I’ve been baking a lot recently, but I haven’t been very good about photographing what I’ve been baking. This weekend, however, I took the camera into the kitchen, and had Michael help me get pictures.

For some reason, bread always felt intimidating to me. Sure, I could make quick breads and cookies, but I never experimented with yeast as a child, so although I knew the very basics of how things worked, bread was never anything I felt I could do well, since I wasn’t 100% sure about the process.

I decided this needed to change.

Here’s the thing about bread: it doesn’t have very many ingredients (excluding the egg wash, there are only four ingredients in this recipe: water, yeast, salt, and flour. Although the total time is long, most of the time is waiting for the starter and dough to rise.

So with so few ingredients, where does the flavor come from when you bake bread? It comes from the proofing or fermentation

Here is the Italian bread recipe I’ve been making. It begins with a starter (a Biga, though I think the Biga for this recipe may be closer to a Poolish. What’s the difference? The ratio of water to flour. A Poolish has more liquid than a Biga. Simple, ‘eh?)

Italian Bread
Starter:
1 cup cool water
1/4 tsp yeast
2 cups all purpose flour

Dough:
1/2 cup cool water
2 tsp yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 to 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour.

Wash:
1 egg
1 tbsp water
salt

The starter (or Biga) is very simple. Three ingredients: Water, flour, and yeast.

Because the starter will rest overnight, and because it does not have any salt, it does not require much yeast.

The water, yeast and flour are mixed together.

The starter is placed in a covered container…

And placed out of the way for 12 to 16 hours.

When you’re ready to begin the process, you’ll notice that the starter has increased in volume.

And looks very different; it is full of holes and the surface has smoothed out.

The starter is placed in the mixer bowl, the remainder of the ingredients are added, and the dough is kneaded. This bread has a kneading time of about 5 minutes. You’ll notice that although the dough is somewhat stuck to the bottom of the bowl, it pulls away from the sides of the bowl. That’s the sign that the dough has come together.

The dough is then placed in an oiled bowl and allowed to rise. This dough rises for 90 minutes, however, every 30 minutes, the dough should be turned, to gently deflate the dough.

There is where I fell down on the job and forgot to take pictures. Once the dough has rise for 90 minutes, it is then shaped and given a final rise. The recipe calls for separating the dough into three strands that are braided, and this is then allowed to rise for another hour to hour and a half.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This dough is very sticky. Spray the plastic wrap with oil before covering the dough for the final rise, or you will have a sticky mess.

About 45 minutes into the final rise, preheat the oven for 15 to 30 minutes. You want to oven to be fully and completely heated.

Before placing in the oven, remove the plastic wrap. If you braid the dough, you do not need to slice the top. Brush egg wash on the top of the dough, and then place into the oven to bake for 20 to 30 minutes–until the center of the dough is 180 F.

Cool completely and then eat! Mmmm!

Recipe from King Arthur Flour Baking Book