Altamura bread
I have been able to get some De Ceccio durum wheat flour from an online retailer in London (Luigi's). I have been trying to bake a version of Pane Tipo di Altamura - the one that looks like a Cardinal's hat with four points - but I can't get the points to look good.
I made a biga using 75g ciabatta flour (from Shipton Mill), 125g of Durum wheat flour, 120g bottled water and 1g fresh yeast. That fermented for about 15 hours (it was quite warm in the UK overnight into yesterday so at about 21C).
For the main dough I used entirely Durum wheat flour (325g), 5g fresh yeast, 7g salt and 250g (tap) water and all the biga. I initially made the dough using the durum wheat flour, the biga and all but 50g of the water. I left that to autolyse for about an hour then dissolved the yeast in the remaining water and mixed it into the dough, I then mixed in the salt and left the dough to prove on the kitchen work surface for about an hour and a quarter, with two stretch and folds. I then carefully formed the dough into a ball, without much degassing, placed it into a well floured linen-lined basket which I then put in the fridge at 4C for the dough to prove for about 75 minutes. I then tipped it out onto a well-floured peel, slashed the top and tried to form the peaks before putting it into a hot oven, sprayed well with water, for just over 30 mins.
I think that the loaf does look quite nice though and is a great hit with the family. It has a nice tasty crust with a soft and flavourful crumb so it will be a "keeper" for us, particularly as the pale yellow crumb is quite different and striking!