Category Archives: Pugliese

Pugliese Bread, the Easier Way

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You can do this easy, or hard. It’s your choice. I decided to do it somewhere in the middle, the “Easier Way.”

Making pugliese can be a long, involved process. It can also be as easy as any artisan bread. I chose to use mostly traditional ingredients, but shorten the method. I didn’t have any fine semolina flour on hand so used only bread flour. Some pugliese recipes use mash potatoes, I did not.

I followed the method pretty closely but I used a stand mixer and like to do the second rise in a parchment paper lined banneton. This makes it easier to transfer from the banneton to the dutch oven. Remember to put the dough in the banneton seam side down so you can score the smooth side..

The final result is a tasty loaf with good crumb and very chewy crust, very much like a traditional pugliese.

Pugliese – Easier

INGREDIENTS
For the Biga:
• 260 g (2 cups) Bread flour
• 155 ml (2/3 cup) Water (room temperature)\
• ¼ tsp Instant yeast
For the Final Dough:
• All of the fermented Biga
• 260 g (1 ¾ c) Fine semolina flour (or additional bread flour if semolina isn’t available)
• 235 ml (1 c) Water (lukewarm)
• 15 g (1 Tbl) Fine sea salt
• 1 tsp Instant yeast

METHOD

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, water, and yeast for the biga until a shaggy dough forms. Cover tightly and let rest at room temperature for 12 to 18 hours (or in the fridge for up to 2 days).
  2. In a stand mixer bowl, dissolve the biga and the yeast in the lukewarm water and beat on low for 5 minutes.. Add the semolina flour and salt. Mix thoroughly until you have a very wet, sticky dough.
  3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it proof at room temperature for 90 minutes (or until tripled in size).
  4. Generously dust your work surface with semolina flour. Gently turn out the dough and shape it into a loose oval (batard) or round boule. Place it seam-side down into a parchment paper lined banneton.
  5. Cover and let it proof for another 90 minutes until it has grown significantly.
  6. Preheat your oven and a Dutch oven to 450°F for 30 minutes.
  7. Score the top with a sharp blade, and bake covered with the lid on for 25 minutes.
  8. Remove the lid and bake for another 20 minutes until the crust is deep golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.
  9. Cool: Let it cool on a wire rack for at least 45 minutes before slicing.

Pugliese Please

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Pugliese is not the easiest of breads to make, but is one of the tastiest with wonderful crumb and crust. The recipe below calls for durum flour, but I substituted what I had on hand, which is Soft Wheat Flour Tipo “00”. This is a high hydration dough which means it is very hard to handle. It is very soft and very sticky and you don’t want to add extra flour to make it easier to handle as you will reduce the hydration.

Typically pugliese is made in round loaves, but I made one round and one batard, as those are the Dutch Ovens I have. Anyway, if you are up to it, and have some time, give this a try. It is one of the best breads I have ever made.

Pugliese, high hydration Italian loaf

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20595/pugliese-high-hydration-italian-loaf

This is approx 82% (the recipe 3 X’s is approx 84%) total hydration dough. The recipe comes from Rose Levy Beranbaum ‘the bread bible’

INGREDIENTS
Biga
• 225 g – AP flour
• 3/16th tsp – 0.6 g instant yeast
• 177 g – water, at room temperature (70F to 90F)
Dough
• 213 g – All Purpose flour
• 213 g – Duram Flour – or Soft Wheat Flour Tipo “00”
• 1 ½ tsp – 4.8 g Instant Yeast
• 15 g – salt
• 354 g – water, at room temperature (70F to 90F) about 12 oz

METHOD

  1. 6 hours or up to 3 days ahead, make the biga. Use the “Ultimate Flavor” method (let the biga to ferment for 12-24 hours at 55-65 deg, then store in the fridge.)
  2. Combine all the biga ingredients in a large bowl and stir the mixture until smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl…3 to 5 minutes. It should be sticky enough to cling to your fingers. Cover the bowl, with oiled plastic or lid and set aside until tripled and filled with bubbles ~6 hours. Stir it down and use it, or refrigerate it up to 3 days.
  3. In a large bowl, dissolve the biga in the water… a few little undissolved pieces are ok.
  4. Whisk together flours, yeast. Add salt and whisk again.
  5. Add the flour mixture to the biga and water and mix until wet and combined.
  6. Autolyze for ~50 minutes
  7. Stretch and fold 3 times.
  8. Repeat stretch and fold 3 or 4 times -30 minutes apart,
  9. After dough forms good gluten strands, (I cut the dough in half here as I didn’t have a proofing container big enough to proof this large a recipe,) form a ball, and cover, letting it rise in a (ideally 75F to 80F) until tripled…about 2 hours.
  10. Preheat oven and Dutch ovens to 500F.
  11. 1 hour before baking pour the dough out of the bowl onto lightly floured surface and cut it in half. With very few gentle motions pull it over itself into a rough ball. Gently pick it up and drop it seam side up into the floured banneton. Sprinkle top lightly with flour, and cover with oiled plastic wrap. Allow to rise until it has increased by about 1 ½ times, up to 1 ½ hours. It will just start to push up the plastic. Dust with a little flour and score the top with 3 or 4 large slashes.
  12. Bake with steam turning down the oven after the first five minutes and then continue baking with steam for 12 minutes total at 450F or adjusting your ovens temperature to bake the loaves for ~20 minutes, until deep golden brown….leave loaves in off oven with door ajar for 5 to 10 minutes