Baker's/Bread Couche

[cakewalk]

I'm thinking it's terminology. (Poor terminology, IMO.) He's taking it as a "given" that you've moved the loaves off the couche. His language is confusing, because he failed to mention a step that he takes for granted. Check out this website, which gives a good basic lesson on using a couche: http://thebreadmaiden.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-science-behind-using-couche.html  Scroll to the bottom, where she begins the paragraph with: "Since you have baked your bread on your homemade couche ..." She also doesn't mean that you should literally baked the bread on the couche, and she's also taking for granted that you moved the loaves. I think it's poorly thought out. A novice would follow the instructions exactly and bake on the cloth. And anyway that step, moving the proofed bread without degassing it, could use a lot of explanation. 

[Anna N]

12 minutes ago, cakewalk said:

I'm thinking it's terminology. (Poor terminology, IMO.) He's taking it as a "given" that you've moved the loaves off the couche. His language is confusing, because he failed to mention a step that he takes for granted. Check out this website, which gives a good basic lesson on using a couche: http://thebreadmaiden.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-science-behind-using-couche.html  Scroll to the bottom, where she begins the paragraph with: "Since you have baked your bread on your homemade couche ..." She also doesn't mean that you should literally baked the bread on the couche, and she's also taking for granted that you moved the loaves. I think it's poorly thought out. A novice would follow the instructions exactly and bake on the cloth. And anyway that step, moving the proofed bread without degassing it, could use a lot of explanation. 

I would hope you are right. I know how to use a couche as an aid  to supporting a rising dough and if the author had only once said anything about baking in the couche I might take it as a failure of communication. But in the second quote he never once mentions how you move the bread from the floured cloth to a bare baking surface. 

 

 But further reading in the book provides this quote:

 

"Couche

A couche is a heavy sheet of flax linen cloth used to provide support for soft bread doughs during the proof stage (such as An Everyday Loaf)."

 

 So apparently he can describe the proper use of a couche. 

 

It may always remain a mystery.  I hope nobody is foolish enough to attempt baking in a couche.

 

[TdeV]

I've just discovered the existence of baking couche(s).

 

Does one ever wash a couche? (which I imagine would remove the sizing). How many times is the material used before being washed or replaced?

 

Where will I find information about how they are used?

 

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by TdeV
More clarification (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

3 minutes ago, TdeV said:

Where will I find information about how they are used?

@Ann_T uses one all the time. I think she would be the best one to ask.

[Anna N]

Here.

[Ann_T]

21 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

@Ann_T uses one all the time. I think she would be the best one to ask.

Actually I don't use a couche. I had one years ago. Not sure what happened to it.    I  have been thinking of buying another one. 

Just not sure I would use it any more than I used the last one.

 

I just shape and leave the baguettes on the board covered

with a cloth.   But I do know that you are not suppose to wash them. Just shake out the flour.   I use to keep the one that I didn't use in a bag in the freezer.

I used it so infrequently that I was afraid the flour would go rancid. 

[Anna N]

3 hours ago, Ann_T said:

Actually I don't use a couche.

I was pretty sure you didn't and wondered if someone was confusing couche and cloche. 

[TdeV]

I don't know, @Anna N. The internet said "couche." I'm intrigued because my pizza peel uses a fabric cloth over the peel to "deliver" the pizza on top of the pizza stone. For quite a long time now, I use the "new" cloth which still has sizing in it because it's larger and stiffer than the cloths that have been washed. I just thought I was peculiar. So I'm wondering about this material.

 

More research is needed!

[Anna N]

4 minutes ago, TdeV said:

I don't know, @Anna N. The internet said "couche." I'm intrigued because my pizza peel uses a fabric cloth over the peel to "deliver" the pizza on top of the pizza stone. For quite a long time now, I use the "new" cloth which still has sizing in it because it's larger and stiffer than the cloths that have been washed. I just thought I was peculiar. So I'm wondering about this material.

 

More research is needed!

Somebody mentioned that @Ann_Twould be a good resource for information about baking couches. I had never heard her mention using one but did know that she owns and occasionally uses a cloche.  

[keychris]

I've used one for baguettes for ... about a decade and haven't washed it once. I keep it in a ziploc bag to stop moths getting on it and that's it.

[Smithy]

 

On 5/14/2023 at 10:19 AM, Ann_T said:

But I do know that you are not suppose to wash them. Just shake out the flour.   I use to keep the one that I didn't use in a bag in the freezer.

I used it so infrequently that I was afraid the flour would go rancid. 

 

That's what happened with mine although I was using it regularly (at least once weekly). I'd shake it out and allow it to dry between uses, or so i thought, but it never fully dried. I stored it in a sealed bag, and then it went rancid. I finally washed it, in a fit of desperation, and as noted above it lost its sizing -- that is, its ability to hold its shape. In truth, it wasn't good at that shaping bit from the outset although it was supposedlly a high-quality couche. I had to prop up the ridges in the cloth to hold the loaves as they proofed, and I never got the hang of how big the ridges had to be in order to keep the baguettes from puffing into each other as they rose.

 

If I were to try again to get serious about baking baguettes (it's been a while) I think I'd try without the couche first.

 

 

Edited to add: I do not mean to discredit or diminish @keychris' statement. Our different experiences may reflect different climates, experience, or quality of the material.

Edited May 19, 2023 by Smithy (log)