Italian Bread - no bread machine required

By Co-author@smallstepsandlittleseeds

Do you love the smell of freshly baked bread? Well, you can have it at your own home too! Here's a simple recipe for Italian Bread. It's soft inside, and has a light crust outside. You don't need a fancy bread making machine for this... it's fairly easy to prepare the dough and bake this bread.

In a small bowl, add active dry yeast into 1 cup of water and set aside for about 10 minutes. 

In a big mixing bowl, add bread flour, sugar, and fine sea salt. Gently mix them with a spatula. Add yeast mixture into the bowl and gently mix the ingredients together. 

Keep 2 small bowls beside you. One with 1/2 cup of water, and the other with 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of water. 

Add in a little bit of flour and water to your big mixing bowl. Using your hands now (ensure that your hands have been thoroughly cleaned), begin to fold in some flour and water a little bit at a time, and gently  knead the dough until the dough isn't very sticky. 

Note:  Your  dough is at the right  texture when you are able to pass the dough between both your hands easily  (no dough  residue on your fingers) and the dough should feel a little bouncy. The entire process to mix and prepare the dough only takes around 10 minutes.

Shape the dough into a ball and leave it to proof (in the same big bowl you used earlier) for 30 minutes. Cover the bowl with a clean, damp cloth. The dough should rise to about  double its initial size. 

Repeat this proofing process again - Uncover, re-shape the dough back into a ball, cover with a clean and damp cloth, let the dough proof for another 30 minutes.

Half way through the process of waiting for the second proofing, you can preheat your oven at 375°F and line a tray with parchment paper. 

Once the second proofing is done, shape your dough to look like an elongated loaf. Brush some extra virgin olive oil over the dough,  gently score the top, and sprinkle dried Italian herbs (or fresh Italian herbs - leaves finely chopped) and fine sea salt. 

Bake for 30 minutes.  
 
Happy trying, and remember to have fun in the kitchen!

Ingredients:

(A)

  • 1 cup of water
  • 2 and 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast
 (B)
  • 3 cups of unbleached bread flour
  • 2 teaspoons of sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt
 (C)
  • 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of unbleached bread flour
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of dried Italian herbs (or fresh Italian herbs - leaves chopped)
  • 1/4 teaspoon of fine sea salt (optional)

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