I tried this bread today and just had to send the recipe to you bread
bakers. This bread is simple, in that, it takes very few ingredients, but
plan on
24-48 hours before you have a loaf of this delicious goodie.
Enclosed after this recipe are notes from my experience.
Pane Pugliese
This crusty, slightly domed and delicious peasant bread is made with a very
slack (wet) dough. The dough is almost impossible to work with, [that's an
understatement jtr] but produces a pleasingly open texture. A long
fermentation enhances the bread's flavor. (King Arthur Flour Co).
BIGA
1/2 cup (4 ozs) water
1 1/4 cups (5 1/8 ozs) KA Unbleached A-P Flour
1/8 teaspoon instant yeast
In a small mixing bowl, combine the water, flour and yeast to form a soft
dough. Don't knead it; just make sure all of the ingredients are
well-incorporated. Set this mixture aside in a warm place, covered, for 12
to 16 hours.
DOUGH
All of the biga (above)
1 1/2 cups (12 ozs) water
4 cups (~17 ozs) KA Unbleached A-P Flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
Knead all of the dough ingredients together, using a mixer or bread machine
(this is well nigh impossible to knead by hand), until the dough is cohesive
and elastic (though not necessarily smooth), about 10 minutes. Cover the
dough and let it rise in a warm place for 2 to 3 hours, gently stirring it
down each hour. (The longer you let the dough rise at this point, the better
the flavor of the finished loaf will be).
Lightly grease a half-sheet pan or other flat pan*. (See my notes) Scoop
the very wet dough, in two separate pieces, onto the pan lengthwise, shaping
each piece into a rough oval as best you can. [Good luck] Cover the dough
with heavily greased plastic wrap, and allow it to rise for about 90
minutes. It'll spread quite a bit; don't worry, it's supposed to.
Spray the loaves heavily with warm water, and bake them in a preheated 450F
oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until they're a deep, golden brown. Turn the
oven off, prop the door open, transfer the loaves from the pan to the oven
rack, and allow them to cool in the turned-off oven.
Yield: 2 loaves.
Source: King Arthur Flour Co.
MY NOTES:
Date Tested: 08/15/00
Results: Out of this world! A winner!
Weather: Clear, rather hot, high in upper 80's. A/C off.
Ambient kitchen temp 78-86
Ingredients: Exactly as written
Method: KitchenAid:
Allowed dough to rest after mixing for 20 minutes.
Kneaded 3 minutes, rested 2 minutes, kneaded 3 minutes, rested 2
minutes, kneaded 3 more minutes. Covered bowl and allowed to rise 1 hour,
stirred down gently every hour for 3 hours.
Used 2 1-half sheet pans covered with greased parchment paper. (See my
changes later on)
Proof: About 1 hour. (Room very warm, about 86)
Baking: 25 minutes exactly.
Comments: This dough was so slack it was impossible to handle. Perhaps I
could have used a little more flour than recipe called for but wanted to
prepare it just as written.
Placing the divided dough onto 1 half sheet pan produced a risen dough
became one. One loaf almost fell off the pan during the proofing period.
Ended I cutting parchment paper down the middle between the two loaves and
moving it and one loaf to pizza peel. This loaf I baked on pizza stone. The
remaining loaf, which was still on the half sheet, I baked in the lower
part of the oven. Because it wasn't as exposed to the top element it's
crust wasn't as brown as I would have liked.
I served this with a dipping oil: Olive oil, crushed basil and balsamic
vinegar.
joni repasch