April 16, 2017 - 11:28am
Pane di Altamura success!!
After five bakes that began with a cryptic recipe from Daniel Leader's book, "Local Breads" and then working with numerous people on this site along with other bakers who maintain youtube channels and a few local bakers, I have figured out the Pane di Altamura bread! This has literally taken me months to figure out! Learning how to build a preferment that is energized three times before adding to the autolyse... twenty pounds of durum flour... not to mention plenty of lost sleep... oh well... its worth it and there is plenty of room for improvement here...
Curious to hear from those who succeeded with their bakes, if they can offer a flavor profile.
thanks,
Pete
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And a nice oven spring. This is a huge improvement and your patience has paid off. My best Altamura bread to date has had a flavoursome salty crust and a sweet crumb.
I've been tempted by all of the lovely successes like this, but have to admit that the descriptions of the flavours on the "not quite successful" loaves have been keeping me from trying it. Well - that, and the fact that an experienced baker such as yourself would need a few rounds to get this kind of success (I know that I'm not anywhere near that level).
Some of the folks who baked this back a few years described the flavour as being really not much of anything, and Lechem's description of one of his loaves tasting like "cold pasta" just doesn't make this very appealing to try. However, there were a few that noted that eating this bread with a good olive oil makes all of the difference in the world, making both the bread and the oil taste better.
What is your feeling on the flavour of this bread? Is it worth all of the hype and the work and the lost sleep? I hope so - since the appearance of your loaf sure is lovely and looks worth the work!
Thanks for sharing!