Pane Rustico ~ No-Knead Bread with Biga Starter

[Lucinda]

This was the first no-knead bread with biga starter that I posted about. This recipe is from Suzanne Dunaway's No Need to Knead The Pane All'Olio on the other thread is a combo of my own ideas about converting regular breads to no-knead. I used some of her technique with a conventional Pane All'Olio recipe. (Olive Oil bread) I'm still working on the technique. Anyway...

This will make TWO large loaves.

I am just going to bake one loaf today and hold the other, so I'll let you know how it holds up in the fridge. I'm also taking pics from the beginning, making the biga, through both days of baking, which I'll post as I go.

Here is the initial post of the recipe with photos:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=236&topic_id=57494&mesg_id=57494

I'm reposting it into it's own thread so I'll know where it is. :)


Pane Rustico


BIGA
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water (85-95 F degrees)
3/4 cup unbleached bread flour
4 tablespoons rye flour


BREAD
The Biga
2 cups lukewarm water (85-95 F degrees)
5 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup flour, for baking sheet (if used) and tops of loaves

~ Plus a little olive oil to rub on hands to work the dough

TO MAKE THE BIGA
In a glass bowl (she has a thing against stainless so I used glass for this part) mix the yeast with the water and stir well. Add the flour quantities listed under BIGA and stir well to aerate and form a wet dough. Cover tightly and leave at room temperature overnight.

TO MAKE THE BREAD
Mix the BIGA with the remaining ingredients and stir until the flour is incorporated and pulls away from the side of the bowl a bit. MY order into the bowl: Water, biga, flour, salt. Rub a little olive oil on hands and fold the dough and press a few times with the heel of your hand. This is sort of kneading for a couple seconds, but tis done in the bowl and she doesn't call it kneading.

At this point you either cover and place in fridge overnight, then in the morning, let stand at room temperature for 2 hours, then shape and bake as described below OR go to the SAME DAY METHOD

SAME DAY METHOD****
~ Immediately after stirring together, cover with plastic wrap and let dough rise until doubled in volume apx 30-40 minuter. Then IN the bowl, fold over on itself a few times to trap air inside the dough, cover, and let rise again 30-40 minutes.
~ Once more, IN the bowl, fold dough over itself, to trap more air and let rise for another 30-40 minutes.

~ That's three 30-40 minute rise sections (this is avoided by using the overnight method)


SHAPING and BAKING
(She likes low flat loaves - she's a crust junkie - so at this point she cuts the dough into two, and makes two long rectangular loaves and lets them rise for one more 30-40 minute time while the oven preheates to 500. Slash tops just before baking. (She dusts flour on a baking sheet and lets them rise, and then bakes uncovered after reducing heat to 400 degrees once the pan goes in.)

I will be making the first loaf into a boule. I'll shape the loaf, let rise as above, PREHEAT to 500, bake, in covered pot, at 425 for 40 minutes, uncover an brown (apx 10 minutes)

***** I'LL CUT THE DOUGH IN HALF AT THIS POINT. THE SECOND HALF OF THE DOUGH WILL GO INTO THE FRIDGE AFTER THE FIRST 40 MINUTE RISE - I didn't do it immediately after mixing in case all the yeasty goodness ends up on one half. This may or may not be a big mistake on my part. LOL :)

[NMDemDist2]

1. i keep my recipes in my Journal

those can be added from any post

:hi:

[Lucinda]

2. Thanks for the tip.

I'm saving the html pages in my hardrive recipe folder, so it helps me to have the recipe in the op. My eyes get wobbly as the day goes on, this makes it easier to find things.

I can add them to my journal with your tip though! Thanks :hi:

[Lucinda]

3. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly ~ In Photos

This is the freshly mixed BIGA - sort of an oatmeal or paste consistency:




BIGA the next morning (this is the pic from another batch but it looked the same):



Rustico after the dough was split in half and on it's final rise:


THIS is where I screwed up. You can see from the pic above that I had great rise. I grabbed the wrong knife to slash the loaf and it dragged and deflated the loaf a bit. I got the proper knife and scored again, but you can see it's all lopsided now:



And the final result from the loaf I baked today:




SOOO the lesson for today was grab the right freakin tool or suffer the consequences. :D It still tastes great, it's just flatter than it should have been.


I very curious how the second loaf in the fridge will recover and bake tomorrow or the next day. The recipe isn't designed for extra fridge storage...

[hippywife]

4. Still looks yummy to me!

If I get time this weekend, I'm probably going to have to give this a shot.

[Lucinda]

5. It's super easy.

And I do like it better than the Ain5.

If the stored dough holds up well it could be ALMOST as easy as Ain5 with a better end product.

[Lucinda]

6. Day two - loaf in fridge - photo

Decided to go ahead and bake it tonight. Pushed gently to let gas escape and dusted it with a little flour after this shot. It's in the oven for two hours with a light on warming up. Just didnt want to risk it going one more day. Will get braver next time. :)