Recipes from Marche, Italy: Filone Casereccio

Filone Casereccio

from forchettaepennello.com

It could have baked for longer, plus I did not use the water tip, hence the lame-looking crust.

Ingredients

• 7.2 cups bread flour
• 2 3/4 cups water
• 3 g fresh brewer's yeast
• 2 1/4 tsp fine salt

Instructions

1. Mix the flour with 2 2/3rds cup water and let rest for half an hour.
2. Meanwhile, dissolve the brewer's yeast in the remaining water.
3. Add the dissolved yeast and the salt to the dough and knead (or just put it in your bread machine).
4. Put the dough in the refrigerator and leave overnight.
5. About an hour before you're ready to bake, take the dough out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature. Then divide it into two loaves and let it rise for 2 hours.
6. Make three diagonal slits across the top of each loaf.
7. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the loaves are a golden brown color and sound hollow when you knock on them.
8. *For a crustier crust, put some water in a metal pan on the bottom rack of the oven and let it heat up as the oven does. The steam will help the loaves form a crust as they bake.

What we thought:

 My brewer's yeast was not fresh brewer's yeast, which is probably why this bread came out dense. This is not the fault of the recipe, but my results were pretty mediocre. I also did not use the water trick mentioned in step 8, which is why my crust looks as boring as it does.

My kids liked it. To be fair, though, they like all bread.