by Rod Ferris
(Brandon Manitoba Canada)
Yup! Italian everyday bread. I started making bread on a regular basis after a 25 year exile from the bakery! I used to bake bread in a Monastery here in our province. I had bought a bread maker but I found that it always made the same shapes and little by little it just wasn’t feeling as if I was baking bread! I SO missed baking bread for real!
This summer while on disability I was able to follow America’s Test Kitchen and there was a revelation for me: I could bake my own bread and learn to bake different kinds of bread again. All those years ago, I had see the Tassajara Bread Book for my inspiration and I rediscovered it on iBooks… there it was in all its artisanal glory.
Then one day while googling around the topic of bread baking, I came across Cathy’s Bread Experience website, and I was blown away, not only did I find a home for my longing but I found recipes galore and I wrote them down and stored them and use them. But one recipe which I just love is the Italian Bread recipe.
I was a little afraid of making Bigas, I don’t know why, but they seemed so far beyond my ability… but I was not going to let that get me down. So I followed the recipe. I made the biga, but I remembered I had tried the ATK biga which sat over night at Room Temperature. I was afraid I would have a monster in the morning, but no a tame and happily bubbling biga greeted me. So for the summer I was baking this recipe as often as I could.
Alas, I found it a bit soft and fluffy, but the crumb wasn’t right. So I poked and prodded and this is my recipe which has given me the most beautiful “Pane Cafone Italiano” just as one would find described on a website from Italy called: Giallo Zafferano: where it is described as the Staple bread of Italy today and found all over. It is actually a sour dough starter if you do it the old Neapolitan way, but that takes up my fridge with pet starters and fussing with feeding and watering something that I don’t use enough to make it worth my while. Sonia Peronaci has another. Suggestion and that is what I will use.
Pane Cafone Italiano:
Biga:
367 gr. Unbleached Bread Flour (Farina Manitoba, Yeah! Manitoba)
250 ml. water
½ tsp rapid rise yeast
Dough:
183 gr. unbleached bread flour,
183 gr. semolina flour
2 heaping Tbsp gluten flour blended with the Bread Four
250 ml water
2 ¼ tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar, or Diastatic malt
2 Tbsp EVOO
Procedure I have begun to use:
Biga:
The night before add water to a medium bowl and sprinkle yeast over the surface and let it hydrate, then gently stir is until the water is blended with the yeast.
Then add Flour one spoonful at a time and blend it well before adding the next, Some how this really makes a better Biga, and you know… we all believe that Biga is Betta! … when the flour becomes difficult to handle, then turn it out on the board and begin to knead the rest of the flour into the dough. Knead until you get a nice smooth homogenous dough. (L’Impasto lisco e omogeneo). Place the biga dough in a large bowl and press it own as flat as you might. Then cover with a couple of pieces of plastic wrap. Place in a warm place for 2-4 hours, then pop in the fridge when you go to bed. After 4 hours the dough should be bubbly and boozy, I prefer to put it in the fridge then. The reason I have found is that the biga breaks up better and makes a wonderful leaven and becomes almost like a sourdough starter if you let it get a bit boozy!
This will keep up to 3 days in the fridge, if you are like some people we know, who make their biga and then get called out to work and have to bake bread in the middle of the night!
The Dough:
The next day early, take tone dough out and let is sit for about 1 hr, then with wet hands pull, stretch and fold the Biga over itself first fold to the centre then the second over the first, then turn and do the same the other way and then cover the Biga and let it sit for another hour. REMEMBER to wet your hands! If you don’t you’ll be wearing your bread for the rest of the day!
Then when you think you have it mixed enough, add your and sugar and EVOO then put the paddle attachment on and slowly blend the flour 3 soup spoonfuls at a time of Flour and semolina. Be sure that the flour is really well incorporated before you add the next spoonfuls. When all is added, and a shaggy dough is achieved, clean and remove the paddle; then cover for 20 mins and let the bread hydrate in analyse. You won’t regret doing this, and the dough even smells different after this step.
Place the dough hook on the machine and knead the dough for 10 mins on Cuisinart 4, not sure what Kitchen Aide would be but it should be just a good knead speed not a beat. The dough at first seems sticky, but you shouldn’t need to add anymore flour, since I put this recipe together, I have not had to add anything. When the kneading is done, with a floured spatula or floured bowl scraper, turn the dough out on to a lightly flour board and stretch it very gently out and then fold the top to the centre then the bottom over the whole fold. Turn the dough and do the same. The dough should feel extremely lisce e morbido! and as if it was going to float off the board, it is remarkable! Place it in a clean oiled bowl… (EVOO), then cover with plastic wrap and let is rise for a good 2 hours. Just ignore it and remember in Italy it is bad Karma to sweep the floor when the bread is rising!
When the bread is risen, very gently turn the dough out onto the board supporting it with floured hands and setting it down really gently. Then gently stretch it out to a rectangle and then cut in half or buns or Pagnotte! (Yup, makes good sandwich bread and fits in the toaster better.
Put your stone in the oven and set the temperature for 500ºF and put a bread pan full of water in the oven, and put the bread on your stove and let it rise in the warmth for about 1 – 1 ½ hours. Even the Batardi need to rise well and so they don’t squeeze out the slash marks.
When the loaves are risen sufficiently, spray with water and slash them with a lame or a serrated knife. Place in the oven and spritz them every 30 seconds for three times. then turn the oven down to 450º F and set you timer for 10 minutes, after 10 mins switch and turn your loaves and set your time for another 10 mins. The loaves when done should register 200ºF and have a nice golden crust if you used your stone.
Let the Loaves cool for 1-2 hours… I find with the semolina and the gluten flour, they taste better if left to cool completely, otherwise they are sort of “corny”.
The Crumb is phenomenal ! The toast is really tasty and toasty, and a sandwich with this bread is luscious! Lisce e al dente!
It holds stuff like tomato without going soggy, and just make you feel as if you had lunch!
Thanks Cathy for your guidance in all of this! My slow rehabilitation has been made joyful because of your Website!
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