Italian Bread

What is commonly known as Italian Bread in the states is something like French Bread but typically softer. The dough typically contains some olive oil and dairy to soften things up, and instead of steaming the oven to maximize crust you brush the crust with water before placing it in the oven which keeps it softer and chewier. It is the perfect spongy bread for mopping up pasta sauces, and quite good on its own.

This is based on the recipe from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. I used a preferment: he does not. I'm not sure if it made a difference or not, but the way I made it turned out quite good.

Italian Bread

Makes 2 large 2 pound loaves
Preferment:
1 cup water
1 cup bread or all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

Dough:
All of the preferment
5 cups bread or all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 cup nonfat dry milk
1 tablespoon malt syrup, malt powder, brown sugar, or sugar
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups water


To start the preferment, mix together the flour, water, and yeast in a small bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave out at room temperature for at least 4 hours and as long as 16 hours.

To make the dough, mix together the preferment, water, olive oil, yeast, salt, malt powder, and dry milk in a bowl with 2 more cups of flour. Mix thoroughly. Mix or knead in the rest of the flour a half a cup as a time until you have a slack dough but one that is no longer sticky. Total mixing time should be in the ballpark of 10 to 15 minutes.




Place the dough in a well-greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise at room temperature until at least 2 times in size, approximately 2 hours. Punch the dough down and let it rise again for half an hour.

Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it in half. Shape the dough into a ball or log, cover with a damp towel, and allow it to relax for another 20 minutes.

Shape the dough into its final shape. Cover again and allow to rise for another hour until doubled in bulk.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven and baking stone, if you are using one, to 425 degrees.

Right before placing the loaves in the oven brush or spray them lightly with water. Place them into the oven and bake for 20 minutes before rotating them. Bake them another 20 to 30 minutes or until the internal temperature of the loaf reads 200 degrees. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least a half an hour before serving.

Italian Bread

Related Recipe: Rustic Bread

Comments

thanks it worked, will try post more pics soon.

I baked from a cold oven, and thought it got good oven spring.

any comments? is this how the crumb is supposed to look?

thanks

Probably the 4th or 5th time I've made this.  This time I mixed the dough in a bowl instead of trying to do most of the mixing on the countertop, and it made it so much easier, adding flour until it was slack, but not sticky (more or less) then turning it out to knead.  Before I tried kneading after just adding the two cups and kneading in the extra flour.  Yuck.

So I was in a bread mood this weekend: the half loaf (mmmmmmm.....) is this thread's Italian, with a salted top (I use sea salt run through a grinder, it's fantastic!); the rear seeded loaf is semolina Italian with sesame seeds;  and the front loaf is Italian with dusted top.

Bread Day

I can't stop making this bread, or, apparently, posting to this thread..  I think I found the secret/s.  One, run the dishwasher while the dough is proofing, I get a fantastic, moist rise when I do this.  Two, it has to REALLY rise, as in, leave it alone and let it go wild. You can see how fluffy it got in the second pic.  This is my batch from the other day, a gift I made to a client.

The salted top is my fave for dipping in olive oil.  I just use a salt grinder from Trader Joes, gives a coarse grind.  Right before putting in the oven, I wet the top, grind some salt, and slice the top.

I don't see any reason adding garlic or cheese wouldn't work for this bread....you could add them to the mix or as you said, after the proof.

 

I decided to make this recipe today (I've made it before too) and it turned out really good and is going to be on the  table tonight with redsauce/pasta and meatballs ....I tasted it earlier and it is delish...This is an easy recipe and so good.  I used my yeast water in the preferment that I made last night and I refreshed it this morning......I used Bread Flour and White Whole Wheat.....

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made the preferment last night, and jus mixing it in the KA now. i kind've jus dumped everything in, wasn't reading recipe. and mix low speed on the mixer for 7 mins and got a very very wet dough. completely differrent to my first attempt. i guess i should jus add extra flour? i was going to try not to, but i think others have been doing this. any advice? thanks in advance :)

Ended up dumping in a cup of flour. Still ended up with gorgeous dough! I love this recipe!! Loaves r in the oven and I actually got oven spring!! This hasn't happened in new oven yet. Very happy with this recipe 

I made this bread today and it was so good! Ittasted exactly like the one we buy from Italian store or better. I made 1 loaf and 4 like a subway style bread for sandwiches. I will make more again.

Or, what to do with a lazy bowl of sourdough starter? My regular starter was safely stored in the refrigerator and I was left with a 1/2 cup or so after making Silverton's Country White. Instead of discarding it I neglected it for a couple of days and then decided to try coaxing it back to health. It bubbled and frothed, developed thick stringy texture but never did double.

The good part of the story....

 I started with Floyd's Italian bread recipe: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/italianbread. Used about two cups of pretty (but pathetic) sourdough instead of the overnight preferment. Added about 1/2 cup chopped Kalamata olives, 1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes in oil, and about 1 tablespoonful of fresh chopped rosemary. I drained/dried the olives and tomato as much as I could but there was still enough oil to make the dough a really pretty gold color (not the faded pink I expected). The taste is good, not the great texture and well developed flour as Silverton's Olive bread but for a one day bread, I am pleased.

Toast

I used Floyd's Italian bread recipe as a "springboard" for today's bread.  I used a whole wheat starter (12 oz), honey for the sweetener, and 1/2 cup of buttermilk to replace the dry milk.  For the white flour I used 75% 00 flour (leftover from summer pizzas in my brick oven) and 25% AP flour.

The crumb was wonderfully soft and flavorful.....the crust was crisp.   In the past I have only used my 00 flour for pizza and calzone.  It was amazing in this Italian bread.  Now I am wondering what else 00 flour can do.   
Happy Holidays to everyone, and a Happy, Healthy New Year to all!            embth 

 

 

Toast

I can make a great no knead and ciabatta but my family does not care for either the large holes or lean dough. 

I think this is the recipe I am looking for.  (Edited)..........

This is the recipe for my family, delicious.

I noticed how slack my dough was so I beat it with first the paddle of my Kitchen Aid and then when it climbed up the paddle, I switched to the hook and beat it until formed a ball on the hook. That made the dough silky soft and manageable. I also folded the dough over itself while it was rising to help with gluten structure.  My bread ended up looking like the identical twin to the original photo posted.  I wrapped it in a linen tea towel and a pillow case. It had a nice chew to the crust and moist interior for 3 days. This recipe is a keeper.

Take a look at: A Lotta Ciabatta video on youtube. Her technique with the Kitchen Aid, is what I followed.

 

 

...I'd like to retard the fermentation of this finished dough overnight.  The plan is to let the pre-ferment go to about 7pm tonight (about 8 hours), mix the final dough and pop it in the fridge until 6am tomorrow morning.  I'll divide the dough, rest it for about an hour to warm up, then form into loaves and proof them about 40 min.  Then bake.  Any suggestions regarding timing? 

Thanks!

Joe

I find loafing and then retarding the loaves works better.

Moreover, why obsess over "just baked bread"?  Just baked bread tends to be fragile and insipid in flavor.  Further, if this is for company, using a recipe you've never used with a rechnique you've never used is a recipe for dissappointment.  There's enough on your mind as you prepare for company, the bread just becomes an added aggravation.  Will it rise?  Will it be good?

You'll avoid a lot of aggravation if you bake the bread today and serve it tomorrrow - most breads taste better the second day in any case.

 

After doing the pre-ferment for  about 8 hours, I put together the dough later in the evening and let it retard overnight in the fridge.  I checked on it after an hour and it had almost doubled in size.  I punched it down, put it back in the fridge and went to bed.  Got up at 6am to find it at least doubled in size.  I divided the dough in half by weight, formed two balls, and let them rest covered for almost an hour (to warm up a bit).  I then formed the loaves (rather poorly since this is a bit on the sticky side) and let them proof for about 45 minutes.  After some nasty scoring (I need to work on scoring higher hydration doughs :) ), I popped both in the oven onto a pre-heated baking stone.  I was actually amazed at how well this turned out...  Brought both loaves to my mom's 96th birthday party (along with a sponge cake that was later topped with whipped cream and sliced peaches :) ).  The crust had a nice light crunch and the crumb was wonderful.  While chewy, it was incredibly "creamy"; it melted in the mouth and had a fantastic flavor.  The first loaf was gone in about 10 minutes along with quite a bit of butter :)  This is definately a keeper.  I'll never be able to go to another family get-together without bringing a couple of loaves of this one :)

The dough was very wet.  The shape ended up being more ciabatta, but it ballooned nicely in the oven once I managed to get it off the pizza peel that I let it proof on.  Ended up welding itself even though I used cornmeal. I did the preferment for at least 2 hours and omitted the milk, no substitution, as I don't have any of that on hand.

When kneading wet doughs I can deal with the sticky hands, but is there any surface that works any better than any other for not sticking to the counter?  I have older formica countertops.  Need a new kitchen. :-)

Pure beginner but somehow with the vast amount of help from other's comments and adding 1 more C of flour I made it through and the bread is delightful. Can't wait to try it again. Got a lot to learn but so rewarding.

I scalded milk for the dry milk and used Carnation Malted Milk for the malt flavor. Rise was robust all the way.

Toast

I am male age 71, and have been baking bread for many years. This is the best, most tasty bread i have had in my life. I followed the recipe to the letter. Thank you so much.

I saw this recipe a few years back but never made it. It's when I started doing Lahey's no knead bread. From reading the comments about how wet the dough is, I believe this recipe can be converted to a no knead with doing stretch & folds. What are your thoughts? I don't use a mixer. I do breads by hand or use a bread machine, dough cycle Only.

interesting that today I would come across this post. Just yesterday in a group on facebook someone asked if this book was any good. I bought this book well over 25 years ago, I have read it numerous times the way many read novels. I love this book and find it very adaptable to the newer methods and developments. I have converted many of the formulas to artisan style breads and met with great success.

The second try

Dear Floydm, thank you very much indeed for shearing this recipe.

I am new at hand-bread making, but with your recepie I found myself with hands in the dough for the second time, and it taste better than the first!

This time I even forgot to add sugar and it came out like a real Italian ciabatta.

Many thnx to all of you, it was educational to read all these comments.

I used this recipe as the basis for the best dinner rolls I've ever made today! 

I went with a 50/50 whole milk and water mix instead of water & powdered milk, used dark brown sugar for the sugar.

For the preparation I followed the recipe as written up to the shaping stage, and divided into 16 more or less equal pieces of dough, which I then shaped into sort of batards, about three inches long, inch and half wide. Sprayed with oil, covered in plastic and let proof for an hour. 

For baking I setup for steaming the oven and started at 450F, and after three water spritz cycles (30 seconds apart) knocked it back to 425F and baked for 12 minutes, rotated, baked for 12 more minutes. They came out just over 200F internal temp. 

I got a nice chewie crust and a soft, spongy crumb perfect for mopping up gravy. Very very very happy with the results. Oh and a very rich, slightly nutty taste to the bread thanks to the large, long preferment. This is great compromise between my love of crusty, rustic breads and normal people just wanting a soft roll for gravy and butter at Thanksgiving! 

Cheers! 

Baked at 350 in a convection oven for 30 mins with steam. May try 400 next time to get a harder crust. Any comments are welcome.