BBB – Panmarino – Italian Rosemary Bread

July 16, 2014 by MyKitchenInHalfCups 10 Comments

{ I’d like to think you could just keep what I’m going to tell you to yourself. Can you do that? … Should I really be honest here? I know Babes are independents but really I think I may have gone too far this time. Pat (Feeding My Enthusiasms) said it so perfectly(now I can’t find it) but something about it’s not worth it if you don’t make it your own. Mother always said honesty is the best policy so I think I really must come clean on this one. }

Cathy (Bread Experience), our Kitchen of the Month, brought us a glorious Italian recipe from The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Bread Baking. Beautifully, she gave us directions and an image for slashing and creating diamonds on the top of the loaf. I hang my head in ultimate shame while I confess to you and Cathy: Oh how I not only added flax to the dough but good golly I substituted 374 grams King Arthur’s Sprouted Whole Wheat flour for the bread flour called for in the recipe. Yes, there’s more … I used potato water for the water … and even a tablespoon … ok maybe two tablespoons of the mashed potato. I would say I’m sorry for playing so loose with the recipe Cathy … BUT since it really is just gorgeous eating bread I can only say Thank You.

Make sure Rosemary is chopped very fine …

Panmarino – Italian Rosemary Bread

From – The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Bread Baking from The French Culinary Institute Yield: 4 loaves

Time: 20 hours

Biga:

143 grams Bread flour 143 grams/5 ounces 122 grams

Water 122 grams/4 1/4 ounces

Pinch of instant yeast

Final Dough:

884 grams Bread flour 884 grams/1 pound 15 ounces, Of that 884 grams of bread flour, I used 374 grams of King Arthur’s Sprouted Whole Wheat flour

25 grams flax seed meal, optional

477 grams Water 477 grams/1 pound 1 ounce, I used potato water

30 grams mashed potatoes (my addition so very optional)

44 grams Milk 44 grams/1 1/2 ounces, I used skim 265 grams

Biga 265 grams/9 1/3 ounces

23 grams Salt 23 grams/3/4 ounce

Pinch of instant yeast

88 grams Olive oil 88 grams/3 ounces

9 grams Chopped fresh rosemary 9 grams/1/3 ounce

Total weight: 1800 grams

1. Preparing the Biga: Combine the bread flour, water and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon until well blended.  Scape down the edge of the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rest at 75 degrees F. for 14 to 16 hours.

***Because of the way my day was scheduled and that I had no other option for another day baking, I mixed the bigs early one morning and couldn’t bake till mid-morning the next. I refrigerated the biga over-night.

2. Making the Final Dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the bread flour, water, mashed potato (***optional), milk, and biga. Using the dough hook, mix on low speed until blended. 

*** Who knows why other than I do like to try bread kneading by hand; I think it’s relaxing and in this case it was so much a work out it justified probably 10 slices of the bread. So where you see instructions for the stand mixer, know that I did it by hand. I also thought this dough needed more water and so I added for a long time by dipping my hands in water and kneading it into the dough.

3. Add the salt and yeast and mix on low-speed for 5 minutes.  Increase the speed to medium and mix for about 7 more minutes, or until the dough is smooth.  When the gluten is fully developed, mix in the olive oil and rosemary on low-speed. 

***I’m here to tell you kneading all that oil in by hand was a challenge!

4. Lightly oil a large bowl. Scrape the dough into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough ferment for 45 minutes.

***Now this next part of my playing around was not by design but rather I was just worn out and in a sweat from the kneading … so I took a break and let the dough “rest” with me. Me in front of the fan for a while, the dough in the refrigerator.

5. Remove the dough to a lightly floured work surface and divide it into four 450-gram /16-ounce pieces. Shape the dough pieces into rounds. Cover with plastic wrap and let them bench rest for 15 minutes. Place two couches on a separate work surface or bread board and dust them with flour.

***Remember I’m traveling and couches are not in my bread traveling kit. I covered my loaves with bowls. Uncover the dough and, if necessary, lightly flour the work surface. Gently press on the dough to degas and carefully shape each piece into a tight and neat round.  Place one loaf on one side of the couche, fold the couche up to make a double layer of cloth to serve as a divider between the loaves, and place a second loaf next to the fold.  Repeat the process with the remaining two loaves and the second couche.  Cover with plastic wrap and proof for 1 hour.

6. About an hour before you plan to bake the loaves, place a baking stone (or tiles) into the oven along with a steam pan (underneath) or iron skillet (on the top rack) and preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Uncover the dough and score the top of each loaf in a star pattern using a lame or sharp knife. This particular formula doesn’t say to do this, but you can sprinkle sea salt into the crevices as the original baker did to make it “sparkle with diamonds.”

***I somehow got it in my head that two slashes made a star … three slashes is actually much more of a star and I think creates more of a pop (or point) to the bread shape when baked. Here is an image of the star pattern (from http://sourdough.com/recipes/panmarino-italian-rosemary-bread) just so you know what it looks like.

7. Carefully transfer the loaves to the preheated baking stone using a peel or the back of a baking sheet. To make the steam, add 1 cup of ice to the iron skillet or steam pan. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the crust is light brown and crisp and the loaves make a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom.

***Mine registered 200°F when they came out of the oven and I think they were done. I did allow 3 hours for cooling.

Remove the loaves from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

There were some Babes who thought the recipe had too much salt. I was very happy with this and I really enjoyed the salt diamond topping.  Check out what all the Babes have to say about this bread, they’re all there on the side bar. 

Bake along with us and be a bread baking buddy.  You know you want to. 

Here’s how:

Just make the Panmarino, then email Cathy your link (or email your photo and a bit about your experience if you don’t have a blog). My email address is breadexperience (at) gmail (dot) com.  Submissions are due by July 29th.  Once you’ve posted, you’ll receive a Buddy badge for baking along, then watch for a roundup of all of the BBBuddies posts a few days after the close of submissions.

I hope you’ll join us this month!

I do hope you’ll bake along with us!  I know you want to bake this bread.