November 21, 2014

Pugliese Bread – An Italian Rustic Loaf from Puglia Region

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The day The Bread Baker’s Apprentice arrived was the day I discovered pugliese bread. . . and a hint to my ancestral roots. I was not a newcomer to bread baking, but I wanted to learn more, to understand the artisanal bread movement and to learn its techniques. Peter Reinhart, the author of the bread book, is considered a master baker and teacher , so his book was the one I decided to buy.

Pugliese bread a rustic Italian loaves made with durum flour @ allourway.com

Pugliese Bread – Rustic Italian Loaves

I was so excited! I was going to learn all about bread baking.

I was going to learn about formulas and percentages, starters, the difference between winter and spring wheat, why master bakers use instant yeast instead of active dry or compressed. I was going to be Peter Reinhart’s apprentice and he was going to teach me what seasoned bakers took years to learn.

Puglia Italy - a southeaster region where pugliese bread originated @ allourway.com

Puglia Italy – a southeastern region where Pugliese bread originated.

The approach was going to be methodical — I was going to start at page one and go through each lesson and bake the bread represented in the chapter. I opened to the table of contents and what jumped out at me?

Pugliese Bread !

Now you’re probably scratching your head wondering why I should have a bold/italic reaction to Pugliese bread?

The fact is that Pugliese is my maiden name. All I could think of was making Pugliese bread and sharing it and the fact that there was a bread named after us with my family.

Out went my plans to be methodical and take each lesson in order.

Puglia, Italy is a mountainous region bordered by the Ionian and Adriatic Seas

I jumped to page 222 and began to read. As I read, it began to dawn on me that the surname Pugliese referred to the Puglia {Apulia in English} region in Italy which is in the southeastern part of the country. Well, I was born in the northeastern region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia and as far as I knew all of my grandparents were from the north. But, somewhere along the line the ancestors on my papa’s side must have migrated to the north.

Italian Regional Map Pointing to Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Puglia

Once I made the loaves of bread, I hurried over to my parent’s house

carting the bread and cookbook with me. I not only wanted them to sample the bread but I also wanted them to see for themselves that a Pugliese bread existed. I was curious about our last name being linked to Puglia so I asked about our ancestral origins .

Unfortunately, neither mamma nor papa knew anything because both sets of parents died when they were very, very young.

All I know about the nonni ( grandparents ) is that they were contadini (farmers).

I’ve made Pugliese bread countless times throughout the years. It’s a lot like ciabatta– it’s a very wet dough –and the technique for preparing it is similar.

Pugliese bread Begins With a Pre-ferment, which is a Biga

Pugliese bread begins with a biga which is a pre-ferment. A food processor works great when making this – zip! zip! zip! and you’re done.

The dough ferments in the bowl for 2 to 4 hours and then the biga is removed from the bowl, gently kneaded to degas it and then placed back into the bowl and refrigerated overnight.

The next day, take the dough out of the refrigerator one hour before making the bread and cut the biga into 10 pieces.

Pugliese bread mixing together ingredients the following day @ allourway.com

Pugliese bread Mixing Together Following Day

I weigh out the unbleached bread flour and fancy durum flour then add the salt and yeast. It’s good to whisk the dry ingredients together before putting them into a large mixing along with the biga, mashed potatoes, and the water.

The dough is very sticky so you need a lot of extra flour. Here you follow the same procedure as the tutorial for making ciabatta.

After the dough goes through the stretch and fold method it goes into a bowl to ferment some more.

Pugliese Bread rises in well floured basket @allourway.com

Pugliese Bread Rise in Well Floured Baskets

One distinction between Pugliese and ciabatta is that Pugliese is formed in a round loaf rather than the slipper shape of ciabatta.

The baskets are first sprayed with vegetable spray and then dusted heavily with flour.

I transferred the dough to the cutting board and then I gently cut the dough into three pieces being careful not to degas the dough too much. I make each piece of dough into a boule — a tight ball. You can do this by stretching and smoothing the dough from top to bottom and pinching the bottom. The smooth part of the ball is put down and the pinched side up.

The bread starts off in a 500°F oven and then finished in a 450° F oven — until the Pugliese bread is a deep golden brown and the inside registers about 205°F.

Pugliese bread had the open crumb like ciabatta @allourway.com

Pugliese Bread Has An Open Crumb Like Ciabatta

Another distinction between this bread and ciabatta is that this bread uses fancy durum flour and sometimes a few mashed potatoes. The starch in the potato adds a nice flavor and tenderizes the bread. Pugliese bread has a wonderful open crumb, and the long fermentation enhances the bread’s flavor.

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