Last weekend...a little Italian

I know a little Italian.

He's sitting over there.

Now that I got that out of my system. Last weekend I went for the Italian loaf. I was looking to make bread that would rise a lot and make some decent sandwiches. While we never made sandwiches out it, I think these turned out beautifully.

The little secret behind these loaves or Italian for that matter, is the crust. While your French and sour doughs typically are accentuated by a hard crusty....well crust, the Italian is not as, and mostly chewy. Not unlike the Wookie.

I've been playing with techniques to change the type of crust you get with various suggestions on hydration. I've mostly been placing the broiler pan at the bottom of the oven and letting that heat up with the preheat. When I put the bread in I throw a cup of warm water on the pan and create a steam cloud. This cloud normally results in a super crunchy crust.

For the Italian, in order to get the crust just right, there has to be a little bit more moisture in the outer layer. This crust technique called for brushing the loaves with water before putting in the oven. They turned out perfect, and the loaves were only too ready to sop up all that tomato goodness from a nice (or not so nice) pasta dinner. These loaves were f-ing huge and I ended up taking one over to the neighbors. After all, bread, especially home made bread should be shared among friends.

Next time, I try and improve on my loaf shaping techniques, when I make baguettes.