Back to bread: pan bigio

Ciao, ragazzi.  Annalena knows that a lot of  you are afraid of breadmaking, and she really does not know why.  She feels you should be more afraid of what goes into the bread you buy, than of making it.  So, for this reason, and some others, she is presenting a bread recipe. This is not a hard recipe to make, but it does take time.  It takes very little WORK time - in fact, probably less than 30 minutes; however, it will take you two days to finish.  Stick with it, amici.  It's worth it.

The bread we are making, "pan bigio" translates to "gray bread."  Normally, it would be called "pane bigio," but we Italians like to focus on how things sound, and think the first is more euphonic than the second.  So, that's how it goes.  It translates to "gray bread," because the color is somewhat off white, since we will be using some whole wheat flour in the bread.

Annalena's research says that this bread is found all over Italy.  She does not recall seeing it or eating it in Sicily, but maybe she missed it, eating all the other breads she did (and on that point, can anyone point Annalena to a book on SICILIAN bread making?  She has plenty of books on ITALIAN bread making, but she feels we urgently need regional bread baking books).  It is, strictly speaking, a sourdough bread, but a sourdough in the original sense of the word, in that some aged dough is used to "start" the bread.  Not all sourdoughs are sour, ragazzi, and in fact, most good European style breads are characterized by the use of a starter.  We will, in fact make one, and that will take up the first day of our baking adventure.  And you'll be glad to have it.

Our ingredients, are unbleached all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, salt, yeast and water.  That is all.  Now, go and read a label on a package of bread.  Point made.

To make the starter, could not be easier.  Get 1/4 teaspoon (yes, that is all) of active dry yeast, and mix it with a cup of tepid water, and 2.5 cups of all purpose flour.  Mix this up.  It will be stiff, so use your hands, until you get a nice uniform dough.    Then cover it, and let it sit, unrefrigerated, overnight.   You will get something that looks like:

Italians call this sourdough "biga."  It  is bubbly, and loose.  For this recipe, you will need a full cup.  You'll have a bit more than 2 cups, so put the rest in a container and freeze it, for the next time  you're going to bake bread (which Annalena hopes is soon).

Now, we start the bread baking process.   Take a big bowl, preferably a stand mixer bowl (this bread works so well in a stand mixer, it is ridiculous), and pour in  just under 3 cups of tepid water.  If it feels warm to you, it's too warm.    Remember that cup of biga Annalena mentioned above?  Now, pour that in.  And add a hefty teaspoon of yeast.  You follow this with the flour:  2 cups of whole wheat, and 4 of all purpose, unbleached white, and then 1 tablespoon, and a teaspoon of salt.

Let's look at these ingredients for a minute, because it's important to notice a few things.  First, a standard, "dense" American style bread, takes one cup of water, to three cups of flour.  You've got 3 cups to 6 cups here.  Yes, there's flour in the biga, but there is also water.  The bottom line is that you are making a bread which is loose and airy, rather than dense.  The rule of thumb for bread making is that  the higher the water: flour (or, conversely, the lower the flour: water) ratio, the airier the bread will be.  When you make breads like ciabatta, the  water: flour ratio, is MUCH higher, and working with the dough can test you in every way.    Look at the ratio of whole wheat to white:  1:2.  If you go much higher than this , you have to start playing with the dough to get it to rise.  Whole wheat flour is heftier, and there is another more technical issue:  bread rises when gluten molecules form and stretch.  Whole wheat contains bran, which is like a little razor, under a microscope.  It cuts the gluten.  (Annalena has seen this.  You can look it up).  So if you put in more than 1 cup of whole wheat for every 2 cups of white, you have to "trick" the flour, by doing things like adding oil , so that the gluten is coated and the bran slides away.  Finally, the salt.  Don't leave it out.  There IS salt free bread, and it's Tuscan (which tells us this bread is NOT).  The explanations for this are many, but no one really knows why.

Ok, you've got this stuff together in your bowl.  Put in the paddle, and mix it until it comes together into a wet, but cohesive ball.  It won't take long.

Refer back to this photo in a minute, ragazzi.  This is how the dough looks before it gets kneaded, and the gluten develops.  Annalena thinks you will see it's just about begging to go "fluid."  And in fact it is. 

Now, switch to your dough hook, and let it go for five minutes.   And you get:

Very different, huh?  Look at the stretch:

The "stretch test" is a way to tell if there was enough kneading, and enough gluten produced.  If you were to chew a bit of this, it would be like gum.    Now you're ready.  Just cover this, and go away for 3-4 hours.  The dough will triple in volume: 

Dump this out on a lightly floured surface, and get a knife or a dough blade, to cut it into two or three pieces. Annalena suggests that you start with three, because it's easier to handle, but if you're bold, and you like big loaves, go for it.  

We now prep the bread for a second rise, by slapping it around a bit (literally), and then doing what every baker calls the "business envelope" fold method.  You can see this, in the next four photos:

 Essentially, if you think of folding a letter four ways, you'll get it.  Then, turn it over, and form a round ball.   Shape isn't all that important.  Go for a uniform size amongst your 2 or 3 loaves, but don't worry about perfect roundness.  Then, get them onto a parchment covered baking sheet, and cover them for 45 minutes.  While that's happening, get your oven ready.  If you happen to have a baking stone, now's the time to use it.  Preheat the oven to 450, and when it gets to 450, get an old pan that you won't mind warping, and put a cup or so of cold water in.  Put that pan on the bottom of the oven.

After the 45 minutes, push your fingertips into the dough, all around it.  The dimpling is going to help distribute the gas the yeast produced, and make a nice uniform loaf

Now, slide those guys into the oven, and let them bake for 45 minutes or so, for three loaves, about an hour, for two.    Don't peak.  And when  you're done:  

Looks good enough to eat, doesn't it?  And eat it fast, because this bread will go stale.  There's no fat in it, and no stabilizers, so you need to keep that in mind.  Fats will preserve the bread a little longer, but when you're working with a product from a culture that makes this every day,  aging is not a problem. 

Now, this entry may seem long ragazzi, but play through it:  how much time did you REALLY spend working?  Yes, it is involved, but Annalena thinks we didn't spend more than 10 minutes on any one step of the process, and you will feel so good about yourself, so accomplished, and your friends will love you because when you get right down to it, what is more satisfying than homemade bread? 

Please make it , ragazzi.  And again, if any of you know about the books Annalena is looking for, PLEASE tell her.