Italian Baker!

 I have been attempting to up my baking skills which has lead to me checking out books from the Dallas Library on baking.  So far it is mostly French but I found The Italian Baker book  to try.   It has a recipe for one of my favorite white crusty, chewy breads . . . Pugliese.   

I have looked at recipes for Pugliese before and thought it was too difficult.  But now that I have made other yeast breads and even ones with starters, I think I might be ready.     Soooooo, I decided to take the plunge.

It does need a Biga (starter) which is fermented over night or at least 12 hours.

The biga did puff up nicely.  

Time to bake some bread!!

 

The crumb looks quite good.  I might have baked a bit longer but I did get a good hollow sound when I knocked on the crust.

Yummmmm, it tastes great with cream cheese and lime curd.   It makes great toast to add any toppings to it . . . Canadian Bacon and Cheddar tastes great too.  I froze some because it is too much for one person.  Thawed out and toasted, it still tastes good.  

But wait!    I have more Biga to use up!!

Time to make some ciabatta!!

ANNNNNNDDDDD . . . . 

The ciabatta turned out even better!  Although the shape is not exactly the slipper shape the book suggests it might be.

An Italian friend said it looked perfect! LOL, look at those holes . . . actually a good sign!!

And, yes, it tasted good . . . works really well to dip into the olive oil and mix of these green olives,

I will move these to a list of "must make again"!