Miche

The miche is the old French country loaf, the everyday bread of rural households before the white baguette took over the cities: a big round sourdough of wholemeal, stone-ground flour that stayed edible for a week and was cut from rather than bought whole. Its modern fame rests on Poilâne: in 1932 Pierre Poilâne opened a bakery at 8 rue du Cherche-Midi in Paris and sold the rustic sourdough miche he had grown up with in Normandy, baked from stone-ground flour, natural levain and a wood-fired oven. The bakery still bakes a roughly two-kilogram round sourdough — the pain Poilâne — reportedly from a levain culture maintained since 1932, and it turned the humble miche into a benchmark for artisan country bread worldwide.

A thick, chewy, deeply browned crust gives way to a moist, close, faintly grey crumb with the clean sourness of long fermentation and the nutty, mineral taste of stone-ground wholemeal. Cut thin, it is dense and substantial rather than airy — bread to be buttered or laid under cheese and charcuterie, not torn like a baguette. Unlike a baguette, it stays good for several days, the crumb firming and the flavour deepening, and the dark crust is meant to be eaten.

A miche is leavened entirely with sourdough levain — a culture of wild yeasts and lactic-acid bacteria — rather than baker's yeast. Over a long, slow fermentation the bacteria produce lactic and acetic acids that flavour the bread, strengthen the gluten and, by lowering the pH, hold off staling and mould so the loaf keeps for days. The high proportion of stone-ground wholemeal brings bran, germ and minerals that give the grey crumb its taste and density. The large mass bakes long and hot, often with steam, so the thick crust caramelises and the Maillard reaction builds its dark, bittersweet flavour while the interior stays moist.