I consider my WI to be a success, even though I am up .2 this week.  We had a great birthday dinner out, and I only worked out 3 times last week.

I regularly tape America’s Test kitchen shows because I am a visual person – I am much better at recreating something if I’ve seen it, rather than read the instructions of a recipe.  You’ll see why when I copy the recipe below from their website – it looks intense, but this is really very simple.

Ingredients
Biga
  • 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (5 ounces)
  • 1/8 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
  • 1/2 cup water (4 ounces), at room temperature
Dough
  • 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces)
  • 1/2 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
  • 3/4 cup water (6 ounces), at room temperature
  • 1/4 cup milk (2 ounces), at room temperature (see note)
Instructions
  • 1. FOR THE BIGA: Combine flour, yeast, and water in medium bowl and stir with wooden spoon until uniform mass forms, about 1 minute. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature (about 70 degrees) overnight (at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours).
  • 2. FOR THE DOUGH: Place biga and dough ingredients in bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Mix on lowest speed until roughly combined and shaggy dough forms, about 1 minute; scrape down sides of bowl as necessary. Continue mixing on medium-low speed until dough becomes uniform mass that collects on paddle and pulls away from sides of bowl, 4 to 6 minutes. Change to dough hook and knead bread on medium speed until smooth and shiny (dough will be very sticky), about 10 minutes. Transfer dough to large bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let dough rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
  • 3. Spray rubber spatula or bowl scraper with nonstick cooking spray; fold partially risen dough over itself by gently lifting and folding edge of dough toward middle. Turn bowl 90 degrees; fold again. Turn bowl and fold dough six more times (total of eight turns). Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes. Repeat folding, replace plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes longer. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position, place baking stone on rack, and heat oven to 450 degrees at least 30 minutes before baking.
  • 4. Cut two 12- by 6-inch pieces of parchment paper and liberally dust with flour. Transfer dough to liberally floured counter, being careful not to deflate completely. Following photos 6 through 9 above, liberally flour top of dough and divide in half. Turn 1 piece of dough so cut side is facing up and dust with flour. With well-floured hands, press dough into rough 12- by 6-inch shape. Fold shorter sides of dough toward center, overlapping them like business letter to form 7- by 4-inch loaf. Repeat with second dough piece. Gently transfer each loaf seam-side down to parchment sheets, dust with flour, and cover with plastic wrap. Let loaves sit at room temperature for 30 minutes (surfaces of loaves will develop small bubbles).
  • 5. Slide parchment with loaves onto inverted, rimmed baking sheet or pizza peel. Using floured fingertips, evenly poke entire surface of each loaf to form 10- by 6-inch rectangle; spray loaves lightly with water. Carefully slide parchment with loaves onto baking stone using jerking motion. Bake, spraying loaves with water twice more during first 5 minutes of baking time, until crust is deep golden brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into centers of loaves registers 210 degrees, 22 to 27 minutes. Transfer to wire rack, discard parchment, and cool loaves to room temperature, about 1 hour, before slicing and serving.

See what I mean?  The hands on time is really not all that much, it’s just the repeating rises that takes time – and you have to start the biga the night before.  It took about 2 minutes to put together and mix and then just sat covered on my counter overnight.

In the morning it looked like this:

See all the bubbles that developed overnight.  It also has a sour doughy smell to it, which gives the bread an extra tang that I love.

It’s a supa sticky dough too:

Divide the dough in half and make each half a rectangle:

Then you fold it like an envelope:

Then I reshaped the dough on parchment paper for the last 30 minute rest.

Then baked them – the diretions said to spritz the dough 3 times in the first five minutes so it doesn’t develop too much of a crust, but I don’t have a spritzer so I just put some water on top before putting it in the oven.  I actually loved the crust.

Love all the holes!

This one is a keeper!  But then again, like cheese, pretty sure there isn’t a bread I don’t like.

I have to give a thank you shout out to Anne Marie because I won her latest giveaway – check out the loot!  I am loving the new cookie sheet – nothing sticks to it!


Thanks for all your nice comments on my vlog post yesterday – I promise the next one I do you’ll actually see my face!

Have a great Saturday!