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Pane di Altamura: a trip there and back

breadforfun's picture
breadforfun

Pane di Altamura: a trip there and back

It began innocently enough, as these things often do.  Ever since I started baking in earnest several years ago I have been intrigued with Pane di Altamura.  Not that I knew exactly what it was, mind you, but the name appeared in many breads that had the golden glow of rich butter in the crumb from the durum wheat.  I was able to buy loaves from several local bakers, most notably Acme Bread, to sample.  These are good breads!  I started experimenting with various formulae and making my own.  Il Fornaio, Peter Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice, Amy’s Breads, Dan Leader’s Local Bread, Maggie Glezer’s Artisan Bread all had versions and I made and enjoyed each of them. I even shared them with friends, who all left with smiles after eating them. Some of them may have been smiling after drinking that 20 year old Barolo, but they liked the bread, too.  

My wife and I spent the last two weeks of October in Southern Italy.  Needless to say, we had to make the pilgrimage to the town of Altamura - after all, it was only 15 minutes away from where we stayed in Matera, a city continuously occupied since prehistoric times that’s worthy of a post of its own.

Before we left on the trip I learned about twice milling the durum flour to achieve a flour texture suitable for making breads.  Semolina, the coarser grind of durum wheat has sharp edges that tended to cut the gluten network and therefore reduce the ultimate height of the loaf.  The double milling is supposed to reduce these spikes.  In the U.S. it’s called Extra Fancy or Extra Fine Durum, and in Italy it’s called Rimacinata (re-milled). I've used the Extra Fancy Durum before but I never knew exactly what it meant.

Pane di Altamura is, I believe, the only bread that has a Denominazione d'Origine Protetta, or D.O.P., an E.U. designation that specifies a product and protects the name from being co-opted and used to promote an inferior product. We bought a loaf from a local Paneficio in the city center, and another loaf from a D.O.P. certified bakery on the way out of town. This last loaf was a complete eye (and mouth) opener!  It was nothing like any bread I had ever tasted. The loaf had a honey-colored crispy crust that begged to be torn into.  The crumb was very yellow, slightly moist and chewy and, at the same time, fluffy and very aerated.  There was an ever-so-slight sourness with a rich, a little nutty, earthy flavor.   The DOP regulations say (among other things) that the crust must be at least 3 mm thick.

If you are interested in the regs you can download them here (the link doesn’t always work - not sure why)


When we returned home I set out to reproduce the bread as best I could.  The quest started by my dragging home a 5 kg bag of the local flour, Semola Rimacinata Grano Duro, in my checked luggage. 

Although it wasn’t that expensive there (€8 or roughly $10.50 at the time, less than $8.50 at this weeks exchange rate) for 11 pounds of flour, my supply was obviously very limited, so I wanted to practice on something more available in case the imported version was truly different.  I had some Extra Fancy Durum flour from Central Milling (in California) that seemed to be as fine as the Italian version so I decided to use this to develop a bread formula before trying my import.  

But where to start?  At first I was unsuccessful tracking down any authentic Italian recipes (more about this later), so I took parts from Il Fornaio’s Altamura and Amy’s Breads Golden Italian Semolina for a couple of bakes.  These loaves were not worth spending much time on - flat, dense, nearly tasteless, certainly nowhere near the loaf in my minds eye.

On my third attempt working with the Extra Fancy Durum I opted for Leader’s version, which is 72% hydration and 18% pre-fermented flour from an 81%H all durum starter. I several some changes to the formula mostly because the flour seemed unusually thirsty, and ended up with about 77%H dough made with an 86%H starter.  Instead of following Leader’s shaping technique, I tried simply to fold the loaf in half trying to achieve that authentic look.  This resulting loaf looked OK, but the crumb was very tight.  Also, in the photo you can see some unincorporated flour due to the simplistic shaping. And it certainly wasn’t the same color as we had in Italy.

 

At this point I felt I had to try the flour I brought back to see how it behaved.  The first thing I noticed as I prepared the starter was the ease with which the flour hydrated.  The flour from Central Milling was very thirsty - building an 80%H starter felt as thick and dry as a 65-70%H whole wheat starter. Using the Grano Duro, the same 80%H more closely resembled an 85-90% WW starter and the flour hydrated as readily as sugar into water. The second major difference is the color.  The Grano Duro is a bright yellow compared to the creamy yellow of the CM. Clearly I would have to lower the hydration for this flour.  The initial results were unspectacular and disappointing, and it was back to the drawing board.

Since the first attempt with Leader’s formula have baked versions of Pane di Altamura a dozen more times.  I found another domestic flour from Giusto’s Vita Grain (sourced from North Dakota Mill) that behaved and appeared more like the Grano Duro. Rather than bore you with the details of each and every one, here are some representative photos of the results.


I also found this blog (translated by Google) that gives a pretty detailed formula, although she, too, uses the boule shape.  My results are not quite as open a crumb as hers, but pretty close.



My most recent bake was done at a slightly lower hydration.  It was a direct comparison between the Italian Grano Duro and the Giusto (North Dakota Mill) Patent durum flour.  I was also playing around with long refrigerated overnight bulk ferment rather than retard after shaping, as was the case with loaf shown above. 

Comparison between Giusto Flour on the left and Grano Duro from Italy on the right.  The respective crumb shots are below.

  


In the interim and after some intensive web searches I found a few Italian videos that describe the shaping process. Unfortunately I don’t speak Italian, and there is a lot more dialog than action in these clips, but I began to get a sense of how the loaves are shaped.

In this video the various finished shapes are shown in the beginning.  You have to wait until around halfway through the video until you see the shaping techniques.

In another video you can advance to around the 10:00 mark to see about 10 seconds of shaping.


At this point, I am fairly happy with the breads when I make basic boules.  I think the results are not as good as they could be, and for whatever reason my gluten structure isn’t strong enough to hold up to shaping after long fermentation.  Presumably this is why I can’t shape as in the videos.  If there are any Italian speakers out there who can translate from the videos I’d be happy for any tidbits that may shed some light on what I am missing.  My goal is to be able to shape a loaf like the one at the top of this page.

If you have read this far, thanks for sticking with this long-winded post.  My version of Pane di Altamura is still a work in progress.  The lack of a wood-fired oven, though, will insure that I never can match the flavor of the original. That’s fine with me - it makes a perfect excuse to go back for more.

-Brad

Comments

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I have also had the desire to make this bread but not your persistence. I made it once or twice a few years ago. If memory serves, I looked at the same formulas you did and ended up  feeling Leader's seemed most likely to produce something like the original. I do not have the benefit of having had the original. I envy you that.

Keep us apprised of your progress.

David

breadforfun's picture
breadforfun

Persistence or obsession? You be the judge.  But I do love this bread, the D.O.P. version at least, and it is well worth the detour if you are anywhere near the area.  Needless to say, before starting down this path I checked out TFL and saw your post, as well as Franko's and others, to get some tips.  A common thread is that is is difficult to shape, and if nothing else I confirmed something that didn't need confirmation.  The quest goes on and I'll continue to post updates.

-Brad

nmygarden's picture
nmygarden

Brad, these look wonderful. With sunny color and soft creamy crumb, it's no wonder why this bread is so popular. You'll get it just where you want it, and then will need to bar the door from family, friends and neighbors. Amazing how fun it can be to incorporate a minor mission into a vacation and end up bringing the location back with you. Beautiful town!

Thanks for sharing!

Cathy

breadforfun's picture
breadforfun

Thanks for your encouragement, Cathy. The color is certainly one of the attractions of this bread. The local story is that it originally was a bread baked for fishermen who might spend a week or more at sea, and a loaf will last that long without going stale. We nibbled on our for more than 5 days without it getting too hard to eat, and then it was gone.  For me, sharing breads is one of the great pleasures of baking and as long as I'm able to bake I'll bake more than I can use on my own.

-Brad

AbeNW11's picture
AbeNW11 (not verified)

Thank you for the great insight Brad and what a great bake. So I finally get to see the Pane di Altamura that you told me about. Certainly looks delicious and that crumb!! Semolina makes for a great bread. Creamy in texture. In the UK we have highly technical terms for the different types of Semolina flour. "Course" and "Fine" :)

Love the write up and thank you for all your guidance. I'll try and make this myself sometime but can't guarantee the thickness of the crust lol.

Bon Appetite.

breadforfun's picture
breadforfun

Hi Abe. You should try it since the flour is readily available to you.  The worst that can happen is you'll get a door stop, and, believe me, I baked my share of these in the course of this project. The D.O.P. loaf was about 8-inches in diameter and about 8-inches tall.  It was a substantial loaf that probably weighed 1500g. The nuance of the bread, I've come to believe, is the balance between gluten development with the accelerated fermentation of the durum, so I am concentrating on adjusting the amount of starter used in my bakes. And hydration is a factor as well. I feel like I'm back in Junior High School doing a science project...Luckily no grades and results are edible.

-Brad

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

pictures 6 and 7 are once of the traditional shapes for this bread along with the pope's hat?  Your examples look to be spot on and have to delicious.  We love the sweetness of durum and now that Hayden Mills is having Desert Durum grown in AZ for flour, instead of the 300,000 tons frown for export to Italian pasta makers, we can get some really good local durum flour to give this another shot. Thanks for the reminder. Well done and

Happy baking.

breadforfun's picture
breadforfun

... for Pane di Altamura.  The "Priest's Hat" that you describe is a wide, flat loaf (photo here) that is called "a cappiddle de prèvete" in the local dialect.  The other shape listed in the DOP regs is locally called "u sckuanète" or folded loaf.  It is this folded loaf that I am trying to duplicate.  I may be close, but you can tell it's not the original without any difficulties.  There are other traditional shapes as well, but only these two are called out in the DOP regulations.

I'd love to hear how the Hayden Mills behaves when you try it.  As always, thanks for all your info.

-Brad

chouette22's picture
chouette22

... to read about your trip and your trials with this bread and its flours. I speak Italian and both videos are really well made and I enjoyed watching them a lot. What a strong tradition this bread has! The baker in the second video was elected one of the best four in the entire country when it came to this particular bread. 
In one hour I'll be heading to my Italian conversation group. I started it 12 years ago to maintain my Italian at a fluent level. You should join us! :)

breadforfun's picture
breadforfun

Thanks chouette22.  Funny you should mention that. I got a voucher for an Italian class from a charity auction last fall and plan to go this summer.  Not that this will make me fluent, but maybe enough to order a loaf of bread the next time I go to the paneficio.  Meanwhile, you tease me about the videos ;-).  Were there any details about the dough shaping or baking that were mentioned?

-Brad

trijezdci's picture
trijezdci

I got very good results with durum flour from Mininni Industria Molitoria called "Altamura Semola Rimacinata di Grano Duro". I found this at an Italian garage store that sells supplies for Italian restaurants and a 5Kg sack costs 7.90 EUR. Not sure if this is available across the Atlantic though.

Remilled Durum Wheat Semolina

I tested this on two loafs. The first one I made with 20% lievito and 70% hydration as mentioned in the Italian YouTube video and I baked it in a professional bakery oven at 250 C with steam for 15 minutes, then another 45 minutes at 220C without steam. This came out quite nicely but the crust could have been thicker and the crumb a bit more open.

Pane di Altamura baked in bakery oven

Pane di Altamura -- cut open

So I modified the recipe and process a bit for the second one. I used 25% lievito and 75% hydration and deliberately overproofed the loaf ...

overproofed dough

which I then baked in a closed cast iron pot, aka dutch oven.

dutch oven

Baking times and temperatures: Preheated to 275C, baked for 15 minutes, then another 30 minutes at 225C, both with the lid on, then another 15 minutes at 200C with the lid off.

As a result of overproofing the loaf it was tricky to get it into the dutch oven and it collapsed to some degree.

collapsed dough

However, thanks to the closed pot and the resulting steam generated inside, it all came back nicely.

baked

baked loaf

This time the crust was 4 mm thick and very crunchy and the crumb more open and juicier.

crust and crumb

slice

The taste is absolutely fantastic.

The key points would seem to be a slightly higher hydration, longer proofing time and baking in a dutch oven to simulate a wood fired stone oven. The challenge is to transfer the overproofed loaf into the dutch oven without causing it to collapse or deform. This will take a bit of practice.

 

trijezdci's picture
trijezdci

Maybe I should have posted the recipe, too.

For the lievito:

  • 106 g semola rimacinata di grano duro
  • 95 ml fermented raisin & honey water

Hydration 88%, temperature 28C (use a yoghurt maker), three times refreshed.

 For the dough:

  • 600 g semola rimacinata di grano duro
  • 200 g lievito
  • 435 ml water
  • 14 g salt
  • Hydration 75%, three times stretch and fold every 45 minutes at room temperature, then proof for 8 h at 19C.

Bake in closed dutch oven preheated to 275C for 15 minutes, then at 225C for 30 minutes, finally at 200C for 15 minutes with lid off.

trijezdci's picture
trijezdci

this recipe is for a loaf of ca. 1050 g (after baking loss).