Pain Normand
Nov 2nd, 2008 by SteveB
For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you may have surmised that I am not a real big fan of heavily flavored breads. To me, the essence of bread baking is finding new ways to coax out the natural flavor of the wheat or whatever grain is being used. Save the ‘blend-ins’ for ice cream, cakes and cookies. One notable exception to this proclivity is pain Normand, an apple-flavored bread named for the apple-producing Normandie region of France. Apple cider and small pieces of dried apple are what give this bread its subtle apple flavor without any cloyingly sweetness.
The formula used here is a modification of the one described in Hamelman’s Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes. To my way of thinking, pain Normand is a specialty bread, more suited as an accompaniment to, say, an after-dinner fruit and cheese platter than as an everyday table bread, such as a baguette or a pain au levain. As such, I decided to halve the formula and produce two smaller loaves instead of the two large, 840 g loaves called for in the original formula. I also went with hard (alcoholic) cider rather than the recommended unpasteurized, unfiltered cider because I was looking for a less sweet, crisper flavor. For all you purists out there, I admit to using store-bought dried apples rather than drying my own fresh apples for expediency’s sake.
Final Dough
- 340 g Whole Foods 365 Organic All-Purpose Flour
- 45 g King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour
- 90 g Water
- 155 g Hard (alcoholic) Cider
- 10 g Salt
- ½ Tsp. Instant Dried Yeast
- 130 g Mature Liquid (100%) Levain
- 65 g Dried Apples, finely minced
The water, cider and levain were whisked in a bowl until the mixture was thoroughly mixed and slightly frothy. To this mixture was added the flours, salt and yeast. A dough whisk was used to fully incorporate all the ingredients. The dough was allowed to rest for 20 minutes, after which time it was hand mixed until a medium consistency dough was achieved. The dough was then placed in the bowl of a stand mixer and the finely minced dried apples were added. The dough was then mixed with a spiral dough hook on speed 2 for 3 minutes, just until the apple pieces were fully incorporated into the dough. Although the apple pieces could be hand mixed into the dough, I find the stand mixer to be just a bit more convenient for this step.
The dough was then placed in a lightly oiled, covered container and allowed to ferment for 3 hours, halfway through which the dough was given a fold. The dough was then divided into two equal-weight pieces and each piece was loosely rounded. After resting, covered with plastic, for 15 minutes, the dough pieces were shaped into batards and proofed, either on a couche or in brotformen, for 2 hours. The loaves were then turned onto a peel, scored and baked at 450ºF for 30 minutes, the first 15 minutes being under steam.
I think you’d make the Normandy people proud! A very nice bread indeed. Gorgeous crust and crumb. I’m sure the flavor is incredible.
So, now I’m curious, Beaucaire, Normandy? What next? A bread from Alsace? 🙂
Jane
Beautiful!
Steveb, I think this bread is great! I`ll make soon. Thanks 🙂
It looks beautiful, as usual. How did it taste?
Jane, I’m always open to suggestions. Are there any regional French breads that you find particularly appealing?
Susan, thank you. Your comments are always highly valued.
Carmen, I think you will enjoy making and eating this bread.
Patsy, this bread had a nice subtle background apple flavor with small bursts of apple flavor of just the right intensity coming from the pieces of minced dried apples.
What beauties. This afternoon before receiving your email we put apples in the dehydrator, and yesterday we bought cider at the Farmer’s Market – synchronicity!
Had no idea I was preparing for a bread adventure.
Thanks for another inspiring post.
Judy
Judy, the unexpected adventure is often the one most worth taking. 🙂
Steve, this apple bread is absolutely beautiful, and I’m sure I would have loved a thick slice of it with that nice cheese (is it Stilton?) and some fresh apple slices (and a little glass of cider too? Or maybe Calva?!).
Don’t you think one could try to bake it with pears, also? The taste would certainly be very different, and non alcoholic at all if we just substitute pear juice to the cider, but you give me a nice idea for my kids “goÁ»ter” tomorrow. Pear bread it’ll be at Makanai’s, with large chunks of chocolate on its slices, and it’ll be thanks to you and your pain normand;-)
Flo Makanai
Flo, what a wonderful idea! Using pears instead of apples in this bread should work beautifully. Hopefully, you’ll post your results on Makanai for all of us to see. And I must say you have a sharp eye when it comes to cheeses (no pun intended); that is, indeed, a wedge of Stilton on the plate in the photo. I love bleu cheeses and Stilton is one of my favorites!
Very nice loaf Steve. I’ve never used apples as an add in. I’ll have to try this. Thanks for sharing.
Steve, I made this pain Normand with some changes, as announced. I used pear-apple organic juice instead of cider and, as I could’nt find dried pears near my house and could’nt find time to go farther to get some, I used very thinly sliced candied apple quarters I had in my pantry. I also reduced the salt to 8g (2% of the flour’s weight being my max., and the sugar in the candied apples + cider was giving taste too).
The result is EXCELLENT! This recipe of yours is SUPERB. Ultra thin, crisp and flavorful crust; a tasteful crumb, mmmm. What a treat! Nothing to add, the bread is perfect. I’ll post pics on Makanai ASAP.
So, this evening, I prepared another variation of your recipe, respecting your quantities but using pear juice instead of cider; small black raisins instead of apples; a rye starter and T130 rye instead of whole wheat.
The dough is wet but beautiful. I let it rise 1h30, folded it and put it in the fridge (time to go to sleep…). I’ll take it out tomorrow evening (won’t be home before), let it warm, shape it, allow it a short second rise (1 hr max) and bake it. I’ll tell you if it’s as good as that apple bread.
Thank you Steve! This recipe is a keeper.
Flo, I’m so glad to hear that you are pleased with the recipe. The beauty of this bread is its versatility. You can substitute just about any dried or fresh fruit for the apples (although you would then have to call it pain Makanai!) and any one of a number of fruit juices can be used instead of cider. Your rye version with raisins is another inspired variation. I look forward to seeing the pics on Makanai.
We’ve not found many hard ciders here that are drinkable – generally, they’re WAY too sweet and seem to have an added perfume to them (why on earth anyone would wreck perfectly good apple cider is beyond me). A long way back, I made a cheese cider bread to use up inferior hard apple cider we had been duped into buying.
What brand of cider did you use, Steve? Was it French? English??
And do you think what kind of apples that are dried matters? (Although, I think I really like Flo’s idea of using pears.)
Elizabeth, I used Woodchuck Amber Cider, a product produced here in New England (Vermont), but any quality cider should do. I’m surprised that good quality cider can’t be found there in Toronto. As far as the dried apples are concerned, my rule of thumb is that if the apples are flavorful enough just to eat out of hand, they are well suited for use in this bread.
We were equally surprised, Steve. Because there are plenty of apple orchards in the vicinity. And plenty of excellent apples. There IS good soft apple cider available. We just haven’t found any good (to our taste) local apple cider. (Perhaps someone did a demographic study to discover that Canadians prefer apple cider that is ridiculously sweet. Too bad.)
When you say “mature liquid levain”, do you mean leftovers after feeding wild starter, or do you mean built up and ready to go (as in bubbling madly) liquid levain?
Elizabeth, I judge my liquid levain to be “mature” when, after feeding, the level of the levain has increased to its maximum point and has just started to recede (and is bubbling madly, to borrow your phrase), very much like judging the maturity of a poolish. Under the conditions that I keep my levain, this takes approximately 12 hours after feeding.
Steve, at last, I posted my version of your pain Normand on Makanai (here : http://www.makanaibio.com/2008/11/pain-aux-pommes-baguettes-seigle.html). No pears, because I had’nt been able to find dried ones, but the bread was excellent! THANK YOU.
Flo, your pain Normand came out beautifully! I hope you and your family enjoyed it.
Your raisin/rye baguettes are a wonderful variation on the theme. Very creative! I really enjoy visiting Makanai. It is one of my favorite sites.
Hard cider is the historically accurate ingredient for this bread. It is very popular in Normandy and has been for centuries. It is not called hard cider there but just cider as cider is a fermented beverage that contains alcohol. True apple cider was once one of the most popular drinks in the early years of the U.S.
The fake non-alcoholic apple cider is the thing that has messed up the original authentic drink. Just something named cider.
[…] j’ai faite (et dÁ©jÁ publiÁ©e sur Makanai) d’une recette de Steve d’un excellent Pain Normand, au cidre et aux […]
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