Pain au vin, part1

Now, this shouldn’t be too hard.
That’s what I thought when I read a recipe with white wine.

And it’s not that hard to bake Pain au Vin, as long as you are following a rule.
The problem was I could not get the result I wanted by following this rule.

In the original recipe, created by Jan Hedh by the way, there were about two parts of water and one part wine.
But that was the only part of the recipe I copied.
Most of the time, I change recipes I find so that they fit my schedules and preference.
The most important thing I changed was using a sourdough starter. Fresh yeast was used in the original recipe.

So I started with the following ingredients.

• 340g Wheat flour
• 60g Whole-wheat flour
• 180g Water
• 96g White wine
• 60g Sourdough wheat starter, active, 100% hydration.
• 5g Honey
• 8g Salt

The final dough had hydration (wine included) of 71%.

AUTOLYSE WITH WINE?

Is it OK to call it autolyse if you are using some wine instead of water?
Is it important?
Well, maybe. I will come back to this later, but for now, let’s call it Autolyse.
As in most of my recipes, it was 1 hour long.
Sometimes I use longer Autolyse if I have lots of whole wheat or rye in the dough, but here it was only 60 grams.
There was a pleasant scent of wine coming from the dough, but apart from that, there was no difference compared to mixing an ordinary dough.

BULK FERMENTATION

After the autolyse I added the sourdough starter, salt, and honey. I use to place everything on top and then start to stretch and fold the dough until most of the starter feels incorporated.

After that, I knead for a minute or two, or until I get a smooth dough.

I let the dough bulk ferment for about 5,5 hours at 79-81°F/26-27°C. It was a sunny day, so I just had to place the dough near ta window.
If the sun is not shining. I use to let the dough ferment in the oven with the lamp lit only.
That works just as well.

I only stretch and folded ones as the dough felt a bit resistant.
I think it has to do with the wine. Acidity has a tightening effect on the dough, and both wine and sourdough starter contains acidity.

Remember what I said about autolyse? One benefit of letting the dough autolyse is that it increases the extensibility. But here I had added acidic wine with a tightening effect instead.

But there are still other positive effects with autolyse, so I don’t want to exclude it.

SHAPING AND FINAL RISE

After the bulk fermentation, I shaped the dough into a round and let it rest for 20 minutes.
The idea with the bench rest is to let the dough relax a bit after the first shaping.
That will make it easier to do the final shape.

I shaped the dough into a boule and placed it into a lined and floured banneton and placed it in the refrigerator.

There it was allowed to proof for 18 hours.
The temperature in my refrigerator is about 39°F/4°C.

BAKING

I baked the bread for 40 minutes in my combo cooker. I removed the upper part of the cooker after 15 minutes and turned down the temperature from 480°F/250°C to 428°F/220°C.

You should always wait at least one hour before slicing the bread after it has come out of the oven.
The interior needs to cool down and set.
It’s not easy, I know, but try to muster some patience.

TASTING NOTES

I think this Pain Au Vin had a rather pleasant look. The oven spring was great, and it has a nice color. It was a bit dark, perhaps but personally, I don’t mind that.

It had a delicious crust, and the crumb had that rich and complex taste that is characteristic of sourdough bread.

But there was not a trace of wine.

Now, I didn’t expect it to taste like wine. I did, however, expected a bread called Pain Au Vin to have some hint of unique or special taste that separated it from an ordinary sourdough bread.
Perhaps it’s something wrong with my tasting buds, but I don’t think so.
I’m a whiskey nerd and used to look for weak and very subtle flavors.

But I couldn’t find anything.

When I first tasted it, I thought there was a somewhat buttery taste, something I also wrote about at Facebook.
But after a couple of hours when I tasted it again, it had disappeared.

Or perhaps it was just in my imagination.

MORE WINE

So I decided to add more wine in my next attempts.
I won’t bore by going through the whole procedure again, because it was identical for all my tests, except for two things.

And that was the amount of water and wine and the final rise.

ADJUSTMENTS

I made the following adjustments.

2nd try

106g white wine

3rd try

126g white wine

160g water

As you can see, I increased the amount of wine with 10 and 30 grams.
I kept the same amount of water in my second try but adjusted it down with 20 grams for my third try. That means hydration was the same approximately 73%

When it was time for the final rise, I decided to let it proof at room temperature this time. Retarding the dough in the refrigerator often gives a great result, but it also tends to make the bread a bit sourer.
Most of the time, I like that, but maybe it was not optimal for this bread.
Perhaps the sour taste was too dominant for the more subtle flavors from the wine.

So I let the dough proof at 24°C for about 1 hour, and then I baked it.

As you can see from the pictures below, I got two nice looking loaves.
The taste was great.

But still not what I was looking for.

EVEN MORE WINE

I wanted to try one more time with some more wine.
Bu this time, I added a lot more wine, 250 grams to be precise.

I had bad feelings about this, but I decided to give it a try.

Well, my fears came true.

I noticed that there was something wrong during bulk fermentation.
After 8 hours of fermentation, the dough still hadn’t expanded very much.

I dumped out the dough on my working surface and tried to shape it into a round.
The dough felt OK, so I became more optimistic.

But then disaster struck.

After 20 minutes of bench rest, the dough looked horrible.
The top of the dough was like an open sore.
The surface of the dough burst open everywhere.

How could this happen?

CONCLUSION

My theory is that I finally overloaded the dough with acidity. The sourdough starter, in combination with lots of wine, was just too much.
I should have realized this already during the bulk fermentation because I have encountered similar problems before.

I was trying to bake with mustard ones and faced the same problem with poor fermentation.

Due to too much acidity, the gluten strands can’t hold together anymore, and the dough turns into a big mess.

That is at least what I think.

I have decided to include a recipe, after all.
I ended up with some tasty bread, except for the last try, even if I was searching for something slightly different.

And I haven’t given up.
Something called Pain Au Vin Part 1 has to be followed by something, eh?
Next time I won’t use a sourdough starter, though.
Instead, I will use poolish or yeast water that gives a more neutral taste.
Perhaps the wine will be able to make itself more justice.

Pain au vin, part1

It's not harder to bake Pain Au Vin with a sourdough starter than with yeast. You just have to follow one specific rule. Don't add too much wine.

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Servings 1 loaf

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 340 gram Wheat (bread) flour 12,5% protein content
• 60 gram whole wheat flour 11% protein content
• 180 gram water
• 96 gram white wine
• 60 gram sourdough starter Active
• 5 gram honey
• 8 gram salt

Instructions

 

• Mix flour, water, and wine into a dough. Make sure that all flour is hydrated. Let the dough autolyse for 1 hour.
• Add sourdough starter, salt, and honey. Incorporate the remaining ingredients by stretching ad folding and kneading the dough.
• Let the dough bulk ferment until it has increased in volume by 75-100%. The dough in this recipe needed 5,5 hours at 79-81°F/26-27°C.
• Dump out the dough on a lightly floured surface and pre-shape it into a round. Let the dough rest for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Shape the dough into a batard or a boule and place it into a floured banneton.
• Let the dough proof until it passes the finger poke test. The dough in this recipe needed 65 minutes at 75°F/24°C.
• Heat up the oven to 480°F/250°C.
• Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the bread is golden brown. You may have to lower the temperature for the last 15-20 minutes.
• Let the bread cool on wire racks for at least 1 hour.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!