Comments on: Rustic Italian Bread

By: Shelley Hennig

Shelley Hennig — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:02:16 +0000

This is an excellent recipe and similar to the one I’ve been using for years. I do have problems sometimes where my bread will come out tough, dry or too dense. Could I be using a little too much flour when this happens?

By: irene

irene — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:39:03 +0000

can you mix the biga with a food proceser and also mix the biga and dough with a food proceser

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 04:20:09 +0000

For dusting I usually use All Purpose – but it doesn’t really matter

By: Lynn

Lynn — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:38:49 +0000

In step 8, it said to “Dust the work surface liberally with flour”, is it bread flour or all-purpose flour? I love bread and I am going to try this recipe so I want to get it right it. Thank you.

By: David

David — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 00:38:18 +0000

Who said man cannot live by bread alone ? This recipe gives outstanding results. Try it toasted with smart balance and jelly.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:52:24 +0000

I noticed that a few had a little problem with the dough being to loose. Did you Weigh the flour or Measure it? The best method is to weigh the flour, as some flour has more moisture content due to nature and storage, and will affect the outcome. The best and most successful baking reciepts I’ve used call for weighing the dry ingredients.
Happy Baking
PHD

By: Lou V

Lou V — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:05:58 +0000

Could this bread be made with Whole Wheat flour in part or total and how would the ingredients change?

By: skip

skip — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:55:36 +0000

I had a simular problem. The dough was a little on the loose side and hard to shape. I think that when adding 1 1/3 cups of water was a little to much. The bread had a great taste and will continue to make, but I think I will only add 1 cup to the dough when making it.

By: Rustic Italian Bread | Cooking with Chrissy

Rustic Italian Bread | Cooking with Chrissy — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:15:02 +0000

[...] Cookography, originally from Cook’s [...]

By: Helen

Helen — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:40:10 +0000

This is hands down the best Italian bread that I have made. I didn’t refrigerate the biga, just left it in the bowl of the stand mixer (covered) overnight and it still turned out perfectly. This is my go to recipe from now on

By: Luke

Luke — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:25:54 +0000

I know, I really love this recipe. Unfortunately I don’t end up having enough time to make it often. Glad to hear that it is working out so well!

By: Joy

Joy — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 20:20:25 +0000

From the very first time I made this bread I have had wonderful success. I’ve been making it every other week since I found the recipe – the crust is wonderful and the texture of the bread is beyond anything I have ever found in a store or bakery. It reminds me of my Noni’s homemade Italian bread toasted with butter and home made jelly. YUM. Thank you for posting the recipe.

By: Goat cheese balls in tomato sauce appetizer

Goat cheese balls in tomato sauce appetizer — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 22:08:39 +0000

[...] rustic bread is a must. I prefer Italian style, preferably bought the same day that looks something like this. Don’t be bashful. It ain’t pretty looking, so dig in hands first. Share and [...]

By: Luke

Luke — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 22:01:48 +0000

You might just have to add a bit more flour… a couple tablespoons at a time. If you don’t use weight to measure the flour and water, you sometimes have to adjust.

Out of curiousity, why didn’t the comment work the first time? It looks like it went through.

Thanks,

Luke

By: Barbara

Barbara — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 20:48:11 +0000

Hi, second time trying to leave a comment.
Following the recipe, everything just as you write it until I got to putting the two doughs together. After a minute it was obvviously not going into a smooth ball. I added about 1-2 Tbsp of flour around the outside of the bowl to tighten it up, but that didn’t work.
What happened there? It’s just in the rising bowl as I write this, very loose, wet.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 20:45:23 +0000

Hi, Made all as you described, no problem. When I got tothe point of mixing the biga with the dough, it did not go into a ball. It got looser and looser and very wet. So I added about a TBSP of flour along the sides, no good. Just put it into the bowl to rise for first time. What happened that it loosened up?

By: Rustic Italian Bread | Dad Bakes

Rustic Italian Bread | Dad Bakes — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 01:46:17 +0000

[...] from a Cook’s Illustrated magazine that was distilled down with some other instructions by a blogger. Again, I made a few slight alterations to this [...]

By: Luke

Luke — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:24:05 +0000

Hi Sandy, I wish there was an easy way… unfortunate I don’t think there is. You could try copy and pasting it into word and then printing it. I built a whole website to try and solve this: http://www.noshbot.com … but it doesn’t work well with having photos of individual steps.

By: Sandy Rodriguez

Sandy Rodriguez — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 15:27:18 +0000

I would love to make this bread; however, I would need to print the recipe. How do I do that? I don’t want to print all the comments, just the recipe.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 03:45:35 +0000

I made this bread on Friday, Dec. 24, 2010 and it is one of the best Italian breads I have ever had. It rivals the bread that was available in Rome and Naples when I traveled there. This is actually the first time I have made bread without using a bread machine, used several tiles for the oven, they cracked but were still usable. I am starting another batch today.