I have been able to get a loaf with a good rise, and with 15 minutes of preparation time, as shown below. (Okay, 15 minutes of prep time, plus the two nights the dough sits in the refrigerator)
Here is the recipe:
Dough
Ingredient ....................................Weight (in grams)
Unbleached All Purpose Flour .... 625
Water ........................................... 452
Kosher Salt ...................................... 9
Instant Yeast .................................. 4
This recipe came from this website:
http://artisanbreadbaking.com/bread/pugliese
I just cut the recipe in half since my oven and baking (pizza) stone will not accomodate two large loaves, and I can't eat that much bread while it is fresh.
But the secret is in the technique:
1. Heat the water to body temperature - about 60 seconds in the microwave.
2. Mix the water, yeast, and 300 grams of flour in the mixing bowl of the stand mixer.
3. Use the dough hook, mix on low at first, and then increase the speed a couple of notches for 3 or 4 minutes. The dough mixture will be about the consistency of pancake batter.
4. Add the other 325 grams of flour and the salt, and continue to mix using the dough hook on low for a few minutes more.
5. Move the dough into a plastic container. Cover, but not airtight. I use a 5 liter container with a lid that I rest gently on top. The container must be large enough to accomodate the dough expansion.
6. Let the dough sit for several hours at room temperature until it reaches maximum expansion (probably 2 - 5 hours). The dough will expand 3 or 4 times its original size.
Then refrigerate the dough for two nights (see the Helpful Hints section).
If you don't want to wait two nights, see this blog page. I think I like the bread better because it lighter, with more oven spring.
No Refrigerator Pane Pugliese
On Baking Day
1. preheat the oven to 450 degrees (F)
2. move dough onto a floured flat surface
3. cover with a mixing bowl or oiled plastic wrap
4. allow to proof until your oven reaches temperature
5. form a boule with the dough, rotating and tucking as you turn
6. form into a loaf shape and place on the parchment
7. quickly score a cut down the length for expansion with a razor knife
8. place the dough and parchment onto the baking stone and cook for 50 minutes total
(rotate the dough after 20 -25 minutes)
allow to cool on a rack. I wrap the loaf on a towel as soon as I remove it from the oven in order to make the crust absorb escaping steam. It makes it chewier.
Some helpful hints:
You can change the amount of salt to your liking. The actual recipe, cut in half, called for the equivalent of 12 grams of salt. An Italian colleague of mine suggested the bread was too salty (I have never been to Puglia, and have never personally tasted Pane Pugliese in Italy, so I really don't know) - so I tried 1 gram increments from 8 grams to 12 grams. You choose what you like.
I use Kosher salt, that is non-iodized. Iodine will kill the yeast.
I get my yeast from Smart and Final - it is SAF brand instant yeast - 1lb for about $3-4 (I have forgotten the exact cost.)
I have found thru trial and error that two nights in the refrigerator works the best, although the dough should be good for up to 14 days. After one night, the dough is very loose, and hard to form into a "loaf" shape. Three or more nights and it seems to dry out with white flakes of flour forming on the surface of the dough. It is certainly edible, but I don't seem to get as much "oven spring" out of the loaf.
Other uses for the dough:
Focaccia bread
Calzone dough
Pizza dough
12/04/10
I used the same recipe and technique to make the dough, and baked some focaccia topped with dried rosemary (from my own rosemary bush). It has been hanging in the garage for about 4 months, and is bone dry.
I used only half of the dough that had been in the fridge for about 3 days. I spread the dough on a flat floured surface using a dimpling technique to flatten and spread the dough. I floured the dough lightly on top, and flipped the dough, and repeated the dimpling and spreading until it was about 3/8" high, and a rectangle about 12"x9". I placed the dough on a piece of parchment that had been covered with corn meal. I poured about a tablespoon of olive oil on the dough, spreading it evenly with my fingers, and then loosely covered with a piece of plastic wrap, and then covering with a towel. After about 1 hour, I preheated the oven to 450 degrees (F), and then sprinkled the dried rosemary onto the surface of the dough. I then sprinkled some kosher salt onto the top of the dough, and placed it on top of a pizza stone for 15 minutes. Then I turned the dough (180 degrees), removing the parchment, and baking for another 7 minutes.
This was really good stuff - the only fault was that most of the rosemary fell off when the bread was being cut. I made sandwiches the following day with a strip of bread about 3" wide, and then cut in half. I then split each piece to create a top and bottom, and put some cheese along with turkey and ham in between the pieces. After that, I grilled it in a pan just barely coated with olive oil until the cheese began to melt, flipping it once. I have not had such a great sandwich since I visited Murano (Italy).
12/05/10
The following day, I used the other half of the refrigerated dough to make another focaccia, but this time I put the rosemary, along with some grated Parmigiano Reggiano/Pecorino Romano mix, and about three cloves of garlic minced directly into the dough as I was dimpling and spreading. I made sure that I flipped the dough over onto the parchment so the extras would not burn. I sprinkled a little rosemary on top just for the visual effect. This is what it looked like:
I cut some strips about 3/4" wide, split them just like I did for sandwiches (except I left a little hinge at the end), and inserted an anchovie filet in between. A little snack with a glass of Nero D'Avola - I swear, it does not get much better than that.
01/08/11
I have been making these loaves every second day for the past month or so, and I have edited some of the information above to reflect what I have learned. I just wanted to say that last night I created a calzone using some of the dough - about the size of a baseball. I flattened it by dimpling and stretching the same way I created the focaccia. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees (F).
01/15/2011
Pizza
I used 1/4 of the dough recipe to make a Pizza Margherita (about 12-14 inches in diameter), just use your fingertips to spread the dough on a well floured flat surface. Let it rest a few minutes from time to time.
Add about 3 canned plum tomatoes, cut into slices and randomly placed on the dough.
Then a couple of ounces of mozzarella - crumbled and placed on the dough in between the tomato slices, and finally, some fresh basil torn and placed on top of the other ingredients.
Finish it off with a little extra virgin olive oil. Bake at 450 degrees (F) on a pizza stone, for about 20 minutes or the crust is brown to your liking.
Remember, Italian cooking is based on simplicity, and a culture of poverty. I usually add a few anchovies as I am eating the pizza.
11/20/2010
The History of My Exploration of Bread Making
I have been trying to make Pane Pugliese, a rustic bread from the Puglia region of Italy. I have had some success, but I have been unable to get the same results that a commercial bakery can produce - namely, I love the Pane Pugliese that I buy from La Brea Bakery.
I have tried several recipes, and lots of techniques to get a loaf that looks and tastes like the commercial product, but my loaves are always much flatter, rounder (like the one shown here), and require too much time and effort.
The one common thread in all of the recipes is that they start with a biga - either left to rise on a counter or in a refrigerator overnight. But I have never been able to achieve a really high loaf, even though I have tried hand kneading, and using the slap and fold method, or infusing air by using a whisk and slurry.
The idea for using the refrigerator came from the fact that 1) the biga was used to create extra flavor and 2) no matter what technique I used to try to create higher loaves, it did not work - so I begin to think that the whole thing could be put into the refrigerator overnight, and baked. I did a google search for refrigerator bread, and ended up reading this article:
Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day
It confirmed my idea (ok, it was their idea first). I did try their recipe - I cut it down from 4 loaves to a single loaf, and the bread tasted good, but was the loaf flat.
I sauteed half a large onion, chopped, and half a green bell pepper, chopped in extra virgin olive oil for a few minutes, and added the meat (extracted from the casing) from one hot italian sausage and one mild italian sausage. After the meat was brown, I pushed all of the ingredients to the edges of the pan, and added a tablespoon of tomato paste to the middle of the pan, and let that get toasted for a few minutes. Then I added a little red wine to form just a little wetness to the sauce, and mixed in all the other ingredients. You don't want this very wet, but just a little moist. After I cooked out most of the wine, I placed the meat mixture onto half of the dough, and folded the dough over to cover the meat mixture. Then I folded and pinched the edges to seal the calzone, and placed on a piece of parchment, and onto the hot pizza stone for 30 minutes. Rotate this every few minutes to bake evenly.
Sprinkle a little parmigiano reggiano or pecorina romano on the calzone when it comes from the oven, and serve. My wife and I watch our calories, so we will get four servings out of this - most people would get two or even one serving.
Sorry, no picture, but we ate this one too fast. But you know what a calzone looks like!
1/19/2011
1/9/2011
I wanted to add a couple of notes here to include all of the things that I have tried to create a lighter, airier bread - something closer to what you get from a regular bakery.
I am not telling you to not try these techniques or recipes, and I am not saying that other people cannot achieve better results than I can, I am simply saying that I was unable to achieve better results - and the extra time spent in producing these breads put them out of my reach because I cannot devote hours and hours into making bread.
At this website, you can spend most of an entire 24 hour period kneading, punching, proofing
http://artisanbreadbaking.com/bread/pugliese
I have tried many dough making techniques including an autolyse period
I have tried different baking techniques, including steaming
I have tried different bread flour - including:
Gold Medal Bread Flour
King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour
1/2 Durum wheat
