I have recently gone back to baking bread, I have done well with an old fashion Bohemian Rye, regular white & whole wheat, but I can't seem to find a recipe for a good old country crusty crust italian bread. Anyone?

Sherie

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CHEESY ITALIAN BREAD

Serves:  Makes 2 loaf’s

Source:  "Taste of Home”  Aug. 97 pg. 36

Effort:  easy

Comments:  I am going to try adding a little Italian seasoning to this.

1 gram of fat in each slice.      60 calories

Ingredients: 

1 pkg. active dry yeast

1 1/4 c. warm water

2 t. sugar

1 t. salt

1 t. garlic salt

1/2 c. grated parmesan or romano cheese

3 to 3-1/2 c. flour

cornmeal

Instructions: 

In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in water.  Let set 10 min.

Add sugar, salt, garlic salt, cheese & 2 c. of flour: mix until smooth.

Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.  Turn onto a floured surface: knead until smooth & elastic, about 6-8 min.  Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top.  Cover & let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.  Punch dough down: divide in half.  Shape each half into a 14" loaf.  Place on an ungreased baking sheet that has sprinkled with cornmeal.  Cover & let rise until doubled about 45 min.

Brush loaves with water.  Make 3 diagonal slashes about 1/2" deep with a very sharp knife in each loaf.  Fill a 13" x 9" x 2" baking pan with 1" of hot water and place on the bottom oven rack.

Preheat to 400.

Bake loaves for 20-25 min. 

Remove to wire racks.

Yield 2 loaves

"Men are from Mars.  Women are from Venus.  Teddy bears are from heaven"

Go to foodtv.com

Look for Italian Bread, and use Emrils.

It is very crustry and good.

justplainbill

When you mist the oven, make sure the light bulb does not get wet or it will shatter.. When I want to to this, I take bilb out and before pre-heating I cover the openeing with foil in order not to get water in it.

From my website.  Recipe from Bernard Clayton, "The Breads of France."

Discussion

This is my standard Italian Bread recipe. It's derived from a recipe in Clayton, "The Breads of France."

This bread is made with all Harvest King white flour. I've modified the recipe to accomodate my style:

• I made a poolish of 200 grams each Harvest King and water and 8 ml / 1/2 teaspoon yeast.
• I left the poolish on the counter overnight.
• I added an autolyse of 25 minutes after initial mix and before adding salt and doing the kneading.
• I did a drop hook fold after 45 minutes and after 35 minutes.
• Final fermentation period was 50 minutes.

Poolish

This Italian bread will frequently give enough oven spring to form two very large basketballs, expecially is you use very strong bread flour.

For instruction on how to make a poolish, go here, but use the amounts above.make a poolish

Ingredients to Add to the Poolish

If you don't have malt syrup, use sugar.

Method

• Measure the flour and other ingredients.
• Put the poolish, water, sugar, yeast, oil, malt syrup and milk powder in the mixer bowl.
• Add half the flour and mix for two minutes.
• Switch to the dough hook, add the rest of the flour and mix for two minutes.
• Let the dough rest for 25 minutes.
• Add the salt and knead for 8 minutes.
• Ferment for 45 minutes, do a drop-hook fold. (See note below) How to fold dough
• Ferment for 35 minutes, do a drop hook fold.
• Ferment for 30 minutes, remove from the bowl and let rest on the counter for 20 minutes.
• Shape into two 2-pound / 900 gram loaves, place on parchment paper and let rise for 50 minutes.
• Slash in a tic-tac-toe and bake in a dry oven at 425 F / 220 C for 20 minutes, turn and finish baking.
• For a deeper crust, turn off the oven and leave the bread in the cooling oven for 5 or 10 minutes.
• You can also spritz the risen loaves with water and sprinkle sesame seeds on the loaves. This will deepen the color, too.

For larger holes in the loaf, use a very gentle fold, such as the Hamelman fold in the folding section

The website has pictures of me making the bread.

Barry Harmon