For more information on Toshio Nihei's bread making techniques, please click here.
Donq: The Road to Bon Pain with Toshio Nihei
https://asahiyajp.com/book/978475111...

【Toshio Nihei】
Toshio Nihei was born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1947 and joined Donq Co. Since his training in France in 1983, he has been active in internal and external seminars, and has made efforts to teach and support young Japanese bakers who go to global competitions.
He was in charge of the bread for the dinner at the G7 Climate and Energy Environment Ministerial Meeting held in Sapporo in April 2023. He is called a legend by bakers in the bread industry for his overwhelming technical skills and wealth of knowledge.

【Raymond Calvel】
Professor at the French National School of Flour Milling (ENSMIC), born in Tarn, France.
In 1954, he stayed in Japan for three months and held international baking workshops at 17 venues across the country, introducing authentic French bread to Japan. At that time, Donq's president Yukio Fujii began exchanges with Raymond Calvel. Donq has been learning orthodox French bread from Professor Carvel and spreading it in Japan since then.

【Baguette in the 1930s】
Mr. Nihei adopted the method of making baguettes with a fermentation time of 5 hours and 30 minutes, which was described with pictures in "Traité de Panification" (by EMILE DUFOUR) published in 1935, and introduced it to Japan as "1930s Baguette".


【Process】
Mixing
1.
Spiral mixer (with flour, malt, water, and salt) low speed for 2 minutes
2.
Autolysis (from 30 minutes to overnight, as needed.
(If autolysis is longer than 1 hour, add salt before autolysis)
3.　
After autolysis, sprinkle in semidry yeast and let rise at low speed for 4 to 5 minutes.
Kneading temperature
21℃ (21℃ is too low for a baguette fermented for 3 hours, but this dough is allowed to rise overnight, so this temperature is fine.)

・Fermentation time
The dough should be fermented for 5 hours and 30 minutes, but such duration does not conform well with the contemporary work and life culture, so the fermentation room temperature is lowered a little (15°C) and the dough is left to ferment for 12 hours instead. After that, the baguette is left to ferment at room temperature (27°C) until the optimum fermentation state is reached.

・Splitting
If you think of the baguettes of the 1930s, it would be interesting to bake a baguette with a product weight of 300 g. In this case, the dough weight would be 430 g.

・Bench time20 minutes
・Formingbaguette
・Heating50 min.
Bake at 240℃ on the upper heat and 230℃ on the lower heat until solid and crisp sound is heard when the bottom of the loaf is tapped with a finger.

【Additional explanation by Mr. Nihei】
About Autolysis
This method was announced by Professor Raymond Calvel in 1974. (it also prevents the dough from oxidizing), and it also improves the dough's extensibility.
However, it also reduces the mixing time a little (less oxidization) and improves the dough's elasticity.

・The birth of "Retrodor"
Gérard Meunier was the man behind the creation of Retrodor, the flour used by the flour mill company Viron to make traditional French bread.
In the spring of 1983, Gérard Meunier bought the business rights to an old bakery on rue d'Orc in the 19th arrondissement of Paris and opened his own store, which originally baked baguettes with a threehour fermentation. However, at that time, most bakery baked baguettes using the notime method (fermentation time was close to zero).
This was because the price of baguettes was fixed by the official price, and most bakeries did not have to be particular about the quality of their baguettes, and the short time method was the norm. Therefore, vitamin C was added to the flour in advance as an oxidizing agent.
When he made longfermentation bread with such flour, the oxidant interfered with the dough and prevented it from stretching, which was a challenge for Mr. Meunier, but at the time, flour with no added improver was rarely available on the market.
He met Philippe Viron, the previous president of Viron, and asked him for a flour with no oxidizers or improvers.
When Philippe Viron tasted a baguette baked with the first test flour, he wrote in his book "Vive la Baguette": "It was just perfect!
Mr. Vilon had his technicians train in Mr. Meunier's kitchen and launched "Retrodor," a flour that he was obliged to make based on the methods he had learned.
From there, Mr. Vilon further lobbied politicians and contributed to the "Decree of Bread" of 1993.

Courtesy of the venue (Special Thanks):
Boulangerie L'ESSENTIEL


Related Videos

How to make a good "Pain Rustique" I Taught by Bread industry legend Toshio Nihei.
   • うまい「1930年代バゲット」の作り方 I パン業界のレジェンド・仁瓶利夫に学ぶ  

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