Pane Siciliano from Bread Baker's Apprentice

I tried making the Pane Siciliano from The Breadbaker's Apprentice. These are lovely S-shaped loaves that were intriguing to me because they use a lot of semolina.

It has one excellent property that makes it outstanding: It is excellent for use in panini sandwiches. The texture and flavor are just superb for that application. You don't need a panini press to make them, just a cast iron skillet covered with a pizza pan, or some similar arrangement will do.

The cold ferment of several loaves was a bit of a challenge because I don't have the refrigerator space. But I did put them in my cold Minnesota garage on a night when the garage would have been about 30F. It worked fine. In the morning I needed a couple of hours of proofing indoors at about 65F.

Otherwise I do not think I will have other applications for it, although it is also an excellent bread for toast.

If you decide to make it, use the sesame seeds as directed. It really does add to the loaves both in terms of beauty and flavor.

I used some of the relatively cool dough to make pizza crust and I did not think it was as good as my favorite pizza crust recipe, which is based on bread flour.