Pane Siciliano

One of my favorite bread books is The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. It is my go to book when I want to try something new. Even though the book is packed full of wonderful pictures, it is his writing that pulls me in. I can picture every twist and fold of the dough in my head without ever looking at a picture. Or maybe I am just a visual person, who knows LOL!

It has been hard to find specialty flours in this sleepy town. Anchorage isn't much better. So for that reason, I haven't been able to play with this book as much as I would like. Luckily I did have some Semolina flour on hand.

Reinhart's recipe for Pane Siciliano is an easy recipe to work with during the week. This is a several day process that requires very little active time. It is also ideal because if something comes up there is nothing wrong with letting it ride in the fridge overnight.

Day 1 - I started with a pate fermentee. Let it rise, degas, and then store in a covered container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Day 2 - Remove the pate fermentee from the fridge and cut up in small pieces to de-chill. Add this to a fresh dough. Let rise, shape, cover, and stow away in the fridge overnight.

Day 3 - Remove from the fridge, let rise, and bake.

This was done in between my other projects, work, and family. Hence the reason it is a good bread to make during the week, but also the reason I don't have many pictures this time around.

Here is what the bread looked while waiting for the oven. The bread really soaks up the flavor of the sesame seeds. Combine that with the semolina and you get a pleasantly nutty bread.

I used a steam pan. No comments from the peanut gallery about my stove please :)

Finished spiral!

That 45 minute wait for it to cool down was a killer. I didn't think I was going to make it through. Thank goodness I have some self control. Hey now, easy, I didn't say I had a lot, but I do have some!