Italian Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the best flour to use for Italian bread? ›

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.

The Baking Process

Finally, there's a stark difference in the way Italian and French loaves of bread are baked. The former is often prepared inside a flat stone oven. Alternately, wood-fire or stone ovens may be used to bake Italian flatbreads to give them their signature aroma and smoky flavour.

1. Ciabatta. Ciabatta is an Italian bread that is known for its distinctive shape and texture. It is a relatively new bread, created in the 1980s by Arnaldo Cavallari, a baker from Verona, Italy.

It has a longer shelf life than classic baked bread, with a crunchy crust and a soft, fragrant crumb; its aroma is further enhanced by the aromatic notes of the chestnut wood used for baking.

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.

Strong Bread Flour is Higher in Protein

Strong bread flour is made from “hard” wheat varieties and has more protein, from 12 to 14 percent. This creates more rise and structural support in the dough, allowing the final product to lift and hold shape. It also creates a chewier texture and more browning in the crust.

Focaccia is ½" to 1" thick with a light crust on the top and bottom. It's often described as "flatbread" or "Italian flat bread," but unlike the flat bread we're used to, it isn't flat at all, but thick and fluffy. The "flat" term in question simply refers to the pan in which it's baked compared to other breads.

What makes Vienna bread different from French or Italian breads is the enrichment of the dough. A little sugar and malt powder are added to help brown the bread and some butter and an egg to help tenderize the loaf.

Salt adds flavor to bread. If none or too little is used in a recipe, the bread will lack the right flavor and taste "bland." If you reduce the amount of salt, try adding some dried herbs to increase the flavor. Too much yeast in bread will give bread an off-taste.

Focaccia is a flat Italian bread flavoured with olive oil.

What do Italians call Italian bread? ›

In Rome it is called pane casareccio, which means “homey bread.” In other areas, it is known as pane toscano, “Tuscan bread.” Italians usually get a half loaf or a whole loaf from the bakery. You can choose from salted, unsalted, whole wheat, durum wheat, cereal bread, and many more.

Focaccia. Focaccia is a flat oven-baked Italian bread made of strong (high-gluten) flour, oil, water, salt and yeast. It can be used as a side to many meals, as a base for pizza or as sandwich bread.

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.

Wonder Italian Bread gives you the wonderful taste of Italy in soft, sliced bread. This Italian-inspired bread is the perfect way to add a distinctive touch to everyday meals or to make your own celebrations with family and friends something special.

Grano duro is slightly yellow, more granular, and more commonly used for pasta and some breads in the south of Italy. It's also knows as durum wheat flour. Grano tenero is generally what we think of as white flour, and is more broadly used in bread, pizza, and pastry, and northern pasta doughs.

No matter how the flour gets processed, the Italian kind is already softer, slightly sweeter, and lower in protein (i.e. gluten), while American wheat is already harder, slightly more bitter, and high in protein (i.e. gluten).

Italians and English do not categorise flour in the same way. Italian flour is graded by colour (technically called extraction rate – that is the extent to which the bran and the germ are extracted from the flour). It is marked 00 to 04 where 00 is really really white and 04 is rather closer to whole meal.

While bread flour is the best option, it can sometimes be used if you don't have bread flour. “Check the protein content,” advises Chef Jürgen, since it can vary from brand to brand, and an all-purpose flour that contains protein on the higher end of the range, 12 to 13 percent, will produce a better outcome.