Italian Bread II

Here's How It's Done

Adapted From The Bread Baker's Apprentice

Biga Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1/2 teaspoon instant yeast (not dry active or fresh)

3/4 to 1 cup water, room temperature

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl then add the water and mix to form a ball. Knead in a mixer or on the counter for about 5 minutes to achieve a tacky dough. Lightly oil a bowl, place the dough in it and cover with plastic wrap. Let it ferment at room temperature for 2 to 4 hours until it doubles in size. Punch the dough down to release the gas, then re-cover with plastic and refrigerate it overnight.

Final dough ingredients:

Biga (removed from fridge 1 hour prior to making final dough and cut into 6 pieces)

2 1/2 cups bread flour

3 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon instant yeast

1 teaspoon diastatic malt powder

1 tablespoon olive oil

3/4 cup+ water at room temperature

Equipment:

2 11x17 inch sheet pans

A spray bottle of water

Remove the biga from the fridge one hour before assembling the final dough.

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl or that of an electric mixer with paddle attachment. Add the wet ingredients and the pieces of biga incrementally until a ball forms. The dough should be slightly sticky at this point. Add water if too dry or a little flour if it's batter-like, which it shouldn't be.

Now with the dough hook in an electric mixer knead the dough for 10 minutes, adding literally drops of water here and there to achieve a smooth, tacky but not sticky dough. Alternatively, if kneading by hand, take a dough scraper and pull and stretch the dough in one direction while rotating the bowl in the opposite direction, dipping the scraper in water periodically. Put some elbow grease into it and you'll feel the workout after only a few minutes.

Pour a teaspoon or so of oil into a large non-reactive bowl, transfer the dough to it and roll it around to coat it with oil. Cover with plastic and let it ferment for 2 hours or so until it doubles in size.

Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces. Gently press each piece into a rectangle. Fold the bottom third of the dough up to the center and press to seal, then fold the remaining dough over the top and use the edge of your hand to seal it closed. Let the dough rest 5 minutes, then roll the dough back and forth to extend it while creating tapered ends.

Lightly flour the backside of a sheet pan, then transfer the pieces of dough to the pan and cover with plastic. Proof at room temperature for 1 hour.

Place an empty pan of at least 1 inch depth on the bottom rack of the oven. Preheat the oven to 500º. Score the loaves with a sharp knife either down the length of the bread, or make a few slashes on the diagonal.

Pour 1 cup of hot water into the empty sheet pan, then place the pan with the loaves in the oven and close the door. After 30 seconds open the door and spray the walls of the oven with the water bottle a couple of times (don't aim it at the light bulb in the oven or it might explode) then close the door.

After 30 seconds repeat this once more, then lower the temperature to 450º and bake for another 20 minutes or so until the breads are plump and golden brown.

Remove from the oven to a cooling rack and let cool 1 hour before slicing or serving.

Note: Don't put your bread in an air-tight plastic bag! Let it breath, allowing it to age gracefully. Sure, it will get stale, then hard, but that's better than moldy. Leave it out or put it in a paper or well-perforated plastic bag. I've left a loaf out for four weeks and then made perfectly good bread crumbs with what remained. Just don't throw it away because there are lots of ways to use it; panzanella, ribollita, pappa al pomodoro--all Tuscan applications mind you. But those are ideas for other posts I suppose.