Rustic Italian Crusty Bread Recipes

CRUSTY HOMEMADE BREAD

Steps:

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Using a rubber spatula, stir in 3-1/2 cups flour and salt to form a soft, sticky dough. Do not knead. Cover and let rise at room temperature 1 hour., Stir down dough (dough will be sticky). Turn onto a floured surface; with floured hands pat into a 9-in. square. Fold square into thirds, forming a 9x3-in. rectangle. Fold rectangle into thirds, forming a 3-in. square. Place in a large greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise at room temperature until almost doubled, about 1 hour., Punch down dough and repeat folding process. Return dough to bowl; refrigerate, covered, overnight., Grease the bottom of a disposable foil roasting pan with sides at least 4 in. high; dust pan with cornmeal. Turn dough onto a floured surface. Knead gently 6-8 times; shape into a 6-in. round loaf. Place into prepared pan; dust top with remaining 1 tablespoon flour. Cover pan and let rise at room temperature until dough expands to a 7-1/2-in. loaf, about 1-1/4 hours. , Preheat oven to 500°. Using a sharp knife, make a slash (1/4 in. deep) across top of loaf. Cover pan tightly with foil. Bake on lowest oven rack 25 minutes., Reduce oven setting to 450°. Remove foil; bake bread until deep golden brown, 25-30 minutes. Remove loaf to a wire rack to cool.

RUSTIC ITALIAN CRUSTY BREAD RECIPE

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl or your kitchen aid mixer add the flour, salt and yeast. Use a spatula or the paddle attachment and mix to combine well.
• Pour in the warm water and keep mixing until everything is incorporated and a soft dough has formed. It will still stick to the bottom of the bowl and that is OK.
• Cover the bowl with some plastic wrap loosely and a tea towel. Allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours until doubled in size.
• Sprinkle some flour on your kitchen counter and dump the bread dough on it. Flour your hands to help it out of the bowl as it will be sticky. Don't panic, this is normal.
• With floured hands fold the dough onto itself forming it into a round ball. Do not knead it, do not handle it anymore than you need to. Use a sharp knife and lightly carve an X in the top of the loaf or just make a few cuts across.
• Place the bread dough on top of a lightly floured pizza peel, cardboard or parchment paper and allow it to rest while your oven is heating up.
• Preheat your oven to 450"F with a pizza stone inside for about 45 minutes before baking the bread. Fill an oven proof bowl with 2 inches of water and place it on the bottom rack. This will create the steam that will cause the crust to become crispy as it bakes.
• Once your oven is hot sprinkle the pizza stone with some semolina flour or corn meal and carefully slide the bread loaf on top. Bake the bread for about 30 to 45 minutes until golden brown all over and cooked through.
• Transfer the bread to a cooling rack and allow to cool off completely before slicing into it. You can also let it cool inside the oven with the door slightly open.

HOMEMADE NO-KNEAD OLIVE BREAD RECIPE

Steps:

• Mix the dry ingredients; bread flour, active dry yeast, and kosher salt, in a large mixing bowl.
• Pour in 1 ⅓ cups (316 ml.) lukewarm water.
• Give it a mix using a wooden spoon. At this point, the dough needs to be quite sticky. Stir in the chopped olives and ensure that they are equally distributed throughout the batter. (Alternatively, you can use your clean hands to mix and feel the stickiness.)
• Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let it sit in a warmer part of your house for 18-24 hours.In my tests, I found that the bread baked after 18 hours of rising time was perfect, but the 24-hour one was also good. One important thing to mention here is that at the end of the rising time you might see a thin (kind of hard - for the lack of a better word) layer at the top of the dough. Don't be alarmed by that. In the next step, we will fold that into the dough and since it is a sticky one, the additional rising time will help soften it.
• Lightly flour a piece of parchment paper, gently remove the dough from the bowl, and place it onto the parchment. While removing, you will realize that it is quite sticky. However, if you take your time and gently pull it by folding it onto itself, you will see that it will come out easily without any dough remaining in the bowl. For a visual, be sure to watch the video below.
• Form the dough into a ball tucking the sides of the dough under. Lightly dust it with a little bit of flour, cover it with a clean kitchen towel, and let it rise for 1-2 hours or until it doubles in size. Again, I recommend letting it sit in a warmer part of your house.
• Towards the end of the rising time, place your dutch oven in the oven and pre-heat it to 450 F degrees.
• When ready to bake, carefully take the now-very hot dutch oven out of the oven. Using the edges of the parchment paper place the dough into the dutch oven. Put the lid on and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove the lid and continue to bake another 20-30 minutes or until the top is nicely golden brown as you see in the photos.
• At the end of the baking, remove it from the dutch oven, place it onto a cooling rack and let it cool for 30-45 minutes before slicing.

RUSTIC ITALIAN BREAD ABM

Steps:

• Add flour, oil, salt, sugar, yeast and water to your bread machine according to its instructions.
• Set on dough setting.
• Always follow your machines instructions, when mixing open it and keep check on the dough. Dough should be in a nice round soft sticky to the touch ball. If it is not add more water, or add flour which ever is needed.
• Remove when signal beeps and cycle is done.
• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Sprinkle cornflour or cornmeal onto a baking sheet.
• Punch dough down and form into a long or oval loaf.
• Cover and let rise for 25 more minutes.
• It should be doubled again by this time.
• Uncover and slash the top with a sharp knife or razor.
• Brush all over with the beaten egg white.
• Bake 25 minutes to 35 minutes, until hollow sounding when tapped on bottom.
• Cool.

HOMEMADE RUSTIC NO YEAST BREAD

Steps:

• Pre-heat oven to 425F (220C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Then add the water and mix together, either with a fork or spatula.Sprinkle a flat surface with a little flour, place the dough on top and gently knead for a minute or two until smooth. Gently flatten the dough into a small rectangle with the palm of your hand and fold it like an envelope. Sprinkle with flour if needed.Then form into your preferred loaf shape, score the top and place on prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes then lower the temperature to 350F (180C) for another 10 minutes.Let cool on a wire rack before serving. Enjoy!

RUSTIC ITALIAN BREAD

Steps:

• Note: Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
• There are 2 techniques that I will call out below that deal with where you add the sugar. There is one way where you add the sugar to the yeast and another where you add the sugar to the flour. I have used both ways and they both work for me.

CRUSTY ITALIAN BREAD

Steps:

• 1. Dissolve the yeast in a quarter-cup of warm water. You should actually check the temperature of the water. Too cold and it won't activate, too hot and you can kill the yeast.
• 2. Give the yeast a few minutes, until it starts bubbling, then mix it in with the rest of the warm water.
• 3. Add the flour, sugar and salt and stir.
• 4. Don't add the oil until after you've worked the water and flour together. Otherwise the oil will coat the proteins and prevent gluten formation. Gluten lets the dough stretch when it rises, making it light and chewy instead of crumbling like cake.
• 5. After mixing the oil in, turn the dough out onto a clean, floured surface to knead.
• 6. Stretch the dough away from you, fold it back, turn a quarter turn and repeat. Once the dough is well incorporated, slap it on the surface a few times. This will encourage more gluten production leading to a lighter, airier bread.
• 7. When the dough is smooth and silky, continue kneading for another several minutes. You can work it with both hands and keep turning the dough, or just hit it from opposite angles with each hand.
• 8. Once the dough is thoroughly kneaded, place it in an oiled bowl. Toss the dough around so it is coated with oil all the way around.
• 9. Cover the dough with plastic wrap, pressed right up against the dough. This will prevent a skin from forming on the dough, allowing it to rise more.
• 10. Put the bowl someplace warm until the dough has doubled in size, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
• 11. Pre-heat the oven to 425°. If you have a pizza stone, put it on the bottom rack. Otherwise, place a baking sheet upside-down on the bottom rack. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and punch down to knock out most of the air out. Don't go crazy and try to turn it into a pancake. Just give it a quick couple of hits.
• 12. Roll the dough out into a loaf shape and cut it in half. You can form the halves into loaves or, like I did here, divide each half into three smaller pieces.
• 13. Roll out the pieces of dough until they are about 6-9 inches long.
• 14. If you have a peel (the large wooden spatula you see in pizza shops) use that. If not, a wooden cutting board will work. Dust it with cornmeal so the dough doesn't stick.
• 15. Cover the loaves with plastic and allow to rise for another 40 minutes. They should roughly double in width.
• 16. Cut each loaf down the middle with the sharpest blade you have. If you don't have anything that is absolutely razor sharp, use a razor blade. You want to cut about a quarter-inch deep in a single quick stroke without sawing back-and-forth. This will prevent the bread from bursting open when it rises in the oven.
• 17. Transfer the loaves onto the baking stone. Leave room between loaves for them to rise some more. If they don't all fit on your stone, put the rest on an upside-down baking sheet.
• 18. Bake at 425° for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 400° and bake another 25-30 minutes. To check if they're done, pick one loaf up and thump on the bottom with your thumb. If it has a hollow sound, it's done. If you want really crusty bread, great for dipping in olive oil or marinara sauce, place a pan of water in the bottom of the oven. The steam will keep a skin from forming too fast, giving the bread more time to rise. It will also make the crust crisper. Don't put the loaves near the top. The radiant heat from the top of the stove will brown the crust too much, too fast. Serve immediately with butter, or with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping.

RUSTIC ITALIAN BREAD

Steps:

• BREAD MACHINE DIRECTIONS
• PLACE all ingredients except cornmeal and egg white in bread machine pan according to manufacturer's directions. Process on DOUGH setting.
• SPRINKLE ungreased cookie sheet with cornmeal. At end of dough cycle, remove dough from machine. Place on lightly floured surface. Punch down dough. (If dough is sticky, knead in additional flour before shaping.) Cover dough with clean cloth. Let rest for 15 minutes. Shape dough into baguette-shaped loaf about 12 inches long. Place loaf on cornmeal-coated cookie sheet. Cover. Let rise in warm place (80 degrees to 85 degrees F) for 20 to 25 minutes or until light and doubled in size.
• HEAT oven to 375 degrees F. Make 1 deep lengthwise slash with sharp knife in top of loaf. Brush loaf with egg white. Bake 25 to 35 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when lightly tapped.
• CONVENTIONAL OVEN METHOD
• SPOON flour lightly into measuring cup. Level off. Combine flour, sugar, salt and yeast in large bowl. Mix well. Add warm water and oil. Mix well. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead dough 10 minutes or until smooth. Place dough in lightly greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and cloth towel. Let rise in warm place (80 degrees to 85 degrees F) for 30 to 40 minutes.
• SPRINKLE ungreased cookie sheet with cornmeal. Punch down dough. Cover dough with inverted bowl and allow to rest on counter 15 minutes. Shape dough into baguette-shaped loaf about 12 inches long. Place dough on cornmeal-coated cookie sheet. Cover. Let rise in warm place 35 to 40 minutes or until doubled in size.
• HEAT oven to 375 degrees F. Make 1 deep lengthwise slash with sharp knife in top of loaf. Brush loaf with egg white. Bake 25 to 35 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when lightly tapped.
• High Altitude (3500 ft.):
• No change.

CRUSTY ITALIAN SANDWICH ROLLS

Steps:

• To make the starter or biga, combine the flour and yeast in a medium bowl, slowly add the 3/4 cup water. Mix until a rough dough forms. If needed, add up to 1 cup of water. Transfer the dough to a lightly-floured surface and knead for a few minutes until it becomes smooth. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turn to coat, then cover and let stand at room temperature for about 3 hours.
• Transfer to the refrigerator and let it chill overnight. In the morning, remove the biga from the refrigerator and let it stand at room temperature at least 1 hour before proceeding.
• Mix the flour, salt, sugar and yeast thoroughly in a large mixing bowl.
• Cut the biga into small pieces (10-12) and add them in, then, finally the 3/4 cup of the water with the 1 Tablespoon olive oil. Stir together until a dough starts to form. Knead on low with your stand mixer dough hook. Continue to knead the dough for about 5 to 7 minutes -- until a soft dough forms. If needed, add in some of the remaining water a little at a time. The dough should be smooth and elastic -- just barely sticky.
• Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat, and cover. Let rise until doubled, about 2 hours.
• Remove the dough to a lightly-floured surface. Cut it in 2 being careful not to deflate too much. Cut each piece into 3 equal parts. Shape each piece into a torpedo.
• Place the shaped dough on a parchment covered making sheet that was sprinkled with cornmeal or semolina. Spray the shaped rolls lightly with oil, then tent lightly with plastic wrap to rise until they are puffy and almost doubled, about 1 hour.
• Lightly brush each roll with egg wash then score the rolls with a sharp knife or lamé either on the diagonal or down the middle.
• Place a metal baking pan on the lower rack of the oven for use as a steam pan and preheat the oven to 450 F/220 C. When the oven is preheated pour hot water into the metal baking pan and transfer the roll pan to the oven. Bake about 17-20 minutes, until the tops are a golden brown and the internal temperature measures 190 F.
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
• Alternate version: Italian Dinner Rolls
• When you are ready to shape the dough measure out 2 oz. pieces and shape them into balls. We got 17 of them. Then follow the directions above until you are ready to bake. Brush an egg wash--1 egg white mixed with 1/2 cup cool tap water -- on the rolls. Score the top by snipping with scissors then proceed as the rolls above. Bake for 20 minutes or until nicely brown.