Italian Peasant Boule
I made this Boule yesterday in the bread-making class I took at Plate It Up!. The recipe was given to us by the instructor, Chef Pat Smith who is a pastry chef and operates her own catering company, Patty’s Cakes.
The taste and texture were excellent. It is fast and easy to make. Some interesting things about this recipe:
- While the recipe calls for active dry yeast, it is not proofed. You simply mix the yeast with the rest of the dry ingredients, get the mixer going, and then dump in the warm water.
- About half of the normal amount of yeast is replaced with baking powder. (hmm. It would be interesting to understand why)
- The rise times are short.
Italian Peasant Boule
3 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups water at 155F – 120F
Combine the flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and baking powder in the bowl of the stand mixer. Add the water and mix until combined. The dough should be very soft and a little sticky. Add more water if needed. Mix until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until no longer sticky, about 10 minutes. Use no more flour than necessary. Place in a buttered bowl and cover with plastic. Allow to double in size, about an hour.
Preheat the oven to 375F. Turn the dough onto a board and punch down gently. Without too much handling, shape into a round about 7 inches wide and place it smooth side up in a buttered 9-inch round cake pan. Generously brush with butter.
Allow to rise uncovered until doubled in size. The risen dough to completely cover the bottom of the baking pan and its crown should protrude above the rim of the pan a bit and will be light and airy to the touch.
Brush with more butter. slice the top surface of the loaf in a crosshatch pattern, kinda like a tic-tac-toe symbol. Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for about 40 minutes until the internal temperature is 200F.
Remove form the oven and take the loaf out of the pan. If the bottom is not browned, then place the loaf (minus the pan) directly on the oven rack for 3-5 minutes.
Remove from pan and allow to cool a few minutes before serving.
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Dave, thanks for your words of support re: my attempts to try low carbing again. Now will you quit making all this darn bread! Really, though, it looks fabulous.
Dave, this looks fantastic! Maybe even I will try making yeast bread in 2007.
Dave, how did you like this compared to recipes using only yeast instead of baking powder, too? Does it compare to any boules you’ve gotten at bakeries?
Breaducation – Euro hearth bread
T his past weekend, as I mentioned in my beef stew post, I made some European hearth bread. The recipe was a bit different from what I’ve used for baguettes; it used less yeast and allowed more time to rise.
Hi Dave. I’m just curious, do you think giving the dough extra time in the stand mixer would obviate the need for 10 minutes of kneading?
Amy,
Interesting. Even though I transcribed the recipe from what was given to me, I never noticed that before. I did not need the dough for 10 minutes. I took the dough out of the mixer when it was still a little stickey and then needed it just enough and (added just a wee bit of flour) until most of the stickiness was gone 2-3 minutes tops.
The change **I** want to try is to omit the baking powder, bump the amount of yeast up to something more appropriate, and lengthen the rise times.
How about leaving the yeast where it is (or even less) and giving it even more rise time? I’m going to do pain l’ancienne this weekend; we’ll see what I think of the rise times for that!
When I did pain l’ancienne last weekend. it took about three hours.