What's tastier, cheaper and makes you smile more than a fragrant slice of crusty Italian bread? Eat it with steamed meat or to prepare a wonderful and healthy snack for your children, homemade bread uses are countless. Enjoy!
Mixer (optional, but highly recommended due to high hydration)
spoon
bowl
Dutch oven
Chopping board (or a surface to knead on)
Ingredients
500grFlourMy mix is: 100 gr strong flour, 100 gr wholemeal spelt flour, 300 gr wheat flour type '0'
350grwatertap water is good, but use it after 10 minutes rest.
2grdehydrated beer yeast
8grsalt
3grdiastatic maltA good substitute is a tablespoon of honey.
Instructions
Add flour, malt and yeast in the mixer bowl.
Start mixing, at minimum speed, slowly adding water. When half of the water is absorbed, add the salt.
Go on mixing, adding the remaining water, until the dough is smooth and the glutinic net is created. Let it rest in the bowl for 10 minutes.
Sprinkle some flour on the chopping board, then work the dough on it, doing what we call "folding the dough". Do that at least twice. Watch the video as a reference.
Put the dough into an oiled bowl, then cover it with a transparent film. Let it rest for about 20 hours in the fridge (it must double in size). Alternative: about 3 hours at ambient temperature.
Put the dutch oven into the oven and light it at 230 °C. After the temperature is stable, remove it from the oven, drop the dough into it (no need to shape it!), cover and put it back into the oven.
Cook it for 30 minutes at 230 °C, then lower at 200 °C and remove the cover. After 15 minutes, the bread is done. (Note: leave the oven door slightly open during the last 5 minutes). Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool down on a grid. When it has reached ambient temperature... you can enjoy it. Buon appetito!
Video
Notes
Tips:
malt (or honey if you cannot find it) is essential to get it crusty
last 5 minutes of cooking, keep the oven slightly open (I use a wooden spoon to block the oven door). This will avoid having a loaf crunchy outside but wet inside
cooling the bread down on a grid with air below is important, to have homogeneous cooling
use a mixer to create a better glutinic mesh. The result will be an evenly leavened loaf, with homogeneous texture
not losing the loaf shape while cooking is the hardest part of making homemade bread. The dutch oven has been truely enlightening to me: the loaf is always perfect!