Pugliese, revisited

The heart of most of Reinhart's breads are the starters. Like this biga he requires for the Pugliese. I used Gold Medal "all-purpose" flour to make the biga because it is the best of the cheap flours I can find in this area. At about $3 a five pound bag I've found it to be as reliable and flavorful as some of the $5 a five pound bag of "bread" flours!

I mixed up the biga and gave it 4 hours at room temperature before placing it in the fridge for the night. I gave it two hours on a counter this morning to get it back up to temperature. Next time I make a biga for this recipe I'll try to leave it cooling its heels in the fridge for at least 48 hours to more fully develop its flavor.

Once the biga is mixed into the rest of the ingredients (the rest of the flour was a 50/50 mix of GM "all-purpose" and King Arthur durum flour) a 30 minute rest is required to allow the flour to absorb the water. Half the mixing seems to be done at the same time! I do run the electric mixer at one third power for 5 minutes before turning the dough onto a well floured counter. Folding, oiling and dusting with flour every 30 minutes for an hour and a half produces a lively dough that fogs up the glass bowl and tries to squeeze out from under it!

When I scraped the dough loose from the counter I forgot to turn it over so the smooth side was up. Working with wet dough can be a challenge if you forget to keep chilling your hands and scrapers with ice cold water! This ball of dough was smooth and well rounded after a 2 hour rise at 76F.

After shaping the loaves and giving them 90 minutes to rise, I ended up with this bubbly beauty! It and the parchment paper it rose on slid onto a baking stone in a 500F oven. There was a cake pan with hot water simmering on the rack below the stone. I sprayed warm water into the oven every 30 seconds for a minute and a half before turning the heat down to 450F. The bread baked for 15 minutes. Then I removed the parchment paper from between the loaf and stone and gave the bread another 10 minutes.

Not bad. Not bad at all. The fragrance was a mouth watering as ever!

The Bulgarian stopped by to snatch the loaf on the right. She would have begun eating the bread where she found it except I happen to mention I'd just finished grinding a pig shoulder into a breakfast sausage. She pulled the bowl of raw meat from the fridge and started eating gobs of it. (gag) "Not bad." she says. "Nice blend of herbs and spices."

Eating raw pork? Sheesh! Making East European style sausages at her house next month should be interesting! I wonder if she'll eat the raw dough when I start teaching her to build breads after we've made several yards of sausage?

Pugliese, please!

Still working out of Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" I built these two of three (I ate one) loaves of Pugliese, a fairly wet dough, 85% water! I need to ask the local librarian what type and brand of flour it was that she gave me to make these from. My test guinea pig (The Mad Bulgarian) loved the bread and was jabbering at her mother in Bulgarian, via Skype, how good the bread was. I found myself trying to explain how the bread was built to a woman who spoke no English (let alone American!) via a translator who was so excited over having good bread to eat that she kept asking me questions in Bulgarian! (I had enough trouble trying to speak in English instead of the more confusing American.)

I don't know if the Mad One would have been as pleased with the Pugliese if DW hadn't placed them in a plastic bag for the 15 mile drive to present them. The short trip caused the once crisp crust to soften. I prefer wrapping such loaves in cloth or tucking them in paper bags. Transporting them in wicher baskets would be even better, or at least more picturesque?

DW also placed two loaves of Tuscan bread, made from the same unknown flour as the Pugliese, in plastic bags. Old habits die hard. (sigh) DW and DIL ate most of a loaf of Tuscan between them. I managed to get 4 slices for sandwiches and while I thought the bread was tasty, I didn't care for what keeping them in plastic did to the crust and crumb. I ended up giving the second loaf, still in a plastic bag, to DW's father who doesn't care what bread I'm making so long as he gets some of it. HE came to work the next day and began heaping praises on the best bread I'd ever brought him! He ate half the loaf the evening before and didn't think the other half would see another day.

Between the Mad One's rolling her eyes and smacking her lips as she ate Pugliese sandwiches slathered with Mayo and horseradish and stuffed with slices of smoked turkey, and FIL's going on about the Tuscan bread, I'm tempted to say I've achieved Arete in bread building and move on to some other venture (like making a perfect sausage?) Now there's a laugh! As I understand Arete, I'm not supposed to attain perfection, only to struggle toward it. Besides, I have an idea as to what perfect bread is and I haven't made it yet!

Now I need to get back to the kitchen where I have some pretty passable egg noodles to finish making so I can send them off as Christmas gifts. Three batches to a friend in Florida and one back to the person who gifted the dozen free range/grass fed chicken eggs! Yum!