This recipe for Sfilatino bread is from Franco Galli's "The Il Fornaio Baking Book." I really like this book, but sometimes it's a real challenge. Galli uses cup measurements and what he says in the recipes is sometimes a little difficult to square with the dough that results. Still, what you can do with these recipes and the philosophy embodied in them makes the effort worthwhile. This recipe illustrates the confusion perfectly, but stick with it, it's worth it.
Some people believe this is the Italian answer to the French baguette. Some people also say this is better than a French baguette. I've been making both for a long time and I can honestly say it'll take me a lot longer to declare a preference. Pass the butter, please.
His biga recipe is different from most others in that he specifies a 100% biga.. He states in his appendix that a cup of flour is 4 ounces / 114 grams. He gives the flour as 3 1/2 cups, which is 14 ounces / 400 grams by his standard.
Here is the biga I used for this recipe. It makes 100 grams of biga, about 4 ounces.
| Ingred | Ounces | Grams |
|---|---|---|
| HK Flour | 2 | 50 |
| Warm Water | 2 | 50 |
| Dry Yeast | 1/8 tsp | 1 |
This gives a biga of 100% hydration, while most biga recipes seem to be in the 60% range. In other words, this is the hydration of a poolish.
The directions say to dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then mix the rest of the ingredients well, cover tightly and put directly in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
The main portion of the recipe calls for 3 cups of flour, which is 12 ounces / 340 grams. Here is the whole ingredient list.
| Ingred | Ounces | Grams |
|---|---|---|
| HK Flour | 12 | 340 |
| Warm Water | 4 | 115 |
| Dry Yeast | 1 tsp | 5 ml |
| Cool Water | 5 | 145 |
| Salt | 1 rounded tsp | 6 ml |
| Biga | 4 | 100 |
The resulting dough will consist of the small amount of biga at 100% plus the remainder of the ingredients at 260 / 340 = 76%. This is a very wet dough. He claims that it will yield 3 7-ounce loaves, or 21 ounces of bread, and the totals of the ingredients are not far off this total. However, he also says that this bread came about as a response to the French baguette, which is around 60%. The differences may be a result of Italian bakers working at higher hydrations than French bakers. This is something that I've noticed, but it may be a coincidence. I've made this bread at the recipe totals and found that it's very difficult to handle, certainly more difficult than he lets on in the instructions. My second and subsequent attempts have been at a dough in the mid- to high 60s, usually around 65-67%. This seems to work well, although it's still not a very easy dough to handle. This, however, is the bread made according to the original recipe using his conversion. There is another version made to 65-67% that I have posted next to this one. Compare them and decide which is for you. Maybe you'll decide to make them both and compare them. Both recipes make good bread, they're just different.
One other think to note, there is very little final rise, so start the oven heating when you start to shape the loaves.
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