This week's Bread Baker's Apprentice selection was a very easy one for me since I usually make Italian bread at least once a week anyway. I did in fact use the recipe from the book three different times over the past couple of weeks. I baked two round loaves the first time I used the recipe (see below), then I tried out Peter Reinhart's instructions for shaping the bread dough into bread sticks (which were great by the way), and finally I made two baguettes that I used for bruschetta. The only change I made to the original recipe was to eliminate the diastatic barley malt powder since I would have no idea where to find such an ingredient here in Italy.

Like most recipes in this book, the bread is once again made over two days as you fist start out with a biga that you refrigerate overnight. The recipe then proceeds exactly as you would expect an Italian bread recipe to by mixing the biga with bread flour, salt, sugar, yeast, olive oil and water. Although I mixed the ingredients in my stand mixer, I did knead the dough by hand until it passed the windowpane test. The dough is then allowed to double in size, is then shaped and allowed to proof before it is baked in the oven. The addition of a steam pan in the oven does create a really nice chewy crust on this bread, and I found the crumb to be nice and soft with just enough holes in it to be perfect for sopping up sauce.

While reading the Italian bread recipe I was interested in Peter Reinhart instructions for making breadsticks so a couple weeks back when we were expecting company I gave them a try. I have made breadsticks numerous times of the years, but never quite in this manner. The bread dough is rolled to a thickness of about 1/3 of an inch, and the strips of about an inch wide are cut with a pizza cutter. Although the book suggests brushing the sticks with water and sprinkling them with seeds before baking, I simply brushed mine with olive oil and sprinkled them with sea salt. I did find that the breadsticks that were baked a little were better as they stayed crisp for a few days. The breadsticks that were not allowed to crisp up as much seemed to get quite stale even as soon as the next day, so next time I make them I will take extra care to ensure they are baked until very crisp.

I really didn't notice any great difference in this BBA Italian bread compared to the one I have been making for years which can be found at Basic Italian Bread Recipe apart from the fact I usually make two very large loaves or four smaller ones from my own recipe. The next bread I will be tackling will be Kaiser Rolls, or New York hard rolls which should lead to the creation of a few tasty paninis!

 

 

 

 

I Made Two Round Loaves First 

 

 

 

The Dough Also Makes GREAT Breadsticks!

 

 

 

Two Baguettes

 

 

 

Great Crumb & Crust!