Best Italian bread recipe ever: "Let them eat... bread!"

Hello You!

You probably thought I'd popped my clogs with the length of time between entries - over a year - and that I was now just a virtual ghost, LIVING ONLY AS A MEMORY OF FOOD ARTICLES ON THE INTERWEBS.

But no, the fleshy me still exists, even if there HAVE been a few close scrapes and a bit too much gourmandising.

The reason I haven't been here in a while is because I've been working on a new action adventure book titled 'the Cornerstone' (set in Italy) for the last couple of years.  That, and a kind of awareness that everybody is posting stuff all the time, so what's the point (?), there's ten years of articles here if you're interested.

That said, I had to make this note because I just made the best loaf of bread in my life, from dried sachet yeast, and it was superb and SIMPLE (after two years of keeping a starter alive and making sourdough).  Read on to get the best Italian bread loaf at home without the need to build a wood fired oven... and a pretty good baking themed joke at the end!

To make the bread, you will need:

Ingredients

500 g flour (I used Wallaby brand baking flour, in the 5kg bag)

1/2 teaspoon of dried bakers yeast

1/4 cup lukewarm water (previously boiled if possible, to drive off any chlorine as it affects the yeast)

2 teaspoons of salt (non-iodised, ditto note above)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder (this is a cheat, but worked a treat)

1.5 (one and a half) cups of room temperature water

A sprinkling of polenta

Olive oil

Equipment

A board to knead on
A dutch oven / large casserole dish with a lid
Razor blade (or very sharp knife)
A tea towel
A mixing bowl

An oven

A spatula

A cooling rack

PROCESS

Activate the yeast with the lukewarm water.  Let sit for about 10 minutes until it becomes kind of fluffy in the liquid.

Mix flour, salt and baking powder in bowl, then add activated yeast and the cup and a half of water, combining into a ball.

Turn out onto a well floured board and with floured hands knead for 20 minutes (yes, you heard right, but it's worth it).

TOP TIPS ON KNEADING

1. Push the dough down and away from you, then bring it back on itself.  Add more flour as you go, to stop it sticking, but at the same time don't overload it with flour and make it too hard.  The aim is to get a velvety smooth texture that is not sticky.  The long time it takes helps gluten chains to form and puts some heat into the dough.  You can consider it your exercise, and you can have breaks, drink a glass of wine and watch telly while you do it (so stop complaining).
2. Another great trick is to put the tea towel under the board.  This gives it a soft and firm base and stops the clatter of the board moving on a bench.  Then when resting the bread, you can put the tea towel over it.

First rise: put the dough in the cleaned bowl that has been oiled with a little olive oil.  Cover with tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled (about three hours).

Second rise: turn the dough out onto the floured bread board and flatten into a long disc.  Turn the bread back on itself: i.e. fold the dough into thirds on itself, flatten turn over, stretch out, turn it back on itself... about three of four times.  This helps layers or chains of gluten to form.  On the last go,  flatten out the newly layered bread and then roll into a tight  roll, a bit like rolling up a sleeping bag.  Rest on board SEAM SIDE DOWN, covered with tea towel for about an hour until doubled in size again.

Heat oven with casserole dish in it to 250 C (about 480 F... HOT).

When ready, slash the top of the dough with the razor blade.

Remove super hot casserole dish from oven and sprinkle polenta in to stop dough sticking to pot (a couple of tablespoons worth would do it).

Using a spatula, zip under bread to seal the seam of the bread and transfer to to pot, put lid back on and back in the oven.  After twenty minutes, take the lid off (the bread should have expanded or "jumped" significantly) and put back in at about 230 C for another fifteen or twenty minutes.  Remove and put on cooling rack.  Allow to cool before slicing as it will keep cooking on the bench.

Five stars!!⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

How is that crust?  Woody and Italian, the dough high white and soft.

Thank you for your patience...  AND NOW THE JOKE!!

Q: Why did the baker's hand smell?

A: Because he kneaded (needed) a poo!!!!

(Well, I only said it was pretty good, I didn't say it was unreal; try it out on kids to see if they know anything about baking!!)

"Thangyewverymuch", and bon apetit.