Rustic Italian Bread

Himself and I purchased The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Italian when it first came out in the early 90s.  The spine is now broken and whole sections of the book fall out, chunks of pages between the recipes we have used most often.  

One of the places the book falls open is to the Italian Peasant Bread page, which forms the basis of this recipe but which I’ve changed enough to merit writing somewhere other than in the margins of that poor overused cookbook.  

Jeff Smith’s technique calls for three risings and makes two free-form loaves which rise the final time upside-down on a flour-coated dish towel.  Sometimes I make the dough into two hearty baguettes, brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with kosher salt.  Either way, the crust is chewy-crunchy and the interior is dense and tangily reminiscent of sourdough.

I get my white whole wheat flour, ascorbic acid, bread flour and dough improver from King Arthur Flour.  (They also sell a nifty little measuring spoon which is exactly 2 ¼ teaspoons, and a container that holds exactly a pound of yeast and fits perfectly in the freezer door…  can one every have too many gadgets?)

Thing One and two of his friends ate an entire loaf of this last night with their dinner.

Rustic Italian Bread

Two packets (4 ½ teaspoons) active dry yeast

2 ½ cups warm water

1 cup white whole wheat four

4-5 cups bread flour

1/8 teaspoon ascorbic acid

1 teaspoon salt

5 teaspoons dough improver

In a mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water.  Allow to stand for 5 minutes, until it's foamy.

With the paddle of the mixer, stir the white whole wheat flour and 3 cups of bread flour.  Beat for 10 minutes (the dough will pull away from the sides of the mixer).  Beat in salt, ascorbic acid and dough improver.

Switch to the dough hook and add remaining flour, ½ cup at a time, until dough is smooth, elastic and not too stiff.  (It's pretty dry this time of year, so each of  this weekend's batches took barely 4 cups of bread flour.)  Knead for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a greased bowl.  Flip the dough, cover, and allow to rise until double.  Punch down and allow to double a second time.  Punch down again and divide dough into two equal portions. 

For baguettes:  Form into baguettes and allow to rise in a baguette pan until double.  Brush with a wash of 1 beaten egg and 1 teaspoon water; sprinkle with kosher salt.  

For freeform loaves:  Form into roundish loaves and place upside-down on a heavily floured cotton towel.  Sprinkle loaves with additional flour and cover with another cotton towel.  Allow to rise until double.  Flip the loaves over again when you transfer them to the baking sheet so they’re right-side up again.

During the final rise, heat the oven to 450.  A pan of hot water in the bottom of the oven is a good idea.  

Bake the loaves for 20 (for baguettes) or 25 (for round loaves) minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.