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Title: Italian Bread (Pagnotta)
Yield: 1 Serving

Ingredients

  1 1/2 ts active dry yeast
    1/2 c  warm water
      7 c  bread flour
      1 tb salt
  2 3/4 c  cool water
    1/4 c  biga; see recipe: biga

Instructions

Mix yeast with warm water and let sit till creamy, about 15 minutes.
Measure flour into bowl, stir in salt, then add yeast mix, cool water, and
biga. Mix until thoroughly combined, then knead 15-20 minutes by hand
(instead, I use a bread hook on my KitchenAid for several minutes). Shape
into a ball, place in bowl with covering, and let rise till doubled, about
1 1/2 hours. Punch down, fold edges into the bottom to make a ball again,
then let rise again till doubled (about an hour). Sprinkle cornmeal on a
baking sheet. Divide the dough into two, form each half into a round or
oval, place on baking sheet. After 30 minutes start the oven at 425, with
a baking stone inside if you have one. Let dough rise 45 minutes or so,
till the dough springs back slowly when indented with a finger. Mist the
oven with a spray bottle containing water. Put the bread tray in and mist
again. After 5 minutes mist one more time, and reduce the oven to 400
degrees. Bake another 40 minutes or so, till done.

>From: "Glenn"

>From: rgcasey@ix.netcom.com

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Per serving: 3480 Calories (kcal); 16g Total Fat; (4% calories from fat);
117g Protein; 698g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 2177mg Sodium
Food Exchanges: 47 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 0
Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates

NOTES : Italian bread is simple, but making it is not. A good recipe is a
two-day process. The first day you make "biga", a firm sponge
using just flour, water and yeast. This sits in the fridge
overnight. The next day you mix some of the biga with more flour,
water and yeast to make the bread. (Leftover biga is frozen for
future bread- making, so succeeding sessions complete in one day.)
Note, no oil or sweeteners are used. The biga seems to supply the
elasticity or chewiness that makes it something like French bread.
It's delicious, but as I say, more work than you think.

A complete recipe follows, based on "The Il Fornaio Baking Book"
by Franco Galli. Their recipe is a little more sophisticated, but
I like the results I get from this slightly simplified procedure.

Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0

Preparation Time: 0:00

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