Happy Sunday Bread Heads! After several weeks of making sweet stuff it is time to get back to the basics of bread. The standard ingredients for bread are flour, water, salt and yeast. From these four ingredients there are a vast array of breads that can be made. Today we’re going to make a Italian Batter Bread.
This bread has a great crust and very light and airy crumb. By allowing the batter to triple in volume before putting it in the pan gives it a fresh yeasty flavor. This bread is great just with butter, but it also makes an excellent piece of toast. The proportion of water to flour is very high, so it can not be kneaded in the traditional sense; instead it is stirred for 25 minutes. You can make it by hand, I have a couple of times, but it is really easiest if you have a stand mixer. If you are looking for an upper arm workout this is the bread for you!
Italian Batter Bread
Ingredients:
2 2/3 cups hot water (120-130 degrees)
4 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 packages (4 ½ teaspoons) dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
Baking Pans – 1 12" pizza or cake pan greased and lightly dusted with cornmeal. The dough for this bread is so soft that it needs the support of a pan with an edge.
Method:
In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer combine two cups of flour with the hot water. Using the flat paddle attachment or a wooden spoon mix strongly for 3 minutes. Mix in the yeast and salt.
Add the rest of the flour, ¼ cup at a time, waiting until it has been incorporated before adding the next ¼ cup.
When all of the flour has been added, switch to the dough hook attachment and set the mixer to medium high for 25 minutes. The dough may climb the hook, if it does, turn off the mixer and allow it rest for up to fifteen minutes.
If you are doing this by hand, get mixing! You need to stir the batter strongly for a total of 25 minutes, but you don’t have to do it all at once. I find that stirring for 15 minutes, then resting for 10 minutes, stirring for 5 minutes, rest for 5, stir for five, is the best way to do this without killing your arms. Stir with your whole arm, don’t act like you are whisking eggs and do it all from your wrist. You will never make through 25 minutes if you try to stir with your wrist!
When you are done it the batter will look like the picture below. It will be very thick and smooth.
Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until the dough has tripled in volume. How warm your kitchen is will have a major effect on how fast it raises. It can be as short as 45 minutes and as long as 1 ½ hours, so keep an eye on it. It will look about like the picture below when it is tripled in size.
When the dough has risen, remove the plastic wrap and gently turn it out into the prepared pan. Do no stir it down, as this will wreck the fluffy cell structure. Just use a spatula to coax it out of the bowl.
Sprinkle flour around the edges of the dough and use your floured fingers to lightly tuck the sides under. Sprinkle the top with flour and then cover with a tea towel that has also been dusted with flour. Allow to rise for 1 hours, it will be very tall and very puffy.
Set your oven racks to the middle of the oven and pre-heat to 400 degrees for at least twenty minutes before baking.
Slip your pan into the hot oven and bake for 50 minutes. The curst should be golden brown and nice and hard when the bread is done. Remove from the oven and immediately turn the bread out onto a rack to cool.
Once the bread is cool, slice or tear off big chunks and enjoy!
The flour if yours.