BBA: Pugliese

      The twenty-ninth Bread Baker's Apprentice challenge (from the book by the same name authored by Peter Reinhart) is Pugliese, and is found on pages 222-226.   

      This is a two-day dough: a small amount of time on the first day to make the biga and let it rise for a couple of hours and then into the refrigerator for an overnight stay.  Ingredient list for biga:  bread flour, yeast, water. 

      The next day you take the biga out to warm for about an hour and mix it with the other ingredients and then do the fold and stretch method 3 times with 30 minute intervals before it rises for two hours.  After this rise, it is taken from the bowl, carefully cut into two sections (you can see I'm not that great at getting even halves, no matter), and make boules, letting those rise each in a proofing bowl for another 90 minutes.  After that time, you carefully turn it out onto the cooking surface, slash the top, and bake for about 25 minutes, using techniques shown in the book for hearth baking.
      Can you believe the holes I got on my very first try???  I couldn't believe it either, not bad for a first try. 

      The dough recipe made two one-pound loaves.  Ingredient list for bread dough:   Duram flour and Bread flour (or Bread flour only which is what I used), salt, yeast, mashed potatoes, and water. 

      Delicious.  Really really good.  Definitely a repeat, another one of my favorites so far.  

      You can visit the main group and marvel the breads.  I'm getting there...Slow and Steady.  Our next challenge:  Basic Sourdough Bread, found on pages 233-235.