Recipe: Italian Bread

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So either I missed something in this recipe or I did something COMPLETELY wrong, but this didn’t make the two loaves it said that it would, but rather made 12 small ones.   I will only be writing down the steps that I did as  I got rather confused by the end.  🙂

Ingredients

1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
5 teaspoons active dry yeast (2 packages )
1 tablespoon butter or 1 tablespoon margarine, softened
3/4 cup All purpose flour
1 3⁄4 cups very warm water (120 -130 F)
3-4 cups all purpose flour
cornmeal
peanut oil or light olive oil
 1 egg
1 tbsp cold water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. In large bowl thoroughly mix 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, salt and undissolved yeast.
3. Add butter. (my butter was not soft so I cut into tiny blocks)
4. Gradually add warm water to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes with mixer at medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally.  Our mixer is kaput right now I used a whisk and just changed the speed at which I mixed it
5. Add 3/4 cup flour.
6. Beat at high speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.
7. Stir in enough additional flour to make a stiff dough. Today I added 3 cups flour.
8. Turn dough onto a lightly floured board and knead until smooth and elastic (about 8-10 minutes).   I found I Needed this whole time and added a bit more flour as I want.  You want a non-sticky dough.
9. Cover dough with plastic wrap and then a towel and let it rest for 20 minutes.
10. To make loaves: Divide dough in half.
11. Roll each half into a 15×10 inch rectangle.
12. Starting at wide side, roll up tightly; pinch seam to seal.
13. Taper ends by rolling gently back and forth.  If you want two loaves STOP HERE!   Skip ahead to step 18.   SEE… I just figured out what I did wrong!   🙂
14. To make rolls: Divide dough into 6 equal pieces.
15. Roll each piece into a rectangle 8×5 inches.
16. Starting with wide side, roll up tightly; pinch seam to seal.
17. Taper ends.
18. Place the shaped dough seam side down on greased baking sheets sprinkled with cornmeal.
19. Brush dough with oil.
20.  FROM HERE ON I DEVIATED from the original recipe
21. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate 2-24 hours.
22. When ready to bake, remove from refrigerator and uncover carefully.
23. Let dough stand at room temperature for 10 minutes.
24. Make 3 or 4 diagonal slits in dough with a sharp knife or razor blade.
25. Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes for rolls, 20 minutes for loaves.
26. Remove from oven and brush with egg white beaten with cold water.
27. Return to oven; bake 5-10 minutes longer, or until golden.
28.  

What I did was NOT refrigerate the rolls.   I put some of them in the refrigerator just so they wouldn’t rise as I cooked the first batch.   I forgot to add the diagonal slits (my bad) and I baked them for about 15-20 minutes at 375.  I also forgot to brush them with egg white/water mix.   

I had trouble sealing the seams, but I’m guessing practice will make me better.

Result:
Me: When eaten directly out of the oven they taste like regular white bread.   BUT once they cool they taste like a loaf of Italian bread.    I like them.   I plan to use some tomorrow to make mini heated sandwiches.

The lad… “MOM!   These are too dry and crunchy.  They need to be eaten with honey or jam or something. I like the taste but mom,.. they are too dry!”   In his defence he’s never had Italian bread before in any other form than garlic bread.  🙂

For more bread recipes see below  

Traditional White Bread.
Irish brown soda bread.
Irresistible Irish soda bread. 
Amish White Bread. 
Pizza Bread. 
Python Dogs and Sun Bread. 
Kim’s White Bread, altered. 
Grandma VanDoren’s White Bread. 
Hamburger Buns. 
Buns for Thanksgiving.
Garlic and Cheese Breadsticks. 
Sweet Rolls. 
Scones. 
Scotch Scones. 
Whole Wheat Rolls and Buns.
Julia Child Sandwich Bread. 
Cheese Biscuits. 
Multi-grain, whole wheat bread. 
Tasty Buns.