What is more italian than home made bread? In italy (a part from granma) we do not usually make bread at home. This is because we have specific bakery called " panificio" who only makes and sell bread and sourdough products ( as focaccia). Bread is made daily at around 4-5 am in the morning ( and not bought from big sellers) and it is just amazing and delicious.
As kid I used to live just few meters away from a panificio. I cannot even describe how amazing this has been for my childhood. The delicious smell in the area was just amazing, and as kids we had no shame, therefore we used to play just in front of the back door of their bakery ( that was kept open all the time as the temperature inside was so hot). We would stay there for hours with our big starving eyes until the owner of the panificio would finally hand us some fresh bread or focaccia! It has been just amazing and in my memories there is nothing better than this smell...it just reminds me of an happy childhood that as an adult now I can only think back to!
This is why making homemade bread for me right now is not only matter of food. Is an experience that takes me back to when I used to play hide and seek with my brother and sister, hiding as close as possible to our bakery to get some treats that only kids can get so easily!
So this is my recipe, that will take you back with me at home, in Milan! hope you will enjoy the bread !
Doses for 5-6 panini
(approx 200 g each)
INGREDIENTS
-1 Kg of flour 00 or plain flour
(Can also mix flours eg 750g 00 + 250g of wholemeal flour)
-550/600 ml of cold water
-20 g of sugar
-30g salt
-15 g yeast ( one sachet)
EQUIPMENT
-Mixer/ Kitchen robot
(can be done also by hand in granma old style but it will be much more long elaborated, plus muscles strength in upper limbs are necessary)
-scale
PROCEDURE
Start by mixing together flour and sugar and yeast ( all the powders) using the kitchen robot ( or mixing it in a bowl with a fork).
For the kitchen robot: I use the hook shape accessory as the others does not work well for the thickness of the dough.
Now add 2/3 of the total amount of water ( approx 350-400 mls) a keep mixing the dough.
As you keep mixing it, you will see the mix slowly going dry, when this happens, keep adding more water.
Now add the salt and keep mixing with the kitchen robot for approximately 10 minutes, by hand at least 20 minutes.
{So...this is the trickiest part of making bread ( also the same hard part of making pizza). This step will determine everything about your final result of your bread.
It does not simply comes out by mixing ingredients in the right amount. It comes out by reaching the right appearance. By this I mean that you need to keep checking the dough and if it is "too dry" you need add more water, if it is "too sticky-wet" it need more flour.
As the right dough is affected by many factors ( including environment temperature and humidity) you will have to understand by sight and touch, what your dough needs.
Is it water or is it more flour??
Some suggestions are:
1) if the dough remains attached to the bowl or sticky on your hands and it looks more like a pudding than a play-dough, then it needs more flour. Add a bit and keep mixing and reassess the dough, you can add more water if is then too too thick or more flour if it is still wet, do not be afraid to try.
I2) If your dough is too dry ( there is flour that is not being absorbed by the dough and remains on the bottom ), and it is not elastic ( when you press the dough you live your finger impressed on it), it probably need more water.
This is how it should look like when the dough is ready!
Again the more you do it the more you will become and expert of doing this and it will require you literally 2 seconds to spot what your dough needs! }
Now once the dough is sticking to the robot-hook and is no longer sticking to the bowl, it is time to take it out of the robot and with your hands make a round shape.
For this dough I used also 30% of wholemeal flour so this is why it looks with " bits" but this is how it should look like after 10-15 minutes of mixing ( if you only use plain flour then it should look smooth).
Cover it with some cotton towel and leave the bread to rest for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes cut it in pieces. these will be your final bread loafs so decide how many and how big you want them now. If you want them all of the same shape and weight, then cut them in equal parts otherwise choose the weight you want for each.
I usually make each panini of approximately 200 grams.
With this dough I made 4 small bread ( to freeze for later) and a bigger loaf (that I ate the same evening).
You can make all the shape types you want (maybe in a next post we can include how to make all the different shapes, for now let's focus on the rounded shape and the loaf shape that is already enough!)
The preparation for each bread/roll is pretty simple. Just knead the dough a little until it becomes a uniform and elastic oval shape. To make the "round-shape bread" take the two extremities of the oval shape ( right and left) and gently fold them underneath the the dough to form a ball shape. This will create a bit of space underneath the heavy dough. This will allow air to make the bread rise better during the next step.
For the Loaf-shape bread do the same oval shape but instead of folding the right and left extremities underneath, you will fold the top and bottom part in order to keep the oval shape (see drawing).
Now, as shown in the picture above is time to make the cuts on your bread ( without it, it will be not a real bread, isn't it??)
Make sure not to go too deep or after raising it will break apart. Use a well sharpened knife (no serrated knife please!) and do either the crossing or the single cuts as you wish!
Now put all of your bread well separated between each other on a baking tray well covered with flour or on a baking paper. You can leave them on your kitchen to rest or put them in the oven with the light on ( the light on will bring the temperature of the oven at around 27 degrees that is the optimal temperature to let the dough rise). Make sure they are well separated.
These are my four rounded shape and underneath the bigger loaf
Now leave them to rise until they are almost double in their shape ( roughly 1 h)
Now cover the bread with more flour using a sieve (this will make the outer part of the bread crispy during the cooking!)
To cook them, put a pan with some water at the bottom of the oven and cook at 180 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Depending on your oven this time can be much less, just use this as an indication and check frequently your bread until you know how long your oven needs to cook the bread as you like. If the outside is getting too burned too soon, you can cover the bread with kitchen foil and let it stay in the oven for longer to cook the inside better.
This is the final result! the cooking time is totally decided by you. I love a very crispy bread outside and super soft inside but you can cook them a little less as I did for the rounded shape ones:
In this case, as I wanted to freeze them, I took them out of the oven 5 minutes earlier ( as you can see they are not very brown as the loaf) and I will let them finish cook when I unfreeze them the next time!
And this is your final result!
SUGGESTIONS
-As explained in my recipe, you can freeze your bread. When you want to cook it just turn the oven on, put them in for 10-15 minutes at 150 degrees and enjoy them
This is a pictures of my panini after I unfreeze them. Still amazingly good!
-Also as you can see in my pictures I do not use baking paper. This is for two main reason. 1) when the baking paper cooks if it burns produce chemicals that then you will eat. not nice.
2) it is not good on the environment. You can buy some reusable mats that are oven compatible as this one I used, and can be also washed in the dishwasher. I bought this on sainsbury's, so it does not take much effort to do something good for the environments isn't it?
Recipe, work and pictures of my partner Andrea! thank you!
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