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Pane Pugliese Recipe

Pane Pugliese

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Prep Time 3 days
Cook Time 1 hour
Resting Time 2 days
Course: Bread
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients Equipment Method

Ingredients
  

Biga (Starter)
  • 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp room temperature water
  • 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour or 330 grams
Bread dough
  • 1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 3 cups room temperature water
  • 4/5 cup Biga or 200 grams
  • 7 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour or 1000 grams
  • 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp salt or 20 grams

Equipment

  • Scale
  • Dough scraper

Method
 

Biga
  1. Stir the yeast into the warm water with a fork and wait 10 minutes.
  2. Stir in the remaining water and the flour, one cup at a time.
  3. Mix with a wooden spoon for 3-4 minutes.
  4. Put the dough in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for 6-24 hours.
Bread dough
  1. Stir the yeast into the warm water in a large bowl. Let stand for 10 minutes.
  2. Mix the flour and all the salt in another large bowl.
  3. Add the remaining water and the Biga to the yeast mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon for 3-4 minutes until the Biga is mostly mixed in.
  4. Add the flour and the salt mixture one cup at a time with a wooden spoon. It will become harder and harder to stir. Plunge your hands in and use them as a mixer.
  5. The dough will become wet and sticky. Have some flour on hand and add a little as needed so that you can start to knead the dough until it becomes very soft and elastic.
  6. Place the dough in a lightly oiled large bowl and let rise until tripled, aobut 3 hours to overnight.
Shaping and Baking
  1. Put lots of flour on your surface and then pour the sticky dough onto the flour. Cover the dough on all sides. Then cut the dough in half with the dough scraper.
  2. Shape the dough by flattening it a little but very gently and fold it over once. Now rotate it 90 degrees and fold it over again. Then flip it over and with both hands on the side, stretch the surface of the dough to make it tight and push the stretched dough underneath together to make a ball.
  3. Cover the shaped dough with a cloth and let rise for an hour.
  4. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Ten minutes before baking, dimple the loaves with your knuckles. Bake the loaves until gloldenbrown and crusty, about an hour.
  5. Let the loaves cool on racks and inahle the powerful healing aromas of the loaves. Listen to the loaves crackle.