A simple and practical recipe for Italian bread made using natural fermentation.
Italian cuisine is always associated with good pasta and pizza. But bread, culturally, is a food that can never be missing from the Italian table. A tourist may be disoriented by the infinite variety of bread on sale.
It is not possible to say that there is a typical Italian bread, just as we have French bread or water bread in Brazil. In Italy, there are about 300 types of bread with different shapes and flavors, depending on the region.
In Brazil, Italian bread became known for being rounded, having a hard crust and a slightly sour flavor. However, this type of bread is not widely consumed in Italy.
We separate a simple recipe and practice. A bread made with natural fermentation.
See the Italian bread recipe:
Ingredients
1 kg of good quality wheat flour
650 ml of water
100 g natural yeast (or 5g dry yeast or 15g fresh yeast)
20 g of salt
Preparation
In a container, add the flour and a splash of water. Then add the natural yeast (or yeast of your choice) and start mixing. THE
Add the rest of the water and mix well with your hands inside the container. When it is homogeneous, place the dough on a smooth, clean surface and add the salt.
Knead the dough until it is elastic and homogeneous. When the dough is elastic, cut it into 500 g pieces, covering them with clean plastic wrap (not plastic wrap) and let it rest according to the yeast used.
After resting, make cuts in the dough in the shape you want and bake for 40 minutes. Once golden, carefully remove the pan and let the breads cool before serving. The breads keep fresh for a day.
Tips for good Italian bread
- Yeast: be careful with the acidity if using natural yeast.
- Check the correct fermentation time (varies between 24 and 48 hours). The biological process has a faster process (4 or 5 hours are enough).
- Leave it to rest in the fridge in the shape you want your bread to be and take it out for an hour before baking to return to room temperature (do not bake with the dough chilled).
- Make cuts on the bread to remove oxygen bubbles so it can rise.
- Sprinkle cornmeal or flour on the bottom so the bread doesn't stick. If you prefer, you can even grease the pan.
- Keep the temperature stable between 180°C and 200°C in the oven during the baking process.
- Finally, if you prefer, you can use 500 g of wheat flour and 500 g of wholemeal flour.
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