TRADITIONAL WHOLE GRAIN MICHE

Steps:

• Evening Day 1
• If you're milling your own wheat berries, weigh and mill all the flour, setting aside 260g red fife flour for the preferment.
• Mix up the preferment in a small bowl with space for tripling, cover, and let it rise overnight (8-12 hours) at room temperature. If your home is warmer than 75F or your starter is ripe, use cold water. (I've used slightly overfermented/deflated preferment, and the dough turned out fine.)
• Morning Day 2
• Thoroughly mix the ingredients for the final dough in a large bowl with space for doubling. Cover the bowl and immediately refrigerate for 24 hours.
• Morning Day 3*
• Remove the dough from the refrigerator. It should have increased in size by about 75%.
• Scrape the cold dough out onto a lightly floured countertop and pre-shape it into a ball. If you are making two loaves, divide the dough in ~800g pieces and pre-shape them into balls.
• Lightly dampen the top of the dough(s) and let them rest for about 20 minutes. (You can also cover them instead of dampening them.)
• Prepare your proofing basket with flour. If you're making a miche, use your mixing bowl lined with a floured tea towel as your proofing basket.
• Shape the dough, flour the top of it, and flip it into the proofing basket.
• Cover and let proof for 1-4 hours, depending on your ambient temperature. You want the dough to expand in volume by about 75%.
• Late Morning Day 3
• 800g loaves baked in an enclosed vessel
• When pre-heating the oven, refrigerate one of the doughs if you are baking them one at a time.
• Preheat your oven to 500F for 30 minutes with your baking vessel(s) inside.
• Flip your dough(s) onto parchment, score them, and load them into the hot baking vessels.
• Bake at 500F for 20 minutes with the lids on.
• Then, if you're baking in cast iron, slide a baking sheet under the vessels, same shelf, direct contact.
• Bake at 450F for 10 minutes with the lids on.
• Bake at 450F for 5-10 minutes with the lids off.
• Miche baked in an enclosed vessel
• Preheat your oven to 485F for 30 minutes with your baking vessel inside.
• Flip your dough onto parchment, score it, and load it into the hot baking vessel.
• Bake 25 minutes with the lid on and 15 minutes with the lid off.
• If you're baking in cast iron dutch oven, slide a baking sheet under the vessel, same shelf, direct contact at the 20-minute mark. (This may or may not be necessary with the spun iron cloche; check the base of the bread.)
• Miche baked on a stone
• Set up your steam system by poking a pinhole in an aluminum pan. Test over your sink that water drips through the hole at about 1 to 2 drops per second.
• Place the aluminum pan on the bottom shelf of your oven, and place your baking stone on the middle shelf.
• Preheat your oven to 455F for 30 minutes.
• Just before the preheat is complete, boil a cup of water (microwaved in a mug is easy).
• Flip your dough onto parchment, score it, and load it onto the stone using a pizza peel or an upside down baking sheet.
• Pour the boiling water into the aluminum pan and close the oven door to trap the steam.
• Bake 60-70 minutes.
• The internal temperature of the loaves should be over 205F when the bread is finished baking. Let the bread cool completely before slicing. This could be 3-4 hours for the miche. Store cut-side down on a cutting board, and then wrapped in plastic or beeswax wrap after about 3 days.