AboutDavide Giovanni Papa Expertise For professional chefs and home cooks-questions relating to the Authentic Classical recipes of Italy;No desserts questions at this stage:No homestyle cookery questions:Italian classical cuisine is on the verge of vanishing;I would like to establish a Classical International Recipe base so that no matter where you eat,the right recipe is served."Mums" cooking is fine..but I get angry when a classical recipe is implied which it`s not.
Being italian does not automatically make you a good Italian chef..on the contrary it only means that the food you have been served has been done so by a person of Italian origins-Classical Italian recipes are clealy defined by history as well as research-and by the entity known by Academy of Italian cookery Rome-anything else is unacceptable. The French have converted from regional recipes to an established uniform protocol for hundreds of years..it`s time the Italian cuisine did the same-and applaud the Italian government in establishing laws to protect such recipes from any further corruption.Customer have the right to know exactly what they`re eating...Regards Chef Davide:
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Question We've saved several of my grandmother's recipes however one we didn't get was for her bread. She was born in North Eastern Sicily near Taormina. She made a dense bread shaped in small (palm size) loaves with knobs on each end. As kids we loved these loaves. They weren't sweet or salty and didn't really have a specific flavor. They seemed to soak up the flavor of the sauce, butter, pesto, tomatoe, onion, cheese...whatever you put on or in it. We liked them plain with butter right out of the oven. Any suggestions on a very plain, dense dough recipe that might give us the taste of the past?
Answer
Dear Karen-
I can only provide a typical italian DENSE bread dough application of historical significance, and too many variations apply for recipes as per provincial towns-This recipe makes great (addictive) bread an Pizza bases-
Make a small batch first- then later the second time around simply double up the ingredients for larger batches, as you fine tune the process-
(a) : The "Starter" mixture: In a bowl- Morning:
Place ONE AND A HALF cups of warm water in deep bowl: Water MUST only be LUKE warm- Not HOT and NEVER USE WATER FROM THE HOT WATER TAP- ALWAYS USE COLD WATER AND HEAT WATER ON STOVE-
Add: 2 heaped teaspoon of PURE Honey ;Dissolve well.
Add: 14 Grams of brewers yeast or 20 grams of fresh bakers yeast into the water and mix
well- A little more or less won't matter-
Add: A Tiny pinch of salt less than a match head-mix well
Add: 4 heaped table spoons of hard flour-Sprinkle over the liquid, the mix into liquid-
Mix again is 5 minutes time to break up any lumps- using a fork- Cover with cloth and leave in warm part of the room of 2/5 hours-
SCIENCE; In the olden days plant material such as FiG Tree twig were used to provide the" Yeast"- now Commerical yeast is available from supermarkets or deli- Honey replaced sugar-
(Simply mixing water , with flour and yeast will produce a dense bread-In Australia is called a "Damper" Bread )
This recipe is for a very high quality bread-
The warm liguid activates the yeast- the yeast in turn attacks the Honey and converts it to carbon dioxide (bubbles) - the little bit of flour slows the process down- The tiny pinch of salt regulates the yeast from working too quickly-as salt is a yeast killer-hence you can't put much at all-
If you don't see a few little bubbles starting to form in your base "Starter' mixure within 15 minutes , throw it out and start again-
Making the Bread-
(B) In a few hours the "Starter" mixuture should have expanded considerable but still be a slurry of thick liquid-Like melted chocolate-
(a) On a bench add One and a half cups of flour-have some ready flour for dusting-Have a half a cup of warm water on stand by-
(b) Make a well in you dry flour, and start to add the starter mixture into the centre, and begin to make your bread dough- if its too wet spinkle water as you work the dough- it its too wet spinkle flour as you go untill its more dry...(Go to http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=SHnW-LU1lj4 when you finished reading this article - it shows kneading techniques for making pasta on You Tube- you use the same techinque)
(c) Keep the bench dusted and start Kneading for at least five minutes- untill a non sticky but soft dough eventuates-
(d) Turn your oven on now - on high get it really hot-
(e) Get a knife and cut the dough so you get a small hand full of dough, about the size of a billiard ball- more or less- Knead each ball a little , then rotate in a circle on the bench until a round ball of dough eventuates-
(f) Get a flat oven tray that will fit into a tub or kitchen sink-
(h) Place each ball of dough onto a greased tray ( butter not olive oil )leave a finger's gap between each ball-
(i) Slice with a knife a cross on each ball, quater of an inch or less, rub some soft butter over the top of each ball.
PROVING THE DOUGH- (TO PROVE YEAST IS STILL ACTIVE-)
(j) Fill the sink or Tub with Hot water from the tap- , get a few cups to that the tray can sit in the sink or tub above the hot water without the water touching the tray- Place a couple of tea towels over the sink or tub- so that only the steam comes in contact with the dough-
in around 20/40 minutes the balls should have grown to double the size, they shoudl be shiny, and they should be touching each other-
(k) lift the tray out of the proving area, place in hot over middle rack, check every 10 minutes-in around 20/25 minutes or more , tops of each roll should be light brown- Test the rolls by tapping with a sppon , if a hollow sound is felt - Close the oven door and heat , and let bread sit, cooling in the oven for 5 minutes-(eating hot bread straight from the oven is not a good thing- it can unset your stomach)
Take the tray out, turn upside down on a clean bench for further drying- let to cool to warm for around 10 miunutes while upside down- and that's it-
Enjoy some really wonderful real home made all natural bread , made as per traditional classical italian applications-
Kind Regards
Chef Davide
www.chefdavide.freeservers.com
