Rustic Italian Bread

 14-15 September 2020

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, January 2003

I enjoy the Italian bread made from a recipe in Bread Illustrated. So when I learned the Test Kitchen had  another recipe for Rustic Italian Bread I thought it was worth trying. One of the biggest differences is the use of a biga. A biga is similar to a sourdough starter, but it uses bread yeast instead of wild yeast and it is made just the day before baking and is fermented in the refrigerator. Will the longer preparation time be worthwhile?

The biga was made with bread flour, yeast, and water. These were kneaded in a stand mixer then placed in a covered bowl in the refrigerator, the process taking just 10 minutes. About 25 hours later, the biga was removed from the refrigerator. While it sat at room temperature, the dough was made by mixing bread flour, yeast, and water in the stand mixer. It was allowed to rest for 20 minutes at which time salt and the biga were added. The dough was kneaded for about 5 minutes, then transferred to a covered bowl, and left to rise for about 1 hour. It was then uncovered and the dough folded over on itself. The folding was repeated after the dough rose for another hour after which the dough rose for 1 final hour. I used a large measuring bowl, as I usually do when rising dough, but it would have been easier to fold the dough in a wider bowl. The dough was then shaped, dusted with flour, and left to rise about 1 hour. It was baked in a 500° oven on a baking stone, using the bottom of a baking sheet as a peel, after being spritzed with water. After 10 minutes baking the temperature was reduced to 400°. Total time, excluding cooling, was about 6 hours, but most of that was hands off.

The finished bread is very good with a chewy, yet tender crumb and thin crust. The flavor reminded me of a no-knead bread. However, the loaf was very big and an odd shape, not convenient for making sandwiches. When it rose it spread out rather than rising uniformly leading to a wide, low loaf. The crust was overdone in places and had some of it had separated from the crumb. The crumb was open, with large holes, also not ideal for sandwiches. Since sandwiches is what I use most bread for I will probably stick with the classic Italian bread and make no-knead bread when I went a good flavored, crusty bread as a side dish.