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This is a another recipe from Franco Galli's fine bread book, "The Il Fornaio Baking Book." I've made quite a few of his recipes over the past several years and they have all turned out very well. One of the interesting facets of his technique is to use a basic recipe for several breads. This recipe, for example, is the bread used for Olive Bread in additon to the Rosemary Bread, one just omits the olives and adds rosemary. I wonder what it would be like if one were to use olives and rosemary.

This recipe calls for making the dough in one step, then adding the rosemary and a bit of milk to the dough and mixing for a few minutes more. When you add the milk and start to mix it in, you'll wonder what happened. The dough will flop around, the milk will coat the inside of the mixer bowl and you may be tempted to add more flour to make things work. DON'T. The dough will absorb all the milk and come together, I promise. Just look at the pictures if you don't believe me.

All in all, this is a wonderful dough. It seems to be very soft, pliable and alive, yet it holds its shape and doesn't spread during final rise and is strong enough that slashing the top doesn't cause the loaf to collapse. If you make it without the rosemary, it will make a very fine Italian bread loaf.

Recipe

Biga

Ingred	Ounces	Grams
Bread Flour	3 ounces	85 grams
Warm water	3 ounces	85 ml
Dry yeast	1/4 tsp	1 ml

Mix up, cover and leave on the counter for 4 hours.

Recipe

In addition to the biga.

Yeast	1 1/2 tsp	7 ml
Warm water	8 1/4 ounces	235 ml
Bread Flour	30 ounces	850 grams
Salt	2 1/2 tsp	12 ml
Cool water	8 1/4 ounces	235 ml
Fresh rosemary	4 tsp	20 ml
Milk	4 Tblsp	60 ml
Kosher salt for sprinkling

Chop the rosemary.

Method

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Put the flour in the bowl of a large mixer. Stir the salt into the flour.
3. Make a well in the center of the flour and add the yeast mixture, the cool water and the biga.
4. Mix for a minute or two. It will start to come together.
5. Cover the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes.
6. Uncover the dough and mix for 8 minutes.
7. Add the rosemary and the milk and mix for 5 minutes more.
8. Lightly oil a large bowl. This dough will expand mightily, so be sure to use a large bowl. Place the dough in the bowl and coat to cover the dough. Cover the bowl.
9. Let the dough ferment for 1 1/2 hours, then fold the dough.
10. Cover the dough again and let it ferment for 30 minutes.
11. Put the dough on the counter and divide it into two parts. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes, then shape each piece into an oblong with tapered ends.
12. Place the dough on parchment paper, cover with a towel and let rise for 50 minutes.
13. Heat the oven to 425 F / 220C. Place stones or tiles in the oven.
14. Bake using steam for 30 minutes. Then turn the loaves and continue baking until the loaves are brown and the internal temperture is 200F / 93 C. The recipe calls for a total baking time of 50 minutes, but mine baked in 40 minutes total.
15. Cool on a rack for at least 1/2 hour.

Here we go

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