Skip to content

Beta This app is in Beta Testing

Bread, Rustic Italian

No ratings yet
Italy

Known as an Italian recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.

Ingredients 11 ingredients

  1. 11 ounces bread flour -- (2C)
  2. Must
  3. 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
  4. 2 teaspoons table salt
  5. 16 1/2 ounces bread flour -- plus extra for dusting (3C)
  6. 10 2/3 ounces water -- room temperature (1 1/3C)
  7. 8 ounces water -- room temperature (1C)
  8. Cut
  9. Biga
  10. Dough
  11. 1 teaspoon instant yeast
Contains Gluten Read from the ingredients, not verified. Check labels.

Cook safely

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

  • Oven and hot trays. Use dry oven gloves for trays and dishes: a hot tray looks just like a cold one. Open the oven door away from your face and let the first rush of heat out.
  • Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

Method

  1. For a rustic Italian bread recipe with a chewy but tender crumb, crusty but not tough, we used bread flour, which gave our bread height and a thick crust. Biga (a traditional Italian pre-ferment) mixed the day before gave the bread a wheaty, multidimensional flavor. A mixing technique called autolyse developed the dough's protein while reducing kneading time.
  2. This recipe requires a standing mixer to make the dough, a spray-bottle filled with water for spritzing, a rectangular baking stone, and an instant-read thermometer for gauging doneness. It also requires a bit of patience - the biga, which gives the bread flavor, must be made 11 to 27 hours before the dough is made.
  3. For the biga: Combine flour, yeast, and water in bowl of standing mixer fitted with dough hook. Knead on lowest speed (stir on KitchenAid) until it forms a shaggy dough, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer biga to medium bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let stand at room temperature until beginning to bubble and rise, about 3 hours. Refrigerate biga at least 8 hours or up to 24 hours.
  4. For the dough: Remove biga from refrigerator and let stand at room temperature while making dough. Combine flour, yeast, and water in bowl of standing mixer fitted with dough hook; knead on lowest speed until rough dough is formed, about 3 minutes. Turn mixer off and, without removing dough hook or bowl from mixer, cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap; let dough rest 20 minutes.
  5. Remove plastic wrap, add biga and salt to bowl, and continue to knead on lowest speed until ingredients are incorporated and dough is formed (dough should clear sides of bowl but stick to very bottom), about 4 minutes. Increase mixer speed to low (speed 2 on KitchenAid) and continue to knead until dough forms a more cohesive ball, about 1 minute. Transfer dough to large bowl (at least 3 times dough's size) and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in cool, draft-free spot away from direct sunlight, until slightly risen and puffy, about 1 hour.
  6. Remove plastic wrap and, following illustrations from "Step by Step: Turning the Dough", turn dough. Replace plastic wrap; let dough rise 1 hour. Turn dough again, replace plastic wrap, and let dough rise 1 hour longer.
  7. Dust work surface liberally with flour. Gently scrape and invert dough out of bowl onto work surface (side of dough that was against bowl should now be facing up). Dust dough and hands liberally with flour and, using minimal pressure, push dough into rough 8- to 10" square. Following illustrations from "Step by Step: Shaping the Loaf", shape dough and transfer to large sheet parchment paper. Dust loaf liberally with flour and cover loosely with plastic wrap; let loaf rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position, place baking stone on rack, and heat oven to 500F.
  8. Using a lame, single-edged razor blade, or sharp chef's knife, cut slit 1/2" deep lengthwise along top of loaf, starting and stopping about 1 1/2" from ends; spray loaf lightly with water. Slide parchment sheet with loaf onto baker's peel or upside-down baking sheet, then slide parchment with loaf onto hot baking stone in oven. Bake 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 400F and quickly spin loaf around using edges of parchment; continue to bake until deep golden brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center of loaf registers 210F, about 35 minutes longer. Transfer to wire rack, discard parchment, and cool loaf to room temperature, about 2 hours.
  9. Cal 283, Fat 1g, Carb 56g, Sod 305mg, Fiber 2g, Pro 9g
  10. Review: This may be my favorite bread. One time I wanted it our of the oven in the early afternoon, so I started making the biga early in the morning of the first day. In the evening I mixed the dough and let it take the first rise overnight. I started at 7:00 the next morning. I folded the dough, and let it rise 2 hours, then proceeded as usual. I took it out of the oven at 12:20 PM. I imagine almost any of the rises could be done overnight.
  11. Review: I've baked this many times in the past five months and have been consistently impressed with this bread. Because the loaf, as written, produces a battleship-sized loaf I now divide the dough into two 640 gram balls, give them a gentle bottom-tuck kneading, and place them in separate bowls for the folding procedure. The result is two 16 inch loaves. I've seen questions about cups to weights. The weights are accurate: 11 ounces (312 grams) for the biga, 16 1/2 ounces (468 grams) for the dough.
  12. Review: I've made this bread twice. Second time I split the recipe and shaped two loaves. Baked as directed in recipe. Great results.
  13. Review: CI determined that bread flour weighs 5.5 oz/cup...they have been using that standard for years.
  14. Review: I tried this tonight and this is a solid recipe for a rustic-style bread. It had a nice crust that was simultaneously crispy and chewy. The crum was moist, tender, and rustic. I weighed all my ingredients and used KA bread flour and SAF instant yeast so I was surprised (not really, because this is a lot of flour) that my loaf was around 24 inches rather than the 16 inches described. It barely fit diagonally on my large bread stone. I'll make this again but divide it into two loaves when it comes out of the mixer.
  15. Review: Some of the best bread I ever made. Freezes well, too.
  16. Question: Could I use my sourdough starter in place of the biga? Response: Yes, but you'll need to adjust the recipe based on the hydration of your starter. I.e., if your starter feed is equal parts starter/water/flour when feeding you'll want to start adding a higher ratio of flour a couple feedings before you want to make the recipe.
  17. Question: Can this be split to make two smaller loaves of bread? Response: Yes--I halved the recipe (water for dough is 5 oz + 2 teaspoons). When shaping, I formed a ~5 inch square then rolled to an ~11 inch football. Baking times were 9 mins @ 500 and 25 mins @ 400, using an upside down baking sheet instead of a stone, which brought me to an interior temp of 210. Finished loaf was darker than you may like, so recommend reducing time @ 500 by a minute or two and increasing the remaining time as needed. It also came out flatter (~4" high x 6" wide) and with less of a defined slit on top than I would have liked, but that was probably due more to my technique than an effect of halving the recipe.
  18. https://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/5-rustic-italian-bread

Plating

Cookware for this recipe

  • Baking tray
  • Mixing bowl
  • Electric mixer
  • Chef's knife
  • Vegetable peeler
  • Wooden spoon
  • Kitchen thermometer
Source Not stated: saved from a website or mailing list, rights unverified
Credit

S(Internet address):. Saved from the Bread-Bakers mailing list (http://www.bread-bakers.com/archives/digests/v119n033.txt), file Recipes/www.bread-bakers.com/archives/digests/v119n033.txt in the Internet Archive item cooking-recipes (https://archive.org/details/cooking-recipes).

What was changed: Read by machine from the mastercook text: title, ingredients and method as written, columns closed up and wrapped lines joined; credit lines kept apart; e-mail addresses removed; an all-capitals title given ordinary capitals. Not rewritten.