Learn the basics to make a classic Italian bread dough.

You can start from this one and create many other types. Try adding olives or rosemary or some seeds and nuts. Walnut bread is very common in Italian bakeries.  You just need to add your personal ingredient: fantasy.

Don’t expect to make a perfect Italian bread dough from the very first time. Unfortunately bread and pizza dough vary according to a lot of factors.

• Temperature:  If it’s too cold, it will take more time to ferment, if it’s too hot it could ferment too fast. The temperature of the water  you use counts too.
• Humidity: Too much humidity in the air? you’ll need different amount of flour. Too much water in the dough, the end result will vary. Same ingredients and same way of preparation could easily bring you to different results.
• Flour: the type of flour you use changes the dough. Even with the same ingredients the result may vary due to the above mentioned factors.

Anyway, don’t worry, your bread dough will always be very good! Those variations have got nothing to do with the taste, but only with how the bread will look like or rise. Bread does not have to be beautiful. It has to be nutritious, and tasty. If it’s also beautiful that’s fine, but do not bake for the only purpose of posting it on your social media.

Sourdough starter: authentic Italian bread recipe

Unless you are buying bread at a supermarket or in some chain or big bakeries, bread is usually made with a sourdough starter in Italy, especially in the countryside, in traditional households where nonnas are busy doing basically everything by hand even at 90.

In this recipe I won’t be using sourdough. Even though it’s the best way to rise your bread, sourdough can be tricky for beginners and my goal is to share the simple Italian taste with everyone, even first-timers.
I’ll provide tips for using it below for those who are more accustomed to use a starter. Anyway there are a few tricks you can master to have a nice, easy to digest bread, even without a sourdough starter. Eventually the most important factor is TIME. If you have time (and you should always have when baking bread) you won’t need super rapid yeast. Just 1 gr of simple yeast will to the job.

Are you interested in learning how to make a sourdough starter? Check this article to see the sourdough starter recipe.

Let’s start making the basic Italian bread dough:

First thing to know: quantities. I will give you the ingredient list below. However due to the factors we talked about above, some quantities might change. So remember that the most important thing is to check the consistence of the dough. To achieve a perfect Italian bread dough you will definitely need a bit of patience.

Ingredients

• 350gr of stone milled whole wheat flour (the best quality you can get)
• 300gr of durum wheat flour or extrafine semolina (you may substitute it with whole wheat or even an all purpose flour, if you are more expert you can use whole wheat flour, or other flours like oat, or spelt)
• 1g of dried bread yeast (not the quick rise, simple dried yeast) – if you are using sourdough, use skip the first step, and add 100gr of sourdough to all the ingredients in step 2.
• 400gr of water
• 1 tsp of salt

Method

Day 1 (the night before preferably):

Mix together the yeast, 100gr of water and 100gr of whole wheat flour. Cover and let it sit overnight (if you are doing it in the morning let it sit until it doubles in size)

Day 2

Step 1
In a large bowl put the rest of the water in the recipe, and the flour. Remember to keep around 100gr flour aside. Mix the dough with a spoon or with your hands (remember to remove any rings and nail varnish). If it is too loose, add the remaining flour. Always keep some flour handy, in case you need to add some more.

Step 2
Knead the dough for a couple of minutes, then cover the bowl. Let it sit for somewhere from 30min to 1 hour (3 hours will be ok too – unless it is too hot, then 30 min. will do).

Step 3
After resting the dough, start again to knead it a bit in the bowl. As you knead the dough becomes more and more elastic, then roll it into a ball and cover again. Put in the fridge to rest for 6 to 12 hours.

Step 4
Remove the dough from the fridge and knead it a bit. Shape it into a log onto a baking tray dusted with flour, then let it sit until it has risen almost to double its size.

Step 5
While the dough is rising, preheat your oven to 250°C (480F). When the bread is ready to go in the oven, score the surface with a sharp knife (at least 2/3cm deep).

Put it in the oven for 10min then lower the heat to around 180°C (350F) and cook for another 30 to 40 minutes. Check the bread after 30 minutes. Remember that everyone’s oven is different so it might need less or more time. Some adjustments in the height of the rack might be needed.

Let the bread cool down completely before cutting it.

How do I store the bread?

This bread can be stored at room temperature for days, however in hot summer days or very hot climate (over 30°)  I would recommend to keep it in the fridge to avoid drying.  You could also slice it and freeze it. It will keep for months and  you will only need a few minutes in the oven to thaw it.

My bread has become too hard and it has dried, what do I do?

Well, there is an amazing recipe called Panzanella, from Tuscany, it is a simple salad you can make by mixing stale bread that has been rehydrated with water and vinegar, tomatoes, red onions, basil and cucumbers,.
Stale bread is also perfect to make bread patties, or to be whizzed it in a blender to make breadcrumbs.
You could make a cake out of stale bread or simply soak it in water or milk to add to meat patties.