Italian Bread

Do you know what “Italian Bread” means? Italian bread is typically known as unsweetened, yeast-leavened, and baked into a thick oblong loaf with tapered ends. Recently, I have been baking this Italian Bread  twice a week. After constantly practicing for more than 10 times, the result turned out very good and I even got full approval from my Italian friends.  So what are you waiting for? You are going to have so much fun with this!

Wheat flour, salt, fresh yeast, sugar, lukewarm water and extra-virgin olive oil

Ingredients

• 500 g wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 25 g fresh yeast
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 250 ml lukewarm water
• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Tips

• Fresh yeast
  It is also known as compressed yeast or cake yeast. 25 g of fresh yeast can be replaced by one package of active dry yeast, which usually corresponds to 2 1/4 teaspoons (1/4 oz).
• Lukewarm water
  It is tap water at a temperature between 36.5 and 40.5°C (98 to 105°F). It is just like “room temperature”: not hot and not cold either! If not, the yeast will die or will not grow enough!
• Find a warm place for the dough
  Some ideas: near a heating vent, on top of the refrigerator, or in the oven (turned off) with some water in a small bowl (this is what I do).

This recipe is adapted from GialloZafferano. This Italian food website has so many useful videos and some of them are also in English.

Fresh yeast and sugar

Yeast loves warm water and sugar

Yeast mixture

I know that you are wondering where to get fresh yeast. Well, probably it depends on where you are. I have never seen fresh yeast in any grocery store in Texas, for instance. However, it can be found very easily in Italy or Finland. I have also tried this recipe with active dry yeast. The result was fine, however, fresh yeast works faster and has a better smell than active dry yeast. More information about yeast is available here.

Wheat flour and salt

Mix all ingredients…

 …with a spoon

Mix well by hands

Time to proof

Doubled volume

Shaping the dough

After the second rise

Baking time

Beautiful Italian Bread

Preparation

1. In a small bowl, crumble fresh yeast with your fingers. Add sugar and lukewarm water. Mix thoroughly, and let rest for about 5 minutes (you will see a lot of bubbles on the surface of the yeast mixture).
2. In a large bowl, add flour, salt, olive oil, and the yeast mixture. Stir with a spoon until you cannot see any more flour.
3. Turn out the dough onto a clean, slightly floured surface, and knead for about 10 minutes to form a smooth and soft dough. If necessary, add some more flour, but try to use as little as possible.
4. Place the dough in another large bowl (slightly greased with olive oil) and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Set it to rise in a turned-off oven with warm water in a small bowl for about an hour and 30 minutes, or until it doubles in volume.
5. After the first rise, dump the dough onto the counter, and punch it down gently. Form into an oval-shaped loaf, and cut slashes on top of it as you desire. Make sure that slashes are not too deep; about 1 cm (1/3 inch) is enough.
6. Let the loaf rise again at room temperature on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper about 30 minutes.
7. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
8. Bake for 25 minutes and reduce to 180°C (350°F) for 20-25 minutes or until slightly dark brown.
9. Cool on a wire rack.

With butter

With cheese sampler

With fresh mozzarella, tomato, red onion, and speck

Here is the Italian Bread with a cheese sampler and a gourmet sandwich.

If you like this recipe, you might also be interested in how to make Anise Almond Biscotti.

Buon appetito!

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