My Papa the Bakers Italian Bread
My grandfather Dino Pinchiaroli owned a bakery in Queens, NY when I was growing up. He made a lot of different usual Italian bakery items but the one I remember the most is his Italian bread. The smell of sesame seeds sometimes coating the bread was particularly intoxicating. He passed away when I was too young to really appreciate his talent and ask him to teach me all the bakers secrets, but thankfully my little sister had a school project that prompted him to give her the recipe to his bread. (pictured above)
This recipe makes 6 loaves of Italian bread. It’s been paired down from I’m sure what used to make 100 loaves for his bakery. So I’ll be testing and tweaking it to make smaller batches in the future, but as of now it’s doable if you divide the dough before kneading. If you have a large stand mixer bowl for the kitchen aide pro, it will overheat the stand mixer hehe trust me. So divide the dough and add it to the mixer or before kneading by hand and you’ll be fine. If you’re not expecting to share the loaves, slice them and seal them in a freezer safe bag and you can freeze them for future toasting.
Recipe by Papa Pinchiaroli
Adapted by Tierney Larson
Ingredients:
4 pounds of Un-bleached bread flour
3 1/2 tbl (35g) of instant yeast
2 2/3 tbl (28g) granulated sugar (just eyeball the 2/3 tbl)
2 tbl (25g) olive oil
2 tbl (16g) kosher salt
32 oz (1qt) tepid water
ok so…in a very large bowl, whisk together the flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Then add the olive oil to the water, and pour most of the water into the center of the flour mixture. Stir slowly incorporating the flour in, and then add the rest of the water and oil. You’re looking for the dough to come together and not stick to the sides of the bowl, but also not be extremely wet. The dough will be slightly tacky and should hold together, so add more water if necessary to reach this texture.
Now if you’re going to knead the dough until smooth and elastic. I suggest dividing the dough to knead, and doing it on a lightly oiled surface, or in a stand mixer. Just note this is a lot of dough, so maybe divide into thirds if you think your mixer won’t be able to handle half the dough.
After kneading, make the dough into a ball by gathering it underneath and dragging it along your work surface to create some tension on the top. Then place in a large oiled container covered by a tea towel or plastic to rest for 45 minutes, or until doubled in size.
Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide the dough into 6 balls, gathering them again like before and dragging them to create tension, weighing 16oz each. Place them on a lightly floured surface and cover for another 45 minutes.
Prepare 3 sheet pans by sprinkling them with cornmeal or semolina flour. After 45 minutes, shape the balls by first pressing it gently out into almost a rectangle shape, tuck the top two edges into the center and then fold the top over the edges, pressing to seal with your finger tips, repeat the tucking and folding until you get to the last bit, then seal the edge firmly with the heel of your hand. Seam down, roll the cylinder of dough moving your hands gently pressing from the center out the the edges. Press a little harder on the edges to taper the ends. Keep rolling until the dough is the length of your sheet pan.
If you want to add sesame seeds to the top, spread some sesame seeds out onto a sheet tray or large cutting board. Lightly spray or pat the top of the loaf with water and then roll into the sesame seeds. Then place the dough directly on the prepared sheet pans, cover and rest again for 30 minutes. At this point, you can put one sheet pan in the fridge to slow the rise so it doesn’t over proof (unless you can fit all three sheet pans in your oven at once). During that time preheat your oven with a small rimmed sheet pan on the bottom or cast iron skillet, to 400F/375convection/200c
Once the loaves have puffed up and are almost doubled, slash them diagonally three times down the center with a lame or sharp knife, then place them in the oven and carefully add 1 1/2 cups of hot water to the pan that you preheated. Quickly close the oven to trap the steam and let the loaves cook until golden brown, about 25-30 minutes. While they’re baking you can remove the third sheet pan from the fridge, slash it right before baking.
Remove from the oven and let cool fully on a cooling rack before slicing. Enjoy!
