This is a traditional, Sicilian bread, and doesn't differ much from simple bread recipes one finds in English language cookbooks (few Italian cookbooks discuss bread). Does this mean you can recreate the bread you bought in a traditional bakery in Palermo at home? Yes and no. Flours vary greatly from place to place, and the bread baked in an artisanal bakery in Palermo owes many of its unique characteristics to the Sicilian flour that was used to make it.
Ingredients:
- 4 1/2 pounds flour
- 1 tablespoon live yeast
- Salt
Preparation:
You can, on the other hand, make something similar if you fallow the same procedure.
"Home-baked bread," writes Anna Fava, "is one of the oldest traditional recipes. Our traditional leavened bread arose, like many of the great discoveries, from a moment of distraction.
Someone must have forgotten a mixture of flour and water for a few days, and then discovered that it had become a puffy, sour ball of dough. This was the criscente, the natural yeast that allows a dough to rise and become more digestible. Now this yeast is also available commercially, and needs only be dissolved in a little warm water."
To bake Italian-style bread at home you'll need durum wheat flour. Let's say 4 1/2 pounds (2 k) flour; make a mound of it on your work surface. Dissolve a half cup of criscente, or a tablespoon of live yeast in a little warm water, and work it into the flour with two teaspoons of salt and warm water, working it all until you obtain a smooth elastic dough that has the consistency of your earlobe.
Shape the dough into loaves of the shape you prefer, cover them, and set them in a warm place to rise, taking care lest a sudden temperature shift interrupt the rising. When the loaves are well risen (they should double in volume), with the typical surface cracks that come from rising, they're ready to go into the oven.
Tradition dictated that the oven be wood-fired and very hot; in a wood-fired oven the baker knew the proper temperature had been reached when the roof tiles became white. With a modern electric oven the temperature should be about 500 F (250 C). The loaves will be baked in about 20 minutes. To check for doneness, pick up a loaf and tap it; it should sound hollow. Wrap the loaves in a cloth, and let them cool.
Note: like most Italian breads, this is baked directly on the oven floor. If you have a pizza stone, heat it in the oven and bake the bread on it.
"Home-baked bread," writes Anna Fava, "is one of the oldest traditional recipes. Our traditional leavened bread arose, like many of the great discoveries, from a moment of distraction.
Someone must have forgotten a mixture of flour and water for a few days, and then discovered that it had become a puffy, sour ball of dough. This was the criscente, the natural yeast that allows a dough to rise and become more digestible. Now this yeast is also available commercially, and needs only be dissolved in a little warm water."
To bake Italian-style bread at home you'll need durum wheat flour. Let's say 4 1/2 pounds (2 k) flour; make a mound of it on your work surface. Dissolve a half cup of criscente, or a tablespoon of live yeast in a little warm water, and work it into the flour with two teaspoons of salt and warm water, working it all until you obtain a smooth elastic dough that has the consistency of your earlobe.
Shape the dough into loaves of the shape you prefer, cover them, and set them in a warm place to rise, taking care lest a sudden temperature shift interrupt the rising. When the loaves are well risen (they should double in volume), with the typical surface cracks that come from rising, they're ready to go into the oven.
Tradition dictated that the oven be wood-fired and very hot; in a wood-fired oven the baker knew the proper temperature had been reached when the roof tiles became white. With a modern electric oven the temperature should be about 500 F (250 C). The loaves will be baked in about 20 minutes. To check for doneness, pick up a loaf and tap it; it should sound hollow. Wrap the loaves in a cloth, and let them cool.
Note: like most Italian breads, this is baked directly on the oven floor. If you have a pizza stone, heat it in the oven and bake the bread on it.
