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Pugliese, high hydration Italian loaf!

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Pugliese, high hydration Italian loaf!

This is apx. 82% (the recipe 3 X's is apx. 84%) total hydration dough, that I think would be fun for anyone to try.  It is one of my favorites, I've posted HERE before.  The recipe comes from Rose Levy Beranbaum 'the bread bible' and a photo is displayed on the cover.

Delicious, it has a lovely creamy crumb, tender chewy crust, the added duram flour gives a mellow buttery flavor, just perfect for dipping in EVOO, or slathering it with just about anything you favor...perfect for a sandwich.  The Biga can be used up to three day before baking.  I use the 'Ultimate Full Flavor Variation' allowing it to ferment in a cool area (55F to 65F) for 12 to 24 hours.  Perfect weather now for finding a cool spot in my home.  I just add a few ice cubes in my very cool spare bathroom sink.

I have always 3 Times the recipe - the recipe in the book makes small pugliese- 3 times gives me 2 nice size round loaves that just fit in my banneton's that are linen lined...I used to use small bowls lined with floured tea towels, that works fine, too!

This is 'Three Times the recipe'

1. Biga  - 225 gms - All purpose flour - use only- Gold Medal, King Arthur or Pillsbury - 225 gms

instant yeast - 3 X 1/16 teaspoon -  or 0.6 gms.

water, at room temperature (70F to 90F) - 177 gms

6 hours or up to 3 days ahead, make the biga. - I use the 'Ultimate Full Flavor Variation', as stated above.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir the mixture until smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl...3 to 5 minutes. Should be sticky or tacky enough to cling to your fingers.  Cover the bowl, with oiled plastic or lid and set aside until tripled and filled with bubbles..about 6 hours.  Stir it down and use it, or refrigerate it up to 3 days, before baking,  I place my bowl in a cool spot for as mentioned above!  So I can bake the next day.

Dough - 

All Purpose flour - GM, KA or Pillsbury -213 gms

Duram Flour - 213 gms

Instant Yeast - 1 1/2 teaspoons

salt - I used 15gms sea salt

water, at room temperature (70F to 90F)  about 12 oz - 354 gms

Biga from above

I mixed all by hand, this way.

In a large bowl, dissolve the biga in the water...there were a few little pieces, undissolved.  Wisked together my flours, yeast, added salt and wisked again.

Added the flour mixture to the biga and water and mixed just until the all was wet and combined.  Autolysed for  apx. 50 minutes and did stretch and folds-30 minutes apart,  double it's length and give it a business letter fold, after 3 stretch and folds, round up the dough into a ball, covered and let it rise in a (ideally 75F to 80F) until tripled...about 2 hours.

Preheat oven and stone 500F...1 hour before baking...Shape very gently, handling as little as possible, trying not to deflate all those nice air bubbles.  Pour it out of the bowl onto lightly floured surface...cut it in half..pull it over itself into a rough ball shape and in just very motions pull it into a rounded ball.  Gently pick it up and drop it seam side up into the floured banneton.  Sprinkle top lightly with flour, and cover with oiled plastic wrap.  Allow to rise until it has increased by about 1 1/2 times, to 1 1/2 hours.  It will just start to push up the plastic.

Bake with steam turning down the oven after the first five minutes and then continue baking with steam for 12 minutes total at 450F or adjusting your ovens temperature to bake the loaves for apx. another 20 minutes, until deep golden brown....leave loaves in off oven with door ajar for a 5 to 10 minutes

ADDITION NOTE.  A change was made in the water addition from 154gms. to 354gms.  I apologize for the typo and thanks to pattycakes for catching it.

This recipe comes from RLB 'the bread bible' and I have tripled  her recipe. 

 

 

         Duram Flour and Semolina Grind  -  Use the Duram Flour, pictured on the right,  not the pasta grind semolina on the left.

                          

 

 

 

                                                             Usually I do this right handed but I' holding the camera : )                             

                                     

 

                                              

 

                             

                                                                    

 

                               

 

                                                                  

                                                                          submitted to yeastspotting                                                                               

                

                        

Comments

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Yummy!Sylvia! thanks for posting this, though Durum flour is non-existant in my part of the world.. and online sourcing and shipment is way too cost prohibitive.

Did i mention that your loaves look great, in and out, well done.. I agree, aith EVOO being best with durum based loaves.

khalid

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

I wish duram flour was more available.  I usually wait until KAflours has a free shipping sale.  Some recipes I can use the semolina grind, that I can get locally.

Sylvia

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Nice and lovely crumb too. Thank your for sharing.

Same here, I never come across durum flour in Australia. There're only semolina flour available.

Do you think we can substitute durum with semolina flour? What effects will this have to the end result?

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

R.L.B. instructs in the book that Semolina, also from durum wheat, is a much coarser grind and will not work for this bread. 

Sylvia

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

I have made this one before. I am a sucker for anything with semolina in it. As an aside, we use the finer durum atta, as it is called at the Indian store, for our pasta and have found that it works great. You always have such pretty breads. c

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

I'm also a big fan of this tasty duram wheat!

Sylvia

OldWoodenSpoon's picture
OldWoodenSpoon

Beautiful Pugliese loaves Sylvia!  I love RLB's "The Bread Bible", and this recipe is one of the reasons why.  Your loaves could easily go on the cover in place of the Pugliese loaves already there.  You inspire me to revisit this loaf once again, especially since I now have some true durum flour around.

Excellent in all respects Sylvia!
OldWoodenSpoon

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

for your kind compliments are appreicated!

Sylvia

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Dear Sylvia, May I please compliment you on our "Perfect Pugliese" and lovely photographs showing your process! 
I really do love the color the durum flour brings to the dough and crumb.
Well done!  from breadsong

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

It's a little difficult getting photos as the sun sets so early now, thank you.

Sylvia

GSnyde's picture
GSnyde

Very nice, Sylvia.  Good description of the process, and great looking bread.

I got a bag of KAF Durum flour for making Psomi.  This recipe may be how I use it next.

I guess The Bread Bible needs to be on my book list.

Glenn

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Psomi sounds great and a new book too!  If you make the pugliese you'll enjoy the process, also fits easily into a time frame.  P.Reinhart's BBA also has a recipe for a pugliese with duram flour. 

Sylvia

GSnyde's picture
GSnyde

So I guess I have to try it, either his recipe or yours.  Thanks.

Glenn

Franko's picture
Franko

Just perfect Sylvia!

What more can I say that hasn't already been said? Those loaves look like they came out of a wood fired oven from somewhere in Italy.

We seem to be on the same page regarding these long cold ferment times.  It makes such a difference to flavour , crumb and crust, doesn't it? I had a heck of a time at first trying to figure out how to schedule it in, but now I find it's actually more convenient than being tied to the dough for hours on end. Really beautiful loaves, well mixed and baked. Great work!

Franko

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

for the very nice compliment! : ) ... I very much admire your baking skills!  I do appreciate the cool long ferments!

Sylvia

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Hi Sylvia,

I think durum flour is called fine semolina in Australia. I baked with it quite a number of times, semolina sourdough, etc. However, I'm not a 100% sure that durum flour = fine semolina. I took the photo of the flour I got from the market today. I'll post it tomorrow for your opinion.

Thank you.

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Hi Sylvia,

Here is what I got from the market, labelled 'fine semolina'.

 

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

I can see very fine coarse granules.  It's the same fine or 'extra fancy' semolina grind of the duram wheat I have in the left photo.  It is not ground fine enough to be considered the Duram flour.  Duram flour, feels just like a regular flour.  I believe this fine grind of semolina you have can be used in making the Italian scrole loaf in Peter Reinharts BBA book.  RLB says only the duram flour works for her pugliese loaf. 

Sylvia

rossnroller's picture
rossnroller

As Sylvia commented, Sue, going by your pic yours is a coarser type of semolina. You can get finer than that in Australia. I get mine from a bulk supplier or a continental goods provider (theirs is a fine Italian semolina). I'm in Perth, but I'm sure there are such places where you are. The fine semolina here might not be as fine as the type Sylvia uses, but I regularly use it in a semolina sourdough bread that is one of my favourites at the moment.  Works very well. See here.

I have bought durum semolina before too, I think - from memory, it has a distinct yellow hue. Is this the case with yours, Sylvia?

BTW, beautiful looking pugliese! I almost always make sourdough breads, but Reinhart's pugliese is a yeasted one I tried a few months ago, and I was impressed with the flavour and the open crumb. Yours is is a higher hydration dough and even more open. Wunderbar!

The only downer to mine was that it dried out fast - gorgeous on the day of baking, but best for toast from day 2 onwards. Do you find the same with yours?

Cheers
Ross

 

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

all the local semolina and duram flour from KA I use has a yellow hue. 

I have not tried PReinhart's pugliese.  It has potato in the formula and is a different formula than the one I use from TBBible...I will get around to trying it one of these days!  I would think with the added potato it would not dry out to quickly.  The ones I bake are a little drier the next day...but still excellent for whatever they are used for...I place the bread right after it's cooled into a plastic bag and I think that helps retain some of the moisture.  It's usually all eaten by the second day...I usually get a small one pound and little larger second loaf...I eyeball measure the dough when halving it..makes for less handling.

Sylvia

rossnroller's picture
rossnroller

Maybe I've misremembered the source - I thought it was The BBA, but the recipe I used didn't have potato in it. Will have to check my notes.

When I think about it, it's to be expected that a yeasted bread like the pugliese would dry out quicker than the average sourdough bread. I'm probably just so used to SD that I forget these things until they happen.

Anyway, it's a great flavoured bread. No wonder yours doesn't make it past day 2 Sylvia!

Cheers
R

rossnroller's picture
rossnroller

Just checked my notes - you're quite right, Sylvia. The Reinhart recipe I used does, indeed, have potato as an ingredient. Had completely forgotten that...but I made the bread all of, oh, 8 months ago. That might as well be 8 years with my recall!

Sigh...well, I don't forget some things. The flavour, for instance. It's the important thangs that count (he rationalised desperately)...

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

So far, semolina I've seen in Australia has a creamy colour, not yellow hue.

I didn't realise I have a secret obsession with semolina flour, until I got home from the market and saw that I have four bags of semolina flour in my pantry!!, four different brands!!. I just kept buying them and thought that I would eventually get that elusive fine semolina somehow:)

I've baked the semolina sourdough with this fine semolina quite a few times. They turned out lovely, and yes, the crumb seems to dry out quickly.

Thank you Sylvia and Ross for your input.

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

 

pattycakes's picture
pattycakes

Sylvia, this is a great looking bread, and I really like the high-hydration doughs, so I set out to make it this morning. Now, math isn't my best area, but after mixing it up, I looked at the numbers again and calculated it a couple of times, and the amount of water listed in the recipe comes out to only ~58%. Please help me out here, because I may have miscalculated or made a mistake In putting the water in. At any rate, when I added 154 g of water, the hydration seemed right and where you wanted it, at 82%.  I am using 100% KA AP because Durum is unavailable here.

I'll keep you posted About the results, and hope the bread will be as beautiful as yours!

 

Thanks,

pattycakes

 

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Thank you Pattycakes.  Wow, this is an old post.  I have posted this bread a few times and I know it's not a 58% hydration.  I checked and it should have read (354 gms of water) not 154 gms.

I apologize for taking so long.  I've been away and just had a few minutes to check my mail this afternoon.  So I didn't have time to redo the math on this one..but with the water change above it should make a significant difference in the hydration. 

I three times this recipe from RLB TBB. 

Thank you for catching this Pattycakes : )  

This is a favorite bread of mine.

Sylvia

I added a total hydration above to apx. 84% using 3 X's RB recipe.  I sometimes add tad less or more  water depending on the season and humidity. 

 

pattycakes's picture
pattycakes

Yes, it's an old post, but it's really helpful and the photos are beautiful. I made the bread, adding more water, and it came out great. This was a bread that I had never made, and a friend was asking for it, and he was happy When he tasted it.

 

Best,

pattycakes