thanks for this recipe paula! I will try this for sure! nothing like a hot piece of homemade rustic italian bread, slathered with real butter!!! can't wait to give this a shot!!!
Toots, you will love it!!
Best home made-better-than-bakery-crusty bread easy NYT recipe!
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Toots, you will love it!!
And you can make it from bed, Tootsie, it's so easy. The dough can rise right next to your bed! And the men of the house can put the bread in the oven and take it out and bring it to you right out of the oven with some butter on the side.
i made the bread, and it was great. however, i have a couple of questions. how high did yours get? i did mine in a 7 qt pot - it did not seem to rise in any direction after i put it in the oven. it ended up being about 2 1/2 inches high at the center, and about 8 or 9 inches in diameter. does that sound right? i added fibersure in order to make it more weight watchers friendly. fibersure has never affected an outcome in anything i have added it to, but i really should have made a loaf per original instructions first before tinkering with it. could you let me know whether my outcome sounds right? the bread is WONDERFUL!! also - i would love to add olives to make the bread like that served at 331. how many? any special instructions? do i add them before the last 2 hour rise? thanks for the help. and for the recipe!
Nice drooling, Tootsie. You will definitely drool -- put a little butter on the bread or dip it in olive oil and rosemary...
jpbhen: It's not a high rising bread in general. I've made about 7 loaves and all taste great (the kids beg me to make it and if I want attention from them I just make the bread). I find that it rises a bit higher when I use bread flour rather than regular flour but the taste is the same. I also think the height may be related to how long you let it rise the first and second time. The loaves always come out a bit different from each other, but I think 2.5 inches high and about 7-8 inches around is about right. I haven't tried adding anything else yet, but may start doing so soon.
I think I'll go set up the dough so we can have a nice loaf of bread tomorrow. What I do is make dough in two different bowls and bake them both the next day -- one to use and one to freeze so we can just take it out of the freezer when we want it. It freezes very well, too.
jpbhen: It's not a high rising bread in general. I've made about 7 loaves and all taste great (the kids beg me to make it and if I want attention from them I just make the bread). I find that it rises a bit higher when I use bread flour rather than regular flour but the taste is the same. I also think the height may be related to how long you let it rise the first and second time. The loaves always come out a bit different from each other, but I think 2.5 inches high and about 7-8 inches around is about right. I haven't tried adding anything else yet, but may start doing so soon.
I think I'll go set up the dough so we can have a nice loaf of bread tomorrow. What I do is make dough in two different bowls and bake them both the next day -- one to use and one to freeze so we can just take it out of the freezer when we want it. It freezes very well, too.
I actually let mine go for longer than 18 hours...got busy..and it turned out fine. Mine was probably about the same height, Paula. I think I probably ate a whole stick of butter with it...
now, I'm off to SoWell
now, I'm off to SoWell
i made the bread, and it was great. however, i have a couple of questions. how high did yours get? i did mine in a 7 qt pot - it did not seem to rise in any direction after i put it in the oven. it ended up being about 2 1/2 inches high at the center, and about 8 or 9 inches in diameter. does that sound right? i added fibersure in order to make it more weight watchers friendly. fibersure has never affected an outcome in anything i have added it to, but i really should have made a loaf per original instructions first before tinkering with it. could you let me know whether my outcome sounds right? the bread is WONDERFUL!! also - i would love to add olives to make the bread like that served at 331. how many? any special instructions? do i add them before the last 2 hour rise? thanks for the help. and for the recipe!
Beach Angel. I made the bread again this weekend (4 loaves, froze two). The way to make the bread higher is to pat it into a ball that's higher and not quite so wide. The higher it is when you pat it into a ball before it rises, the higher it will be when it comes out of the oven. I think my new loaves are about 4 inches high.
thanks for the info - i will try that with my next loaf. i sliced some tonight and made garlic bread, toasted in the oven. heavenly! i add fibersure to make it more weight-watchers friendly (about 8 T), and it makes it more dense (i made my first loaf according to your directions). but the flavor is still terrific. glad to hear that it freezes well - i need to coordinate my efforts so i can knock off a couple of loaves at one time, and freeze them. thanks!
I'm glad you love this bread as much as we do. I made those 4 loaves on Saturday/Sunday and the kids (mostly the kids, that is) have gone through 3 loaves already. I like the idea that they love it so much and like to bring it to school. One of the things I remember from when we were little with our Italian grandmother was to put unsalted butter on the bread sprinkled with a little sugar, so the kids like to bring the bread to school that way because it feels like a real treat.
DD: The timing of the bread is indeed flexible. It seems to come out a little differently depending on how long it rises, but you're right that it's always delicious. I think the the holes in the bread get larger the longer it rises and the density can differ. But it works every time.
DD: The timing of the bread is indeed flexible. It seems to come out a little differently depending on how long it rises, but you're right that it's always delicious. I think the the holes in the bread get larger the longer it rises and the density can differ. But it works every time.
paula and friends: bread report...
my mother is an expert italian bread maker (she's made it by hand for many years. she has tried the machine bread, but it just can't do the job as she can). anyway, she wasn't exactly sure what to make of the printed recipe, had some doubts. however, being the breadmaker that she is (she had seen some of your remarks on this thread), she just had to give it a try.
guess what? she LOVED it and will add this to her bread making routine. :clap_1:
can't wait to try it. will do so soon.
my mother is an expert italian bread maker (she's made it by hand for many years. she has tried the machine bread, but it just can't do the job as she can). anyway, she wasn't exactly sure what to make of the printed recipe, had some doubts. however, being the breadmaker that she is (she had seen some of your remarks on this thread), she just had to give it a try.
guess what? she LOVED it and will add this to her bread making routine. :clap_1:
can't wait to try it. will do so soon.