Under the Tuscan Sun...or not.

"If you smash into something good, you should hold on until it's time to let go."

#53 Pane Toscano (Tuscan Bread)

An unsalted bread, that feels like a cloud while kneading.

 Pretty cloud...

"I'll hire the muscular descendants of Roman gods to do the heavy lifting. "

There, actually, wasn't any heavy lifting.  I had to make a batter with flour, water and yeast.  The recipe did call for a flour called Tipo 00, which is an Italian flour that (after researching) I found was basically the same as American All-purpose flour.  Then, I had to leave the batter for 9 hours (or overnight).  I did 9 hours.  Here's what it looked like at about hour 8:

It was all bubbly and soupy, and smelled like a beer.  Once I added the flour, I still had soup so I added more flour.  Then, more flour.


"Ladybugs, Katherine. Lots and lots of ladybugs."

After I got the dough looking like a dough. I tried to knead it and had to keep adding more flour. Finally, I got a beautiful-looking (and feeling) dough. After a 1 hour rise, I still had a pretty sticky dough so I added a little more flour. I got the dough shaped and slashed and after another hour I was stunned that it was still growing. Yeasts are funny little critters.

Here she is:

Still light.  And really pretty crumb.  Not very much flavor, but since it is a bread that is meant to be eaten with other things I can understand that.  I tried it with olive oil and salt and also with Earth Balance (vegan butter) and honey.  Off to try it with other things...

"Regrets are a waste of time. They're the past crippling you in the present."

All quotes are from Under the Tuscan Sun.