Italian Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the best flour to use for Italian bread? ›

If you've made my favorite white bread recipe, you may remember that I opt for all-purpose flour because it produces a super light and fluffy bread. In contrast, we want to use bread flour for this Italian bread due to its higher protein content, which will create a bread that is chewier in texture and a bit denser.

Italian bread often contains a bit of milk or olive oil, and sometimes a bit of sugar. French bread tends to be longer and narrower. Italian bread loaves tend to be shorter and plumper. French bread tends to be hard and crusty on the outside, with a light and soft crumb.

Too Much Flour

Even if you select the correct flour, if you overdo it your bread will come out heavy and dense. The addition of too excessive flour in the dough is a common error, particularly for those who are new and don't know how it is what bread dough ought to look like.

1. Ciabatta. Ciabatta is an Italian bread that is known for its distinctive shape and texture. It is a relatively new bread, created in the 1980s by Arnaldo Cavallari, a baker from Verona, Italy.

Strong Bread Flour is Higher in Protein

Strong bread flour is made from “hard” wheat varieties and has more protein, from 12 to 14 percent. This creates more rise and structural support in the dough, allowing the final product to lift and hold shape. It also creates a chewier texture and more browning in the crust.

Salt adds flavor to bread. If none or too little is used in a recipe, the bread will lack the right flavor and taste "bland." If you reduce the amount of salt, try adding some dried herbs to increase the flavor. Too much yeast in bread will give bread an off-taste.

Without it, the bread has no flavour, but it also has a lighter crust and chewier texture. The reigning theory is that salt was taxed too heavily in medieval Florence, so bakers left it out.

Focaccia is ½" to 1" thick with a light crust on the top and bottom. It's often described as "flatbread" or "Italian flat bread," but unlike the flat bread we're used to, it isn't flat at all, but thick and fluffy. The "flat" term in question simply refers to the pan in which it's baked compared to other breads.

What makes Vienna bread different from French or Italian breads is the enrichment of the dough. A little sugar and malt powder are added to help brown the bread and some butter and an egg to help tenderize the loaf.

Does Rising Bread Affect Its Texture? For a fluffy bread texture, the key is to let the bread rise long enough.

How can I make my bread lighter and fluffy? ›

All it takes is a small amount of dough enhancer per loaf to create a much lighter and fluffier result. Using a dough enhancer like Vital Wheat Gluten works to improve the texture and elasticity of the dough and elongate the strands of gluten. Doing so allows more room for the gas in the dough to develop and rise.

Paper bags, kitchen towels, and plastic bags

Plain paper bags and kitchen towels also work very well to keep the bread from drying excessively. And while many sources say never to use a plastic bag, sometimes it might be necessary, especially if your climate demands it.

For bread, I recommend starting off with Farina di Manitoba, grano tenero, 0; this is similar to standard American bread flour. As you progress, you can start to add in Farina di grano duro, or Semola Rimacinata di grano duro.

Grano duro is slightly yellow, more granular, and more commonly used for pasta and some breads in the south of Italy. It's also knows as durum wheat flour. Grano tenero is generally what we think of as white flour, and is more broadly used in bread, pizza, and pastry, and northern pasta doughs.

For cookies, bars, cakes/cupcakes, biscuits, scones, or anything that needs a tender crumb, use Farina di grano tenero, 00. This is your “cake flour.” Nobody wants a chewy cake. For bread, I recommend starting off with Farina di Manitoba, grano tenero, 0; this is similar to standard American bread flour.

No matter how the flour gets processed, the Italian kind is already softer, slightly sweeter, and lower in protein (i.e. gluten), while American wheat is already harder, slightly more bitter, and high in protein (i.e. gluten).

Italians and English do not categorise flour in the same way. Italian flour is graded by colour (technically called extraction rate – that is the extent to which the bran and the germ are extracted from the flour). It is marked 00 to 04 where 00 is really really white and 04 is rather closer to whole meal.

While bread flour is the best option, it can sometimes be used if you don't have bread flour. “Check the protein content,” advises Chef Jürgen, since it can vary from brand to brand, and an all-purpose flour that contains protein on the higher end of the range, 12 to 13 percent, will produce a better outcome.