Pain de Campagne, or country bread, is a traditional French bread made from wheat flour with many variations. It requires few ingredients and a starter is often used to add flavor. The dough must rise before baking and is usually shaped into a round or semi-circular shape.
Pain de Campagne is known in English as country bread. The recipes for this type of bread come from areas all over France and there are many variations. Traditionally, Pain de Campagne is made from wheat flour and shaped into a round or oval loaf. This bread is relatively simple to make and requires few ingredients.
Historically, Pain de Campagne pasta was brought to town by people in the French countryside on days referred to as cooking days. The loaves would be placed in a large communal oven and then redistributed to each household. Traditionally, Pain de Campagne loaves were quite large, weighing up to 12 pounds (5.4 kilograms), and could last a family a week or more. The availability of different ingredients in different regions of the French countryside led to many variations on this basic bread type, incorporating rye, wheat or other grains when they were available, and using a number of different yeast varieties.
Flour, water, and yeast are all you need to make a loaf of pain de campagne. In most cases, the bread is started the night before baking to add flavor. The starter consists of water, half the flour or less, and a measure of yeast. It is allowed to ferment in a dark, cool area until morning, when it is mixed with the remaining flour, water and yeast. Many bakeries keep a starter on hand, which can lend a distinctive flavor to the bread that comes out of each bakery.
Once the dough is mixed, it must be allowed to rise before it can be baked. Pain de campagne takes a few hours to fully lift, and is usually left in a clear, cool area to do so. The yeast added to the flour and water needs this time to consume sugars and release gases which make the bread airy and light. Dough that doesn’t rise all the way up will be much denser than dough that’s given a lot of time to rise.
Generally, the Pain de Campagne takes about an hour. You need a hot oven with constant heat to get the best out of the bread. This type of bread is usually shaped into a round or semi-circular shape and then placed on a stone or slab to bake. The bread continues to rise in the oven, so the loaves require space between them while baking.
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