Rustic Italian Bread

I never got a chance to make the dill bread before that large bunch of dill that was wilting away in my fridge passed on to that big herb garden in the sky. It did go out most spectacularly though, I was proud, and you Dear Reader, would have been proud too! It turned a blackish green and liquefied, creating a little pool of pond scum where it had seeped out of the bag and onto the bottom of the crisper. I could tell by feeling it through the plastic that it was really slimy too, parts of it still looked like dill, somewhat wilted and sad looking, but I could still tell that dill had once been what it was originally. I couldn't tell if there was an odor and to tell you the truth I really didn't put my nose up to it and smell. It was kind of neat, in a science project sort of way, I decided to have some fun with it and smeared it on the kitchen wall writing out my name in big cursive letters...

NO, no, no, I tossed it immediately and was very proud of myself for not gagging while I cleaned the slime out of the fridge. So, with no dill to make the dill bread, and ok, I admit, I never did pick up the cream cheese for the recipe either, I was left with no baking project on Sunday and feeling quite unsatisfied by that. I wanted to bake bread, and with another storm blowing through the city, it was a good day for baking, so I decided to try out a recipe I found on the back of a bag of flour.

A few weeks ago I had purchased a bag of "Bread Flour" to use with a recipe I had found in a magazine. The recipe specifically asked for bread flour and since I'd never used that type of flour before, I thought I'd give it a try. I was tempted to try the recipe not because of the use of bread flour but because it would have resulted in a tri-color loaf of bread that looked really neat when sliced into. While reading through the recipe after I had purchased the flour, I decided that the recipe was too labor intensive and too involved for anything I was in the mood to do anytime soon, so I stored the bread flour in the fridge and forgot it. Yesterday, I decided it was taking up too much precious room in my fridge, so after inspecting the package to see what the heck bread flour was anyway, I came across the recipe and decided to try the "Rustic Italian Bread."

According to Pillsbury, their bread flour is made from hard spring wheat and contains a higher percentage of protein. Ok, but that didn't tell me much and didn't satisfy my curiosity, so I did a quick search on the internet found a better and more satisfying explanation here, (scroll down a bit for the bread flour part if you don't want to read the whole thing).

I don't own a bread machine and was glad to see that they (Pillsbury) provided conventional oven directions too. I found the package directions to be unusual and I was a little skeptical as I began, but decided to just let everything play out and see what happened.

Into a large bowl I combined 3 cups of bread flour, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1 package of active dry yeast; I mixed well and then added 1 cup of warm water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and mixed again. Hmmm, what about proofing the yeast first? I couldn't find anything on the package that said to proof the yeast first, and that made me think I was headed for disaster. I've never followed a bread recipe that used yeast and didn't ask for it to be proofed first, and the thought of not doing that step added to my feelings of doubt as I turned the dough onto a lightly floured surface and began kneading for 10 minutes. The kneading was tough, I felt like the dough was much stiffer than what I'm used to working with, but that could also have just been my imagination, I think I was secretly hoping to find something wrong with this recipe. I finished kneading, placed the ball of dough into a bowl, covered it with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and put it aside to rise for 40 minutes.

When 40 minutes was about up, I sprinkled an un-greased cookie sheet with cornmeal and set it aside. I removed the kitchen towel and saran wrap from the bowl and was actually surprised that the dough had risen! I really expected it to just stay like a flat round ball at the bottom of the bowl. I punched the dough down and then inverted the bowl and let the dough rest, upside down, inside the bowl for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes passed, I shaped the bread into a baguette style loaf about 12 inches long and placed it onto the cornmeal coated cookie sheet, covered it and let it rise for another 40 minutes.

I preheated the oven to 375 degrees and when the bread had finished proofing for the 40 minutes I removed the towel and was again surprised that it had actually doubled in bulk. I took my kitchen scissors and made three diagonal slashes in the dough. The recipe said to make one slash but I was feeling rebellious towards the recipe and made three. I brushed the bread with egg white and in another rebellious not following the recipe move, I sprinkled some sesame seeds onto a plate, wet my hand with water, dipped my wet hand into the seeds and then patted the seeds onto the egg washed bread. I decided to turn my generic loaf of "Rustic Italian Bread" into something a little more aesthetically pleasing and I was feeling pretty pleased with myself about it. I'll show that Pillsbury company I tossed the bread into the oven for 45 minutes (the recipe said 30-35 mins but my oven varies greatly), said a silent prayer to the gods of baked goods asking that the seeds didn't burn before the bread was done baking and hoped for the best .

The bread looked far better than I expected it to when it came out of the oven. I let it cool for a bit and then sliced into it. The crumb looked good but the real test, the taste test was ahead. I sliced off a piece and took a bite. I thought it was a little flavorless. At this point I had stopped hoping it would fail and wanted the bread to turn out well, but the bread needed more salt and there was no way to correct that now. The crust was also a bit disappointing. Not really crusty at all, it felt like it would be crisp when I first bit into it but then it sort of crumbled away and lost it's oomph. I think the egg wash was a mistake and contributed to the crust not fully forming a drier crisper seal around the dough. I was sorry I added that step. Don't get me wrong, the bread is not inedible, with some butter and some preserves or dipped into some really dark extra virgin olive oil and kosher salt, it can be a tasty snack, but eaten alone, it doesn't make the grade, at least for Tom and me. Tom exclaimed it tasted like prison food, I told him to add some butter or dip it in oil but he said he'd rather pretend he was traveling with Frodo, eating hardtack.

Written by Deb on December 14, 2003 10:11 PM