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Dan Leader’s Baguette au Charbon Vegetal
These show-stopping and delicious (We tried them!) baguettes with active charcoal are from Dan Leader’s book Living Bread which contains unique recipes from artisans around Europe as well as fascinating profiles of bakers, farmers and millers. Dan is the creator of the iconic Bread Alone bakery, headquartered in the Catskills, and he is one of the pioneers of the U.S. artisan bread movement. He generously offered this recipe and the history behind it to the Breadtopia community and we’re doing a live interview with him in Instagram on October 6, at 3pm EDT. Also, don’t forget to enter our Living Bread book giveaway.
I really enjoyed making and eating these baguettes, and I’m excited to try so many other recipes in Living Bread. Laminated Honey Rye and Le Pain au 13 Desserts are next on my list. I’ll also be making more of these baguettes, and plan to try a variation where instead of using the yeasted poolish, I’ll substitute in sourdough starter, though I did love the yeast aroma combined with toasted sesame seeds. Activated charcoal doesn’t have a noticeable flavor to me, but Dan notes an astringency in the description below. In addition to adding a neat color to the bread, activated charcoal is believed to aid with digestion. Traditionally it’s been used to treat overdoses and poisoning as it binds with toxins. You can read more about activated charcoal in this Eater.com article.
Give Dan’s recipe a go and check out some of my process photos after the recipe.
A Note on Flour Type
This recipe calls for Type 65 flour, which is a French designation. (Dan explains the flour types of various countries in his book.) As noted in his recipe below, Type 65 is 11-11.5% protein. This is roughly a 2/3 – 1/3 mix of Breadopia’s all purpose flour and bread flour, but don’t let the flour type intimidate you. I got great results using Breadtopia’s all purpose flour alone.
Baguette au Charbon Vegetal
From LIVING BREAD by DANIEL LEADER with LAUREN CHATTMAN, published by AVERY, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2019 by DANIEL LEADER | Photo credit: Joerg Lehmann
In Paris, everyone has an opinion about where to buy the best bread. I was sitting on a bench in the Luxembourg Gardens one morning, tearing into three baguettes I had just purchased from three different bakers, when two women, on either side of me, asked me what I was doing with so much bread. When I explained that I was always looking for the best bread in Paris, they gave me their own recommendations. The older woman was devoted to the classic miche at Max Poilâne, a bread that I was well acquainted with. The younger insisted, “You’ve got to get the Baguette au Charbon Vegetal at Boulangerie Utopie.” She described a jet-black bread with a dark, earthy flavor akin to the hint of volcanic ash in Morbier cheese. I literally sprung from the bench, ran to the Metro, and rode to the Place de Republique.
Boulangerie Utopie partners Sébastien Bruno and Erwan Blanche divvy up the baking, one in charge of bread and the other in charge of pastries. As a result, and unlike at most Paris bakeries, both bread and pastry here are top-notch. There were dozens of people patiently waiting in line outside the shop on the Rue Jean- Pierre Timbaud, everyone chatting about their favorite Utopie item. Charbon vegetal actif, or active charcoal, can be found in natural foods stores. Relatively unknown in the U.S., it has long been embraced in France for its benefits as a digestive aid and beauty product. It certainly produces a striking bread, a baguette so dark that it looks like someone left it in the oven two hours too long. The charcoal flavor itself is subtly astringent, just sharp enough to make the bread interesting as well as beautiful. Take care when first mixing the dough by hand, so that the charcoal doesn’t fly out of the mixer bowl and coat your kitchen with black dust.
Dan Leader's Baguette au Charbon Vegetal
Ingredients
METRIC WEIGHT
BAKER'S PERCENTAGE
Instructions
Notes
Start to Finish: 13 to 14 hours
Poolish: 8 hours
Autolyse: 30 minutes
Knead: 10 minutes
First fermentation: 2 ¼ to 2½ hours
Rest: 40 minutes
Final proof: 40 to 50 minutes
Bake: 25 minutes
Makes: three 327-gram loaves
Notes for Professional Bakers It is always a good idea to mix this dough last during production as the charbon vegetal actif will leave black dough residue in the mixer that might color the next batch. Also, it is important to carefully time the bake of this bread as the color of the crust is naturally dark and can’t be used as a control point to define the end of the bake.
Dan Leader’s Baguette au Charbon Vegetal