Mestolando, where home cooked italian food happens.

making bread at home with our guest and friend Marco

Pane Toscano or Tuscan bread is a typical bread of this area made without salt. Our friend ‘il fornaio’ Marco, a bread baker for 14yrs here in Florence shows us how to make this basic bread. The recipe is a direct method of bread baking which means there’s no pre-fermented dough or what is sometimes called a ‘starter’ or ‘biga’ in it. These kinds of breads are often made with a ‘starter’ as well.

Ingredients for one round bread form

• Bread flour, 1 pound (460 grams)
• Fresh yeast, 1/2 ounce or (15 grams)
• Water, 1 cup warm-to-hot but not boiling (9.5 ounces or 270 grams)

how to prepare, taken from the video

Marco starts by dissolving the yeast into the warm water by stirring it with a spoon for a couple of minutes.

Next he adds the warm water and dissolved yeast to the mixing bowl.

Then the two bowls of bread flour are added.

After that he turns on the mixer with the bread hook attachment to a low speed and lets the flour, water and yeast mix for about eight minutes total, or until the bread dough has formed and the ingredients are well blended together.

Now he removes the dough and kneads it by hand on a floured surface. The dough should be soft and elastic, if it’s very tacky and sticks to your dry hands then put it back in the mixer for a couple minutes adding in a tablespoon of bread flour, or if it’s too dry put it back in the mixer and add in one tablespoon of warm water.

Marco kneads and shapes the dough into a round ball-like form.

Then coats the top of the dough, and the inside of the proofing bowl with some flour.

The dough should be proofed in a warm room with a temperature of at least 78 degrees Fahrenheit for the yeast and flour to ferment and rise properly.

This first proofing stage should be 1 hour, in this time the dough will rise to be about double it’s size.

After the first proofing is done, he carefully transfers the dough out of the proofing bowl and onto a floured surface.

Then he lightly coats the surface of the baking pan and gently moves the dough into the baking pan where he then shapes it back into a round form, again making sure to not disturb the overall shape too much.

Next he coats the top of the dough with flour, and scores it with a serrated knife.

At this stage he leaves the dough to rest for 20 minutes in the warm kitchen environment.

After this second stage of proofing, the area where the dough was scored should have expanded a little as well as the overall bulk of the form.

Now it’s time to bake the bread in a preheated oven set to 430 degrees Fahrenheit.

Marco first puts the baking pan in the oven then leaves the door open for 30 seconds to let out any moisture.

He lets the bread bake for 20 minutes at this temperature.

Then he turns the oven down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and leaves it baking for about 1 hour.

After one hour the bread should be done, the crust should have a golden color to it and feel hard, and when tapped on the bottom should sound hollow.

Let the bread cool before serving.

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