Recipe: Pane di Como (Italian Bread)

PANE DI COMO
Source: The Italian Baker by Carol Field
0061812668

Spectacularly delicious white bread with a crunchy dome and feathery floury top that tastes of the sweetness of wheat.

1 tsp. active dry yeast
1 tsp. malt syrup
1/3 cup warm water
2/3 cup milk (room temperature)
1 cup white wheat flour
2 cups water (room temperature)
6 1/4 cup white wheat flour
1 tablespoon salt

Stir the yeast and malt into the 1/3 cup water; let stand until foamy, about 10 min. Stir in milk and beat in the flour with a rubber spatuala or wooden spoon about 100 strokes until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand until bubbly, at least 4 hours but preferably
overnight.

Add the 2 cups water to the starter; mix and squeeze it between your fingers until the starter is fairly well broken up. Mix the flour and salt and stir 2 cups at a time into the starter mixture. When the dough is too stiff to mix with a wooden spoon, just plunge in with your hands. Mix until well blended, 4 to 5 minutes. (Can also be mixed with paddle attachment).

Knead on a well floured surface (or under dough hook) until elastic, but still moist and tacky. Once it has come together nicely, crash it down vigorously on the work surface to develop gluten.

Place in well oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. The dough is ready when it is very bubbly and blistered.

Cut the dough in half on a floured surface and shape into 2 round loaves. Place in oiled and floured 8" round bannetons or in baskets lined with generously floured kitchen towels. Cover with towels and let rise until fully doubled and risen to the tops of the bannetons (baskets) about 1 hour.

Thirty minutes before baking, heat the oven with a baking stone in it to 400 degrees. Sprinkle the stone with cornmeal. Very carefully invert the loaves onto the stone and bake until the loaf sounds hollow when the bottom is tapped, about 1 hour. Cool on racks.