Rustic Italian Crusty Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret of crusty bread? ›

To make crusty bread, create steam in the oven.

They have a professional secret: the steam-injected oven. Nothing offers the baker quite as nice a crust as an oven filled with steam for the first part of the baking process.

Holy mother of yeast doughs — I have fallen madly/passionately/hopelessly in love with Friselle. Are you familiar with this centuries-old Italian bread? It's crunchy-munchy delicious. It's sturdy enough to support a mountain of olive oil-drenched cherry tomatoes and other juicy toppings.

Although a little vague like artisan bread, the general consensus is that rustic bread is not shaped with a pan and it is only made with simple ingredients such as just flour, water, salt, and yeast (or starter). Rustic bread is usually baked at a higher temperature which results in a thicker crust.

Italian bread often contains a bit of milk or olive oil, and sometimes a bit of sugar. French bread tends to be longer and narrower. Italian bread loaves tend to be shorter and plumper. French bread tends to be hard and crusty on the outside, with a light and soft crumb.

Perhaps the most well-known and popular Italian bread, ciabatta is a slipper-shaped bread. It has a unique, almost plasticity, texture, which makes it possible to do practically anything with this bread.

Higher protein flours tend to produce chewier breads than lower protein flours. Some additions, like fats or pre-gelatinized starches, tend to make breads softer. Lean breads, which have no fats or sugars added, tend to be chewier. Lean breads are usually baked at a higher temperature, producing chewier crusts.

One of the most crucial steps in making bread. is incorporating steam while baking. Baking a loaf on a sheet pan without steam. will give a crust that is dull, thick, and chewy. To bake with steam at home, try using a Dutch oven or combo cooker. They trap both the water that evaporates from the dough.

Cloth, being breathable, retains less moisture; the disappointment is that this doesn't translate into a crispy crust, but rather a hard one. So if you want to store bread for a day or so at room temperature, plastic or foil (rather than cloth) is the way to go.

Ciabatta. Ciabatta is a rustic Italian loaf that's filled with tons of irregularly-shaped air pockets. It's super crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside, making it an ideal choice for making sandwiches. You can buy it of course, but consider learning how to make ciabatta bread from scratch.

Give it all that, and a panettone can still go wrong. Bakers from Los Gatos, California, to Pittsburgh say that's exactly why they're so obsessed with the high-maintenance dough: No bread is more difficult, or more rewarding, to get right.

What is artisan Italian bread? ›

Characteristics of Artisan Bread

The bread is handmade. It's created in small quantities rather than mass-produced in a factory. The chef uses traditional techniques instead of machines to make it. It does not contain preservatives.

Too much extra flour worked into the dough while folding and/or shaping can cause dense bread. Over mixing can cause a dense loaf by the weakening and breakdown of the gluten (not likely to happen if you fold dough or hand knead). The flour you used is a whole grain with coarse bits of bran and grain in it.

Nutrient Powerhouse: Artisanal breads often utilize whole grains and organic flours, rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. This is in stark contrast to refined white flour, stripped of much of its nutritional value. A Happy Gut: Sourdough bread is a natural source of beneficial bacteria (probiotics).

All-purpose flour produces tender baked goods (as opposed to chewy ones) and is ideal for cakes, muffins, biscuits, piecrust, etc. Bread flour, on the other hand, is ideal for bread, pizza dough, pretzels, etc. – items where a strong crumb and a chewy texture are coveted.

If you've made my favorite white bread recipe, you may remember that I opt for all-purpose flour because it produces a super light and fluffy bread. In contrast, we want to use bread flour for this Italian bread due to its higher protein content, which will create a bread that is chewier in texture and a bit denser.

Italian bread tends to include olive oil, herbs, and milk that add to its distinctive taste and texture.

Baguette. The longer, thinner cousin of a French bread loaf, the baguette is a chewy bread with a thick crust that's traditionally made solely from water, yeast, white flour, and salt.

Pane Siciliano is a traditional bread from Sicily made with durum wheat (semolina), sometimes a little olive oil (as I do in this recipe), and even sweeteners such as honey or barley malt syrup. The flavor is nutty, sweet, and with a buttery mouthfeel, thanks to the olive oil.

Focaccia is a traditional type of Italian bread that is known for its fluffy and chewy texture and delicious flavour. Its origins date back to ancient Rome when it was known as "panis focacius".

How to get a golden crust on bread? ›

Another thing you can try is to use a recipe with a little sugar in it. That will also help brown the crust as the sugar on the exterior of the dough will caramelize and give a nice color. Another possible method is to bake the bread in an oven-proof pot with the lid on, which will help to keep the steam in.

Crusty bread can be stored uncovered at room temperature for the first day. By the end of the day, it's best to wrap it in foil (not plastic) or in a paper bag and kept at room temperature for a second day. After the second day, it's really best to freeze it.

In-home ovens do not get as hot as the ovens at pizza restaurants, and the stone or steel underneath the crust while baking helps make the best use of temperature. Always bake your pizza pie on the lowest rack in the oven. This allows your pizza crust to get closer to the heat source, allowing it to become more crispy.

Add moisture.

Brush or spritz water all over the bread. Use more if the loaf is very dry and/or has a thick crust. Use less if the loaf has a thin crust or just needs a little pick-me-up.

There are two proteins in wheat flour called gliadin and glutenin. When wheat flour is mixed with water these proteins combine with the water to make gluten. Gluten makes the dough stretchy and elastic. The stretchy gluten makes it possible to produce a bread with a large volume and open texture.