My First Scali Bread
I have been baking every Saturday since last December. While browsing in The Fresh Loaf, I noticed SylviaH [1]'s posts about Scali bread and decided that this would be this weekend's task.
The recipe is from King Arthur [2] (here [3] is their blog post). I didn't follow the exact recipe because I prefer leaner bread.
Biga:
- AP flour 120.5g
- Water 75 g
- 1/4 tsp yeast (1)
Mix to form a ball, refrigerate over 24 hr and then continue at room temperature for 9 hr.
Final dough:
- All biga
- AP flour 241 g
- 1 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp yeast
- Milk 153 g (2)
- 1/2 Tb Olive oil (3)
Mix to form a ball. Following Sylvia's method, I did S&F three times with 30-40min apart. Shape. Rest for 1.5 hr. In the last 30 min, I brushed the egg wash (egg white + 1Tb water). Then baked at 425F, first 15 min with cover and another 15 min without.
Comments
(1) KA recipe said "pinch". I didn't know how much the pinch is. I then checked The Artisan's Bread Page [4] and went for 1/4 tsp. breadcetera [5] used 1/8 tsp and 12 hr. Next time I'll use 1/8 tsp
(2) I didn't have dry milk powder so I used 1% milk instead. KA's recipe calls for 157.3 g. I used less because breadcetera [5] used only 145 g. However, after this trial, I would increase the water a little bit, maybe 160g.
(3) KA recipe uses 2 Tb, which would be too much for me. Initially just wanted to use 1 Tb but forgot the correct amount. Next time I'll use 1 Tb.
Before baking
After
It's darker than what I expected. So was the bottom. My bread didn't have smooth skin... (was like that before baking :-( ) [8]
However, the crumbs looked good. I wasn't confident in kneading. But this time it wasn't too bad.
Thoughts:
This time it took much longer than my previous baking. Therefore by the time when the bread was ready for my lunch, it's already nearly 1pm! I did my best to be patient! My bread has thicker crust than the ones you find in the supermarket, but it's not too bad. The crumbs were soft but also quite elastic. The leaner taste suited me well.
Every time my bread comes out with a dark bottom. Next time I would reduce the baking temperature by 25F.
By the way, I often see this kind of bread in the supermarket. I thoght it's called Italian Bread. Are they the same?
PS: The remaining egg wash and egg york became scrambled egg with tomato and onion for my dinner, accompanied with this bread.