pizza bianca REVISITED!!!

Don't even think this is some boring white pizza, because it's not! It's chewy, crunchy, airy and studded with flakes of sea salt and fresh rosemary then drizzled with the most flavorful olive oil. In Rome, pizza bianca is eaten in the morning, the way we Americans eat buttered toast. But after you taste this deliciously flavored flat bread, you'll want to eat it all day long just like the Romans do. So forget those average loaves of french bread or baguettes from your local store or bakery and make this recipe now!!! Why now? Because if you plan on eating it, you'll need 11 - 14 hours for this dough to proof before you can even consider baking it.

I've blogged about this bread genius here, Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery in New York City. Jim is truly a bread whisperer. He takes very little ingredients, barely mixes or even touches them and after many hours of "resting" your dough, your kitchen will smell like an Italian pane da forno.

Pizza Bianca

from the book My Bread by Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery

YIELD: One 14 - inch pie; 6 -8 slices

EQUIPMENT: A large (at least 14 - inch diameter) pizza stone and a pizza peel

INGREDIENTS

3 cups (400 grams) bread flour, plus more for dusting

1/4 teaspoon instant or other active dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon table salt

3/4 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 cups (350 grams) cool water (55 to 65 degrees F - pretty much straight out of the tap)

1/4 cup (60 grams) extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon course sea salt ***Maldon Salt is best here***

3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves removed

1. In a medium bowl, stir together flour and yeast. Add table salt and sugar. Add the water and using a wooden spoon, your hand or a spatula, mix until you have a wet, sticky dough, no more than 30 seconds. ***I prefer using my hands.*** Also make sure that ALL of the flour seems hydrated. Dough should look shaggy and wet.*** With your spatula, clean sides of bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature ( I keep mine in the oven - which is turned OFF), until the surface is dotted with bubbles and the dough is more than doubled in size, 9 - 12 hours. 

2. When the first rise is complete, generously dust a work surface (a cutting board is useful here) with flour. Coat a rimmed cookie sheet with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. 

Generously dust top of sticky dough. Use a bowl scrapper or rubber spatula to scrape the dough out of the bowl in one piece onto your floured cutting board.

With floured hands, fold the dough over itself two or three times, flip it over, nudge it into a loose rather flat ball, and gingerly lift it onto your greased cookie sheet.

Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with course salt (which will gradually dissolve on the surface). 

Cover the dough with plastic wrap. Put the dough in a warm, draft-free spot and let rise until doubled, 1 to 2 hours. ***I prefer to let mine rest for 2 hours.***

3. Half an hour before the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 500˚F, with a rack in the center, and a pizza stone at least 14 inches in diameter, on the center rack. If you don;t have a pizza stone, it really isn't necessary, I just think the stone adds heat to your pan.

Spread out the fingers of one hand, like a claw, and gently press your fingers into the dough, but not to puncture it (short nails are essential): you want to simultaneously create dimples in the dough and spread it across the your baking sheet. Continue working your hand across the dough and dimpling it until it's bumpy all over and pretty much the size of your pan. 

Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the top and sprinkle with the rosemary leaves. Poke the rosemary leaves into the dough. This will help the rosemary from burning. ***We like ours super salty so we sprinkle even MORE Maldon salt on top before baking***

5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the crust is golden brown on the mounds but still pale in the dimples. 

6. Transfer it to a rack to cool for at least a few minutes before cutting with scissors.

almost no-knead bread

When I say that this bread is EASY to make, I mean it!!! It. Is. So. Easy. Although you do have to think ahead of time, 8 - 20 hours, from when you want to smother it with butter and float into carb heaven. The original recipe of this amazing loaf is adapted from Jim Lahey's Sullivan Street Bakery and this version comes by the way of America's Test Kitchen.


Almost No-Knead Bread
An enameled cast-iron Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid yields best results, but the recipe also works in a regular cast-iron Dutch oven or heavy stockpot. Use a mild-flavored lager, such as Budweiser (mild non-alcoholic lager also works). The bread is best eaten the day it is baked but can be wrapped up in aluminum foil and stored in a cool, dry place for up to 2 days.


Makes 1 large round loaf
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces), plus additional for dusting work surface
1/4 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water (7 ounces), at room
temperature               
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons mild-flavored lager (3 ounces)
1 tablespoon white vinegar


1. Whisk flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add water, beer and vinegar. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until shaggy ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours. ***I sometimes place my bowl in the oven (cold and OFF setting) with a pot or bowl of hot water to aid in the proofing stage. Especially if your kitchen/home is as cold as it is outside***


2. Lay a doubled sheet of 12 x 18-inch parchment paper inside a 10-inch skillet or large bowl and spray with nonstick cooking spray. ***At this point, you can also dust with flour, wheat germ, cornmeal or oats*** Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into a ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer dough, seam-side down, to parchment-lined skillet/bowl and spray surface of dough with non-stick cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, 2 hours.


3. About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven to rack to lowest position, place a 6 to 8-quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (with lid that has a metal handle, not plastic) on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly flour top of dough and using a razor blade or very sharp knife, make a one 6-inch-long, 1/2-inch deep slit along top of dough. Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up dough by lifting parchment overhang and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and instant-read thermometer inserted center registers 210 degrees, 20 to 30 minutes longer. ***Many of you may not have an instant-read thermometer. You will probably be baking it more towards 30 minutes*** Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. 


Thank you America's Test Kitchen for providing the Step-by-Step illustrations.


Step-by-Step: Almost No-Knead Bread

1. MIX: Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a spatula.	2. REST: Leave the dough to rest for eight to 18 hours.
3. KNEAD: Knead the dough 10 to 15 times and shape it into a ball.	4. LET RISE: Allow the dough to rise for two hours in a parchment paper-lined skillet.
5. BAKE: Place the dough in a preheated Dutch oven and bake it until it's deep brown.

Step-by-Step: Bread Sling