Don’t Worry, Bake Happy!

Zanzana’s Bread

Zanzana is baking at home since one year or so. She has started to do that when she bought this book, “Il Quaderno del Pane e delle Focacce” (The Draftbook of Bread and Focaccia), by Gabriella Pecchia, an Italian chef, at a bookfair in Milan for small independent publishers:

Il Quaderno del Pane e delle Focacce

It was a real discovery. She was afraid to get tired, to have something  more to do at home, while she found a nice way to feel creative. She was so happy that after some months she has asked and obtained as a gift a Bosch Mum, just to be sure not to get too tired when kneading bread:

Bosch Mum with accessories

She has worked for over an year with brewer’s yeast, but recently she managed to prepare her homemade yeast, which is now a couple of months old. The recipe she has used is here, we will talk later on about it. She was very lucky, because it worked immediately, and now she is baking her bread at home twice a week. She has started that because she wanted to eat some better bread, of course, but also because she is very happy when she can do something herself, and avoid buying it. She also feels that, in her generation, she was very lucky because she could study as much as she wanted to, but at the same time she thinks she is not able to do things with her hands.

She is now going to share with you the recipe she normally uses:

• 250 gr homemade yeast
• 1 kg flour (30-40% wholemeal flour, 60-70% flour 0; you can add some wheat flour, farina di grano duro)
• a teaspoon of salt
• 1-2 teaspoon of sugar to start the rising

Refresh the homemade yeast in the evening, then in the morning, melt it in warm water:

Homemade Yeast

Melt the yeast in warm water

Knead all the ingredients for 15 minutes, together with two cups of warm water; let the dough rising for 12 hours, then knead again:

Kneading

Dough after 12 hours

give it a shape, make a cross on it and put it in the baking tin for another hour:

Dough in shape

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees, than cook the bread for 30 minutes or so; turn off the oven, leave the bread inside for 10-15 more minutes, then take it out: here is our bread!

Bread is ready!

Bread inside

Bread inside again