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Home » Uncategorized » BBA: Homemade Italian Bread

BBA: Homemade Italian Bread

August 23, 2009 · WCC Administr@tr · 4 Comments

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This week’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge is Peter Reinhart’s recipe for Italian Bread (which you can get from his book below, starting on page 172-174). Friends joined me in the kitchen and together we made our own individual portions of this bread.

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The bread starts out with a biga starter which is then cut into pieces and introduced with the other dry ingredients – bread flour, yeast, salt, sugar, oil and water. Unlike previous weeks when I used my stand mixer to do the kneading for me, we call took a quarter of the dough and kneaded it by hand. We found bread baking as a group to be pretty enjoyable as we kneaded the together over some good conversation! For the first rise, we shaped our dough into a boule. Once the first rise was finished, we began shaping our doughs into batards.

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Not everyone had the exact same amount of dough so naturally, there were a few loaves that were larger than others. We let our shaped dough rise for a second time…

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Once our loaves doubled in size, we were able to prep our oven for baking. These baked at 500 degrees along with a steam pan and a spritz of water along the oven walls. The oven temperature was then dropped to 450 degrees and baked until done. It took about 15-20 minutes for these to finish.

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I really enjoyed making this recipe and thought the process was pretty easy. It takes some patience with bread, but thankfully I had a lot going in the kitchen to make the time go by fast while these were proofing. Next time, I plan on making Italian dinner rolls or perhaps incorporating dried herbs for additional flavor!

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Comments

  1. Peabody says

    August 24, 2009 at 5:03 am

    Nice looking loaf!

    Reply
  2. Kelly says

    August 25, 2009 at 1:58 pm

    I love that you made this a group affair. What a fun idea! And a great way to not have too much tempting bread left in the house. 🙂

    I like the idea of making dinner rolls, too. This bread is so good with some olive oil and dipping spices. Mmmm.

    Reply
  3. Mustang Terri says

    August 27, 2009 at 3:14 am

    A bread making party. Love the idea of adding herbs to the recipe. Great job.

    Reply
  4. Anonymous says

    November 19, 2009 at 3:15 pm

    It is rather interesting for me to read this post. Thank you for it. I like such topics and anything that is connected to them. I definitely want to read more on that blog soon.

    Reply

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Hi, I'm Joelen! Welcome to What's Cookin, Chicago. My goal is to share my culinary adventures in hopes to inspire you to embrace life in a delicious way.
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