Pane Integrale Whole Wheat Bread Recipes

PANE INTEGRALE (WHOLE-WHEAT BREAD)

Steps:

• Stir together flours, salt, and yeast in a medium bowl. Add water, and mix well using a wooden spoon or your hand until dough is wet and sticky. Cover with plastic wrap; let stand at room temperature until dough doubles in volume and the surface is dotted with bubbles, 12 to 18 hours.
• Transfer dough to a floured surface using a rubber spatula or a bowl scraper to scrape dough from bowl.
• Fold dough using lightly floured hands, lifting edges toward the center. Shape dough into a loose round.
• Generously dust a clean kitchen towel with wheat bran, cornmeal, or flour. Gently place dough on towel, seam side down. Dust the top lightly with wheat bran, cornmeal, or flour.
• Loosely fold ends of towel over dough to cover. Let stand in a warm place until almost doubled in volume, 1 to 2 hours (it should not spring back when pressed).
• After dough has risen for 30 minutes, preheat oven to 475 degrees with rack in lower third of oven. Heat a covered 3 1/2-quart heavy ovenproof pot or Dutch oven (9 inches in diameter) for 30 minutes or until dough is ready. Carefully remove preheated pot from oven, and uncover. Unfold towel, and quickly but carefully invert dough into pot, seam side up.
• Cover with lid. Bake for 30 minutes.
• Uncover pot, and bake until bread is dark brown but not burned, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Carefully lift bread from pot using metal spatulas, and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

WHOLE WHEAT WITH HONEY (PANE INTEGRALE CON MIELE)

Steps:

• STARTER, stir the yeast into the water, let stand until creamy, 10 minutes.
• Stir in the flour with 70 to 100 strokes of a wooden spoon.
• Let rise covered 6 to 24 hours.
• Measure 1/4 cup (50 g) for each loaf.
• DOUGH (1 loaf), stir the yeast and honey into 1/4 cup water, let stand 10 minutes.
• Chop the starter into small pieces and add to the dissolved yeast.
• Pour in the remaining 1 1/4 c water and squeeze the starter between your fingers until the starter is in little shreds and the water is chalky.
• Mix the flour and salt and stir 1 cup at a time into the yeast mixture until the dough comes together.
• Knead on a floured surface until the dough is fairly smooth and has lost most of its stickiness, about 8 to 10 minutes.
• Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled, about 2 hours.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and shape into a round loaf without punching the dough down.
• Place loaf on a lightly oiled baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal.
• Cover with wax paper or a towel or lightly oil the top of the loaf and cover with plastic wrap.
• Let rise until doubled, 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 450°F.
• Bake 10 minutes, spraying every 3 minutes with water.
• Reduce the heat to 400°F and bake 25 minutes longer.
• Cool completely on rack.

PANE INTEGRALE (WHOLE-WHEAT BREAD)

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, stir together the flours, salt and yeast. Add the water, and using a wooden spoon or your hands, mix until you have a wet, sticky dough, about 30 seconds. Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature until the surface is dotted with bubbles and the dough is more than doubled in size, 12 to 18 hours.
• When the first rise is complete, generously dust a work surface with flour. Use a bowl scraper or rubber spatula to gently scrape the dough out of the bowl in one piece. Using lightly floured hands or a bowl scraper or spatula, lift the edges of the dough in toward the center. Nudge and tuck in the edges of the dough to make it round.
• Place a cotton or linen tea towel on your work surface and very generously sprinkle it with wheat bran, cornmeal or flour, using at least 1/3 cup. Gently place the dough on the towel, seam-side down. If the dough is tacky, dust the top lightly with wheat bran, cornmeal or flour. Fold the ends of the tea towel loosely over the dough to cover and place it in a warm, draft-free spot to rise for 1 to 2 hours. The dough is ready when it is almost doubled. If you gently poke it with your finger, it should hold the impression. If it springs back, let it rise for another 15 minutes.
• Thirty minutes before the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 475 degrees, with a rack positioned in the lower third, and place a covered 4½-to-5½-quart heavy pot in the center of the rack. If using a lid with a plastic handle, be sure that it can tolerate high temperatures. You might have to unscrew it and plug the hole with aluminum foil.
• Using thick potholders, carefully remove the preheated pot from the oven and uncover it. Unfold the tea towel and quickly but gently invert the dough into the pot, seam-side up. (Use caution: the pot will be very hot.) Cover the pot and bake for 30 minutes.
• Remove the lid and continue baking until the bread is a deep chestnut color but not burned, 15 to 30 minutes more. Use a heatproof spatula or potholders to carefully lift the bread out of the pot and place on a rack to cool thoroughly.

WHOLE-GRAIN BREAD

Steps:

• Stir whole-wheat flour, bran, and 1 cup water in a bowl. Let stand 30 minutes.
• Stir milk and 1 tablespoon sugar in a bowl until sugar dissolves. Stir in yeast. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
• Put whole-wheat flour mixture, milk mixture, remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, the cornmeal, 3 tablespoons oats, the ground flaxseed, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook; mix on medium-low speed until combined. Add 2 1/2 cups bread flour; mix until dough is tacky, but not sticky, about 2 minutes (if dough is too sticky, add more flour, 1 teaspoon at a time). Continue kneading until dough is soft and elastic, about 5 minutes more.
• Coat a large bowl with cooking spray. Add dough to bowl; turn to coat. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour (or refrigerate overnight; bring to room temperature).
• Turn out dough onto a work surface; shape into a loaf about 9 inches long. Using a spray bottle, mist with water; sprinkle top with remaining 2 teaspoons oats and the whole flaxseed. Coat a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and a piece of plastic wrap with cooking spray. Transfer loaf to the pan, and cover lightly with the plastic wrap. Let stand until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mist oven with water; place loaf in oven. Bake 5 minutes; mist oven again. Continue to bake, rotating pan once, until well browned, 25 to 30 minutes. Unmold bread onto a wire rack; return to oven, and bake directly on oven rack 5 minutes more. Remove from oven; let cool completely on rack.