Single Italian Crusty Loaf

I make a lot of bread.  In my humble opinion, I'm getting pretty good at it, such as 'it' is.

People, the dreaded "THEY", say you should make many loaves at one time if you're going to ALL that trouble.  Well, it is NO trouble to get a single delicious crusty flavorful crispy soft airy dense fantastic loaf of bread on your table.  If you think you might like to have a bread, cheese and wine lunch or if you want to have a fresh loaf for dinner, you really don't need much time, hardly ANY effort and the payoff is miraculous.


Sure, from beginning to end it takes a couple of hours but your actual investment in time of actually DOING something is about 3 minutes.

This is my 'go to' quickie crusty loaf.  It's delicious, doesn't use a machine and there's no fuss or muss with it. Trust me, you can do this, easy. Ok, here we go:

Tracy's Single Crusty Italian loaf

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp yeast (ok, I heap it a bit)
1 cup warm(ish) water

Throw it all in a tub and stir it around.  It's VERY wet.  It's not like a normal bread dough at all, do not fret, it's supposed to be so yukky!!  Mix it around with a spoon then with a very wet hand, flip it over itself a couple of times if you feel the need to be more involved.  Put a lid on your container of choice and leave it for about 45 minutes? 60 minutes?  Until it poofs way up... check out my time lapse pics, just for you!

In the tub, nice action shot!  Seriously, just dump it all in and mix it up.  It's like superthick batter more than dough.  Don't fret, remember, I've got you here...
   
Put a lid on it.  This is my Home Depot mix bucket, perfect.  I took these pictures at 12 minute intervals, because 10 seemed too often and 15 seemed too far apart.  Don't judge, I've had a rough couple of months. This is a 48 minute rise.
   

   

Ok, that's risen enough, dump it onto a well floured board or cloth.  This is a linen bread cloth I treated myself to.  It's great but not worth the money at all.  I went to the fabric store, bought a piece of linen, cut it and it works just as well for a fraction of the price.  Still, since I make so much bread I thought I deserved the real thing. 

Dump it onto a board/cloth. It's gooey and VERY stringy, look at all that happy yeasty goodness.  Try not to squash the air completely out.  Just dust the top with flour and it won't stick if you're gentle, sprinkle lightly as needed but really, try to avoid adding too much, you're really just flipping it around here.

   
Fold it over with fingertips.  Roll it gently and then flatten it slightly in the middle with the side of your hand.
   
Flip/Roll the dough over so the folded side is down.  Tuck the sides, top and bottom under a bit to make it neat, cover it with a towel and leave it.
  
Night night! AND, here it is about 30 minutes later.  A little poofy.  Lovely. 

Roll it gently onto a floured or cornmeal covered peel.  The seam side is up now and that is what will give the loaf it's signature pull apart seam, you'll see.
   
Slide it into a 450 degree oven, on a stone OR you can use a cookie sheet. and bake it about 40 minutes.  Spin it at 15 minutes and then flip it upside down for the last 5-10.  Pull it out and LOOK what you did!

See what I mean about the seam giving it the pullapart line down the middle?  Oh yeah, we're pros now!  No slashing with knives or razor blades, just let it proof seam side down and bake it seam side up.  Ya Baby!
   

BEAUTIFUL!  it's crusty, tasty, light, crisp, airy, flavorful and WAY easier than getting into your car to drive to the store to find a crusty loaf that doesn't taste ANYWHERE near as good as this.This is the underneath, mmm  so crusty and wonderful.

Just for you, I cut into it to show you the innards.  I ALWAYS wait at LEAST 20 minutes before cutting into any bread, it is still cooking in there and cutting it can give you a gooey loaf, not this time though, oh man look at this...... 

I can't even tell you how good it is.  Even if you aren't a bready, you HAVE to admire the crumb on this loaf, the crust to innard ratio,you know how good it is just by looking. 

The crust is crisp and crunchy and the middle is soft soft and airy and full of flavor.  you NEED to make this.  Here's my standard beauty shots.  Oh and we had to taste without and with butter, just for science :)  

      

Go one, go make yourself a single loaf, it's so easy, doesn't need any machinery and you'll be delighted with how delicious it is.  

/enjoy

Crusty, Rustic, Italian Bread

Confession: My name is Tracy and I'm a breadaholic, a serial bread baker, and yeah, I like it.

  

I've been trying to nail rustic Italian style bread with a thick, crunchy, crust that stays crunchy until you wrap it. You'd think that would be easy. It's not. I make bread. I make a lot of bread. I make it every day. I tried other people's recipes, some worked, some didn't. None were what I wanted, none had the flavor, texture AND the crust all at the same time.

Until now; look what I mastered!!

I've done it. I'm going to share it with you. in return, you have to send me pictures of your bread, your videos of the moment of discovery, the slicing the crust.  

I want to see what you do with what I'm about to give you ;) I'm absolutely delighted that I made this work. I made it work repeatedly and I made it work in other people's kitchens. It will work for you. Make this. Seriously. 

I'm not breaking this into two recipe forms (quick and long winded) like the other posts.  It's long winded, heavily picture supported the whole way.  Bread isn't a recipe, the method, the look, the feel, is always part of it, probably the most important part.  Here is how *I* do what I do.

I'm a master ciabatta maker.  I'm a bit of a one trick pony where it's concerned and am asked to take it everywhere I go.  I happily oblige.  It's nice to be famous for something.  I was making it one day and wondered what would happen if I kept the recipe pretty close but merely changed the METHOD... would THAT give me what I wanted in a hard, crunchy crust loaf? I also went old school and figured they've been making this stuff in the old country since year dot without electric appliances so I gave it a go and did it all by hand, THIS is what happened.

Tracy's (version) Crusty Rustic Italian Bread

580 grams a/p flour (4 cups but I wanted to weigh it to be sure and to help with consistency)
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp salt (I use kosher sea salt)
3 tsp sugar

2 cups warm water

Combine the dry ingredients in a proofing bucket.  Ok if you don't have a proofing bucket, use any old bowl you have, just be sure it's really big, you want it to have room to rise.  

Mix the dry stuff around with a really old wooden spoon :)  then add the water all at once.
   
Mix it around, it's a thick, unruly, gloppy (technical term) mass.  Be sure you get all the dry stuff from the corners, if you're using a square vessel.  I just HAVE to stick my hands in it, I mixed it a little bit (this is COMPLETELY unnecessary but it makes me feel involved and useful).

  

 Pop the lid on it, take it's picture and leave it to rise until it's tripled (the same as the ciabatta)  It takes about 60+ minutes at my house but remember, I make bread EVERY day so I have the "bakery air" thing going on, things rise very VERY fast for me.  I had a tester do this for me and it took closer to 2 hours to triple.  It's fine, just leave it on the counter or on top of the fridge, or in the oven with the light on (I am horrifyingly short of counter space so I put it in the oven to do what it needs to do.  Timer set for 60 minutes.  I'll take us to check then.

 

OK, after an hour, this is what it looks like, I'd call that tripled:
 
I have a french linen bread cloth, tres fancy!  You do NOT need a linen bread cloth from anywhere.  I made this bread on a board just fine, on a tea towel with some flour on it just fine.  I treated myself recently to the cloth as part of my birthday present gift card money.  Although super cool and handy, I wouldn't buy myself one from the grocery money, ya know?

Flour your fingertips and tip the dough (goo) onto the board/cloth/table.  Sprinkle a little flour on it and flip it a time or two to make a ball, we aren't kneading here, just flipping it over, try to keep whatever air there is in the dough.  Be gentle.
     
I cut the dough in half to get two smaller loaves. Press the half flat to an oval about 16 inches long with your  fingertips
  
Fold the top third down and the bottom third just up over the seam and pinch
 
I let them rise a bit seam side up on the cloth, covered, while the oven preheats to 475.  About 15 minutes.
 

I cook the loaves together, on a stone.  I tend to break oven stones, frequently, so I am often without one.  If you don't have one, put a cookie sheet in the oven upside down and bake them on that.  You can transfer the loaves on parchment paper and cook them a bit before you remove it, slide the dough onto the stone with a peel or another cookie sheet.

Bake for 45 minutes! REALLY! IF you are having a nervous breakdown about leaving them in the oven so long, so hot, you can go in and futz with them, turn them, spin them or flip them upside down (i do that about 30 minutes in) to help keep the air bubble/hole structure more even. I don't know if it makes that much of a difference, but I do like to feel involved. 

  
Flip, gently, onto the peel.  I guess the proper term is 'roll' the dough onto the peel (or parchment).  Use your favorite serrated knife and slice a pattern.  I went slash on one loaf and x's on the other
  
Slip them into the screaming hot oven and set the timer for 30 (we're going to check them at 30)

At 30 minutes, this is how they look!  I flip them over and cook for another 15 minutes
 
Oooooooooooh, look!! I flipped again for 5 more.

Onto a cooling rack... and we wait...  

   
Cool about 30 minutes before you slice into this. LISTEN to that crust! 

I made a youtube video of the slicing into it on my tracycooksinaustin channel; here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBkCdofMD6I&list=HL1363028746&feature=mh_lolz

Here are some random beauty shots.  It's absolutely delicious.  Hard crusty outside and soft, slightly pully (yeah, that's a culinary term) inside with a fabulous flavor and texture.

  
mmmmm
   
Not bad for a little flour, water, yeast, sugar and salt and a bit of waiting time.  I like to dunk this in ANYthing, it's great for sopping up soups and stews or sliced thin and toasted with garlic rubbed on it... killer!

Go make this...  seriously...

It will stay hard/crusty until you wrap it. I wrap my bread in foil and keep it on the counter. It reheats BEAUTIFULLY and comes back very hard and crusty.

I never keep bread longer than 2 days. If I have some left, I make bread crumbs with it and keep it in Ziploc bags in the freezer or make croutons with it, and then freeze or just toss it to my chickens who absolutely love the stuff.

Ok, your turn, go make this bread and let me know how it turns out for you!! 

YAY for Kitchen Alchemy!!

/enjoy