The January-February 2003 edition of "Cook's Illustrated" had a recipe for
a "Rustic Italian Loaf". Most of the procedure is fairly standard for
Italian bread including the use of a biga as a pre-ferment. But there are
several elements of the procedure that I haven't seen before and the
resulting bread is different enough (and good enough) to suggest that these
differences are important. The resulting bread has a very soft, light and
irregular, yet full crumb that I haven't been able to achieve with most
other recipes for Italian bread. The unusual parts of the procedure are;
1. A 20 minute hydration (autolyse) period after initial mixing of the
final dough ingredients but before adding the biga.
2. The biga (and salt) are added after the hydration period.
3. The primary fermentation (bulk rise) takes 3 hours and includes two
interim "punch downs", one each hour. The punchdowns are actually
foldovers where the outside edge is dragged over the center from 4
directions to create a squared off dough ball.
The hydration lets the flour soak and release its gluten prior to
kneading. It is only unusual in that it is longer than most I've
seen. More unusual is adding the biga in dough form to the already mixed
final dough. Most procedures call for dissolving the biga in the water
before adding the flour for the final dough. I was a bit skeptical that
the biga would mix properly but is appeared to mix in quickly during the
(machine) knead. The article doesn't say to but I used sea salt to ensure
that the salt dissolves in the already thick dough during kneading. (Sea
salt is lighter per unit volume than table salt so the quantity must be
adjusted).
While the biga contributes mostly to flavor and the irregularity of the
crumb, I think the light texture of the crumb comes primarily from the long
and active primary fermentation. Over the years I have learned the hard
way that short-cutting the primary fermentation step results in a dense
heavy loaf and trying to "fix" the problem by extending the "proofing" or
final rise of the shaped loaf doesn't work. I had not thought about the
opposite effect, extending the bulk rise and working the dough periodically
during the rise to lighten the loaf. As the yeast consumes the starch in
the dough it eventually runs out of accessible food. Working the dough
during fermentation makes more food accessible to the yeast. Carrying the
process to the extreme that this procedure does creates crumb filled with
what appears to be a primary irregular structure and a secondary set of
holes within the structure itself. The resulting bread has a crisp crust
and soft but full crumb that is ideal as a sandwich bread and for French
toast. For chewy crusted loaves, ripped into pieces and used for dipping
in olive oil and slathering with roasted garlic I prefer the heavier but
larger-hole crumb that comes from one primary rise with no punchdowns.
Biga
2 cups (11 oz) bread flour
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 cup (8 oz) water
Mix for 3 minutes, don't bother to knead, seal with plastic wrap, let rise
for 3 hours, refrigerate overnight.
Dough
3 cups (16.5 oz) bread flour
1 tsp instant yeast
1 1/3 cups (10.7 oz) water
2 tsp (.46 oz) table salt (or 2 3/4 tsp sea salt) (sea salts vary in
density, weigh yours)
Remove biga from fridge. Mix dough ingredients, cover bowl, let stand for
20 minutes, add biga and salt, knead slowly to mix biga and salt into
dough, then faster for 4 to 6 minutes (or 10 to 12 minutes if by
hand). Transfer to large bowl, let stand for 1 hour. Dough should be
puffy and have started to rise. Fold outside over inside four times to
form a square, let rise for another hour, fold again, let rise for another
hour. Each time the dough is folded it will end up larger than the prior
time. The final rise will result in a dough that is more than double the
initial size. Fold again and remove from bowl.
Preheat oven (and baking stone) to 500 F. Shape into a single oval loaf,
let rise until double (in a basket if you have one or free standing), slash
lengthwise to within 1 1/2 inches of the ends. This will result in wide
loaf creating large oval slices for almost the full length of the
loaf. Spray with water (or use whatever steam method you normally
use). Slide bread on stone, turn oven down to 400 F and bake to an
internal temperature of 210 F (about 35 - 40 minutes).
Werner