Altamura Bread
Signature bread from Puglia, prepared with durum wheat semolina with a 3 mm thick crunchy crust and a soft, dense and velvety crumb, straw-coloured.
INGREDIENTS
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PREPARATION
1. The night before, prepare the dough. Place half the water (300 ml) and the yeast in the bowl of the planetary mixer. Mix with a spoon. Add the teaspoon of honey and sift the durum wheat RIMR semolina.
2. Turn on the planetary mixer with the K or leaf whisk and mix the dough. After a few minutes, add the other half of the water (always 300 ml) and the salt.
3. When the dough comes away from the walls, insert the dough hook and let it work for approx. 10 minutes at low speed, stopping the mixer a few times to pull the dough off the hook.
4. Once ready, turn the dough onto the work surface dusted with semolina and make just 2 folds: spread the dough with your fingertips. Take one edge and bring it towards the centre, then bring the other edge towards the centre, so as to create a 3-fold (wraparound) fold. Then fold the dough in half.
5. Brush a large bowl with a little oil and place the dough inside. Dust the surface with a little semolina and cover with cling film. Place the dough in the lower part of the fridge overnight (vegetable section), so that the yeast begins to work slowly.
6. The next day, remove the bowl with the dough and leave to rise for 4 hours at room temperature or in the turned off oven. Once the time has passed, form the pieces. The dough obtained weighs 1.5kg and I formed two 750g loaves.
7. Take the dough of a loaf and widen an edge and bring it towards the center.
8. Continue like this until you have finished all the way around the dough . Turn the dough over and create a ball, rotating it on the work surface.
9. To give the shape of the Priest’s Hat , with the corner of your hands, flatten the edges along the entire circumference , so as to form a flat edge. Do the same thing with the other loaf of bread. Transfer the two loaves of Apulian bread onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, rather spaced apart. With this shape, the bread will tend to grow in height, without flattening. Cover the bread with a clean cloth and leave to rise for 30 minutes, at room temperature.
10. Once this time has passed, score 3 vertical lines and 3 horizontal lines on the surface with a thin blade or cutter, forming a grid .
Dust the surface with semolina and bake in the oven at 240°C for 20 minutes. Then lower to 220°C, and continue for another 20 minutes. Then get it out of the oven but leave at oven the entrance so that the bread can cool down slowly for 10 minutes (so 40 minutes of cooking and 10 minutes of rest just outside the oven).
11. Voila, your Altamura Bread is ready!
