A couple weeks ago, I posted my experiences making Pane di Altamura.  I took some of the dough and made it into focaccia and pizza (the recipe for it is the same for the pane di altamura).  I just coated the dough with a lot of olive oil, herbs, pizza sauce (I used Trader Joe’s), salami, kalamata olives, some vegetables, and a bit of cheese.

The results?  My husband LOVES this.  I thought the crust was too chewy – I like it more crispy.  So, if you like a really crispy crunchy crust, this might not be the recipe for you.  The flavor was very nice – not too overwhelming, but a good backdrop for the salty and flavorful toppings.

If you’d like to see more bread blogging, be sure to check out Susan’s weekly YeastSpotting roundup at Wild Yeast Blog!

“The Singular Case of Pane di Altamura.” Am I referring to a Sherlock Holmes mystery, perhaps?

No, indeed. Something even better: a bread-baking adventure.

Months ago, I purchased Daniel Leader’s newest book, Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe’s Best Artisan Bakers. The book has its problems, but it is still a treasure trove of wonderful bread recipes by some of the best bread bakers in France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Austria, and the Czech Republic. Best of all are Leader’s fascinating descriptions of these breads and his desire to learn all that he could about them. I actually read this book on the elliptical machine and in the tub – it’s like The Da Vinci Code for bread bakers!

One chapter captured my attention and held me in thrall: The Singular Case of Pane di Altamura. I’m not really sure why, but the description of this bread and its history captivated me. ” . . . enormous, crudely shaped loaves the color of the sun, made with 100 percent semolina flour . . . .” Local Breads, p. 246. The Italian government has awarded the bread a prestigious DOP (denominazione di orgine protetta) designation, which is “reserved for agricultural and food products hose properties are essentially or exclusively derived from their geographical environment.” Local Breads, p. 247.

Recently, I decided to tackle Pane di Altamura, and an interesting adventure it was. For one thing, bread dough mysteriously has made it way onto my kitchen walls, cupboards, and other nooks and crannies. How did that happen? But I digress.

The Sourdough

The first thing I had to prepare was the semolina sourdough, which is made with yogurt and no added yeast. You mix 1/4 cup of tepid spring water (57 g), with 1/2 cup of fine durum semolina flour (70 g), and 2 Tablespoons (28g) of yogurt (low or nonfat is fine) with active yogurt cultures, preferably organic. You keep feeding the sourdough 1/4 cup of spring water and 1/2 a cup of semolina, without tossing off, for up to 10 days, until the sourdough is bubbly and frothy. This yields a dough-like sourdough, not a very liquid one.

On day 8, my starter was bubbly and frothy, or so I thought, so I made the bread. After six hours, this is the rise I got, which is to say . . . about zilch, as you can tell from the picture to the right.

I had just gone through a rather alarming amount of semolina, so there was no way I was throwing this out. This batch of dough currently resides in my freezer, soon to be made into focaccia. I split the remaining sourdough, fed both batches, put one in the refrigerator, and left the other one on the counter overnight. I fed the latter batch again before going to bed.

Determined to tackle Pane di Altamura again, I arose to a new day and the sight of a very happy starter. It was bubbling and gurgling, and seemed a lot more active after I’d halved it.

Some more notes on the sourdough: First, the book says that it will turn a brilliant yellow. To me, that means canary yellow, but my starter always remained a pale yellow. Second, between feeding the sourdough and baking the first batch of bread (the dud), I went through about 3.5 pounds of flour. I started with a 3 pound bag of King Arthur durum semolina, and ended up with Bob’s Red Mill durum semolina. Don’t even start this bread unless you have about 5 pounds of flour on hand, just in case, which is what I ended up using in total.

The Dough

After some research, I learned that one baker had to ferment another dough in Leader’s book (for Pierre Nury’s Rustic Light Rye) for seventeen hours. SEVENTEEN HOURS. I decided to make the dough again, and wait it out and see what would happen. On the day after I split the starter, I fed it in the morning, and whipped up another batch of dough later that afternoon.

I mixed the dough for about 20 minutes, not the 10 stated in the recipe. I would stop the stand mixer every once in a while and just let the dough rest, then I’d come back. If I had to add more flour, I did so judiciously. I’ve made this three times so far, and the dough should feel very dense, and a bit tacky, but still moist – like pizza dough.

I should mention that when I made my first dud batch, I weighed everything on my kitchen scale. By the next day, my patience was wearing a tad thin, so I measured everything with U.S. measuring cups, and added flour by feel as I went along. I can’t really explain how I did this, I can only say that I was going to make this bread as many times as I needed to get it “right,” so I was willing to make mistakes. I really encourage novice bread bakers to go for it – there is no “test,” and you learn so much if you are willing to experiment. And you can always turn the duds into bread crumbs.

About four hours after I set the dough aside to proof, I casually walked into the kitchen to check on it, fully expecting to see nothing much happening. Well, the thing was alive, almost to the top of the bowl! So, I tossed it in the refrigerator overnight and hoped for the best (it was 10 p.m. by this time).

At 5:45 the next morning I launched myself out of bed. “What are you doing?” asked Master Chow. “I have to check on my bread!” I yelled as I ran for the stairs. “NOW?” he asked. Well . . ., yes. If you like to bake bread, I’m sure you’ll understand.

I completely skipped the step that called for a second proofing inside a kitchen towel and just formed the dough into the traditional Altamura loaf. In case you’re wondering what the dough feels like, it is just like cold pizza dough. The strands of gluten are amazing:

I proofed the dough for a couple more hours at room temperature, baked it, and ended up with the loaf at the top of this post. I have no idea what the bread should taste like, or what the crumb should look like, I can only tell you that it reminded me and my husband of San Francisco sourdough, which I like a lot. It’s not a bread I see myself baking again – as a loaf of bread – but I think it will make a great pizza. Look for a post on that in the near future.

I took a look around my kitchen, and I knew that there was no way I was going to toss out all that beautiful semolina sourdough. So I made two more batches of dough -and they both proofed beautifully! One batch is in the freezer to be made into focaccia (along with my first dud), and the second I turned into an Altamura peasant loaf, pane del contadino. I proofed this one inside the towel before shaping:

I had a great time experimenting with this bread. I had never made a semolina sourdough bread before, so I didn’t know what to expect, and had to rely on my own instincts and judgment. It was a real confidence builder – I encourage all you novice bakers out there to make the leap and bake some bread. It is immensely satisfying! I’m submitting this for Susan’s weekly YeastSpotting roundup at Wild Yeast Blog. Recipe after the jump . . .
continue reading "The Bread I Had to Make – Pane di Altamura"

To celebrate Bread Baking Day’s one year anniversary, Zorra has chosen bread with sprouts. Technically, soaking the seeds for 12 hours makes them sprouts – you don’t have to see little shoots or roots coming out of the seeds.
continue reading "Flax, Sesame, and Sunflower Rye for Bread Baking Day"

I love a good oat bread. I also love rye bread. Seriously, you know those very thinkly sliced, imported rye breads that you can find in some stores? The ones that taste really sour? I like those, too.

So, I indulged my baking bug (I am now buying sugar and flour in 25 pound bags!). I decided that I had to bake a rye sourdough from Daniel Leader’s 2008 IACP Award-winning book, Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe’s Best Artisan Bakers. If you like to bake bread, and are fascinated by its history, you will absolutely love this book. Leader’s search for the secrets behind artisinal European breads, from France and Germany, to Italy to the Czech Republic, make for fascinating reading. When I’m soaking in the tub, I take this book with me to read. Yes, in the tub.

Above, right, you will see a picture of Boris, my sourdough rye. It took about eight days for him to truly come alive, but my patience paid off. He’s about a month old now, and I refrained from officially naming him until I was sure he would stick around. I hope that Breadchick Mary approves!

For my first bread, I picked Alpine Baguettes, pp. 279-81, and made two batards (or, what passes for batards) out of the dough. The recipe calls for a rye sourdough, but uses unbleached bread flour – no rye flour. It has rolled oats; and sunflower, pumpkin, flax, and sesame seeds. The recipe had only 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and I would double that amount the next time I make this bread. Because I will be making it again! (I did not adapt the recipe in any way, so I won’t be posting it.)

This bread is absolutely delicious – moist, flavorful, with a chewy crust. It is wonderful toasted and slathered with butter. It was also my first sourdough bread, ever, and once you go sourdough, it’s hard to go back! If you are interested in learning more about Daniel Leader and his breads, check out his website, Bread Alone.

The intrepid Bread Baking Babes invited those of us in the culinary blogosphere to join them this week for some pizza. Interestingly enough, I’d been experimenting with different pizza dough recipes, trying to recreate my mum’s extraordinary pizzas.

Believe it or not, I never had commercial take-out pizza until I went to college and discovered Pizza Hut pan pizza, which is still near and dear to my heart. We had a huge garden, and every Sunday my mom would make homemade pizza using homemade tomato sauce (from our garden’s tomatoes), parmiggiano reggiano (when most of America was eating the stuff in the green can), mozzarella, manzanilla olives, and anchovies (for my dad). The taste was out of this world, and the crust was crisp on the outside, with a chewy center. Most of all, the crust actually had *gasp* flavor.

In my recent efforts to make a good home pizza, I have come to the conclusion that Olive Oil Is Your Friend. By that I mean, be generous with it. Really generous. It keeps the dough from sticking to the pan, and gives the crust a richer flavor. This means, if you’re watching calories (HA!), try to cut back on them by choosing your toppings wisely. At least, that’s my philosophy. Luckily, I like simple toppings like basil, tomato, not too much cheese. I remember being shocked at how much olive oil my mom was using, my teenage ego believing it was totally unnecessary. Boy, was I wrong.

I’ve also been experimenting with sourdough, so I was delighted to find out that the Bread Baking Babes were using a sourdough pizza crust from Daniel Leader’s wonderful new book, Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe’s Best Artisan Bakers. I dove in and made the Genzano Potato Pizza, because I wanted to try something different, and at 80% hydration, the dough was wet enough for me. I wasn’t in the mood to be fighting anything – I wanted to have some fun!

What a delicious crust! I put about three tablespoons of olive oil on the sheet pan (and the pizza still stuck slightly, but a little bit of effort detached it from the pan), so the bottom of the crust was a golden brown, extremely crisp, with no trace of sogginess. The rest of the dough was slightly chewy, filled with airholes, and light as a feather. I halved the amount of potatoes, rosemary, and onion called for in the recipe, but I was generous with the salt, and doubled the amount called for in the topping (but not in the dough). I’ve found that some of Leader’s recipes need a bit more salt.

Would I make this again? Yes! But next time I think I’ll go back to my simple old standby, pizza Margherita. This crust is so wonderful, it could stand up to a tomato sauce, not to mention the prodigious amount of toppings that Master Chow likes on his pizza.

Thank you, BBBs, for inviting us to join you again this month. Check out all my Bread Baking Babes, The Sour Dough (Mary), A Fridge Full of Food (Glenna), Bake My Day (Karen), Cookie Baker Lynn (Lynn), I Like to Cook (Sara), Living on Bread and Water (Monique), Lucullian Delights (Ilva), My Kitchen in Half Cups (Tanna), Grain Doe (Gorel), Notitie van Lien (Lien), Thyme of Cooking (Katie), and What Did You Eat (Sher). And be sure to check back with their blogs to see what next month’s invitation will bring!