The bread dough is a timeless recipe… it can be flavored with olives, bacon, nuts and seeds, or you can use it as a base for pizza, focaccia, stuffed braided bread or Stromboli! Find this and many more recipes with pictures on the Giallozafferano App (in English) http://itunes.apple.com/app/giallozafferano-recipes/id384387249?mt=8
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The bread dough is one of those timeless recipes, rooted in time… let’s see how to make a basic bread dough!
Ingredients for about 2 lbs (900 g) of dough:
Bread dough
(2 lbs – 900 g)
• 1 ¼ cups (300 ml) of water
• ½ tbsp (8 g) of salt
• 1 tsp of malt or sugar
• just under 1 tsp (3,5 g) of active dry yeast or ½ oz (12 g) of fresh yeast
• just under 2 cups (250 g) of bread flour
• 2 cups (250 g) of all-purpose flour
• 3 1/3 tbsp (50 ml) of extra virgin olive oil
First of all, in a small bowl, combine the active dry yeast — or ½ oz (12 g) of fresh yeast — with a little lukewarm water, taken from the total amount of water, and the malt — if you don’t have malt, you can replace it with a teaspoon of sugar. And let it dissolve.
In a large bowl, sift the all-purpose flour and the bread flour; the bread flour has a high gluten content, so it’s suitable for bread making. Now make an indentation in the middle of the flour and pour in the yeast, malt and water mixture… and mix into the flour. Add the salt and the oil to the remaining lukewarm water, then pour into the flour mixture… and bring the ingredients together with your hands. Work quickly with sweeping movements and continue to knead for at least 10 minutes.
Once the ingredients have come together, transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead until you have a smooth, even dough.
When the dough is nice and smooth, form into a ball… well stretched, as you can see… then dust a large bowl with flour, put in the dough, cover with cling film… and let it rise for at least 2 hours in the turned off oven, but with the light on.
Here’s how the dough looks after rising. Now sprinkle the work surface with flour… turn the dough out of the bowl… and give it a round shape… place it in the middle of a baking tray, that has been lined with parchment paper, and let it rise for another hour in the turned off oven, with the light on; remember to place a small bowl of water on the bottom of the oven.
Our bread dough is risen and ready to bake; if you want to make a loaf of bread like this, score the top with a knife in a cross pattern or in this way… and bake at 390°F (200°C) in a static oven for about 45-50 minutes.
The bread dough can be flavoured with olives, bacon, nuts and seeds, such as walnuts, or you can use it as a base for pizza, focaccia, stuffed braided bread or Stromboli. From Sonia and Giallozafferano, bye bye and see you next videorecipe!