Barry's Artisan Artisanal Bread Miscellaneous recipes

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This is a brief description of a bread that I made recently. It has less detail and fewer pictures than a full photo shoot and it assumes a certain level of baking skill on the part of the reader. If you have trouble with this recipe, email me johnfrum@optonline.net.

Italian Bread with Olive Oil, 3-Day Poolish, 66% Hydration, Baked with Steam 5-1-07

Make the poolish and immediately put it in the refrigerator for 3 days.

Poolish

Ingred	Ounces	Grams
HK Flour	20	565
Water	20	565
Dry Yeast	1/2 tsp	2.5 ml

Main Dough

Place the poolish in a large mixer bowl and add

Ingred	Ounces	Grams
HK Flour	20	565
Water	1 Tbsp	15 ml
Dry Yeast	2 tsp	10 ml
EVOO	6	170
Malt Syrup	1 Tbsp	15 ml
Non-Fat Dry Milk	1/4 cup	60 ml
Salt	1 Tbsp heaping	17 ml

Add all the ingredients except the salt and mix for 2 minutes.
Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
Add salt and knead for 10 minutes.
Ferment for 45 minutes, then fold.
Ferment for 45 minutes, then fold.
Ferment for 30 minutes, then pour the dough out onto the counter and let it rest for 10 minutes.
Shape into two boules, about 35 ounces / 1 kg each.
Dust the top with flour, cover with plastic and let rise one hour.
Heat oven to 450 F / 230 C with tiles or a stone in it. Have a pan in the bottom of the oven.
Boil a cup of water.
Slash the loaves, place them in the oven and pour boiling water into the pan.
Reduce the heat to 425 F / 220 C.
Bake 40 minutes, turning halfway through the time, until the loaves are a deep brown.
Turn off the oven and let the loaves sit in the cooling oven for 5 minutes.
Remove the loaves to a cooling rack.

This is a very smooth, soft loaf with a moist crumb. The flavor of the oil really comes through, so be very careful of the oil you use.

Pictures

	Loaves out of the oven.
	Another aspect of the loaves.
	The crumb -- note the yellow hue.
	The crumb compared with a standard Italian loaf. I think this recipe could use another tablespoon of water to make it easier to work. You could substitute 2 ounces of water for 2 ounces of oil. With the oil, you could mix in a tablespoon or so of herbs, such as rosemary or thyme.