Italian Bread

October 26, 2011 by paladinipotpie 2 Comments

This is the bread I make every Tuesday to go with whatever soup I make for our Bible Study dinner. Everyone loves it and it’s the easiest yeast bread in the world.

I usually call it French Bread, out of habit, but it’s actually Italian. I need to get in the habit of calling it that. My name is Paladini, for goodness’ sakes! – That’s Italian!)

But there’s not much difference between what is known as French Bread and Italian Bread. Traditional French bread is the baguette, a long loaf. Traditional Italian bread is shaped into large rounds. Italian bread may have a little oil or sugar added.

Mangia, mangia!

Italian Bread

Ingredients

2 Tablespoon yeast

2 cup warm water

3 Tbsp olive oil (optional)

2 teaspoon salt

4-6 cups flour

Butter

2 tbsp cornmeal (optional)

Directions

Dissolve yeast in warm water

Stir in 3 cups flour

Add salt

Stir in some more four to make sticky dough

Turn out onto floured surface and knead flour in until the dough is not sticky

Continue to knead for about 5 minutes

Butter a cast iron skillet and sprinkle with a little corn meal (optional)

(*You can also just make the loaf into a flat-ish round, and bake it on a baking sheet)

Coat the loaf of dough with butter and place it into the skillet.

Allow it to rise an hour or two.

Punch it down.

Allow to ride again for an hour or two (until doubled)

Bake at 400° till brown and hollow-sounding when you tap it.

*As a time saving hint – you can make the dough and do not let it rise. Butter it well and wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it. Then at some future busy day you can pull it out of the freezer in the morning, unwrap it and let it thaw and rise all day. When you come home your loaf is ready for the oven.

Author: paladinipotpie

Welcome! My name is Andrena Paladini and this is a blog about family and love and faith and fun. I call it Paladini Potpie because a potpie is like an adventure in a crust. You never know what might come up, but it’s always going to be good! Think of the best potpie you’ve ever eaten…hot flaky crust holding a rich savory sauce and all kinds of pieces of meat and vegetables…and who knows what? As a family, we’ve chosen to live within the parameters of God’s love and protection. This is the crust of our Paladini Potpie. The crust never changes. Within this crust, the savory sauce of family love binds it all together. That is also fairly constant. But beyond the crust and the sauce we can add just about anything! Good ideas come our way and we’ve adopted and adapted them to add to what John calls our treasure box of memories. These stories and ideas from John’s treasure box of memories are the ingredients I’m putting into our Paladini Potpie. (Okay, so this ridiculous mixing of metaphors about treasure boxes and potpies is exactly what I’m talking about. Silly and ungrammatically correct. But both illustrations work… so we’ll mix them together and it’ll be just fine!) John and I have been married for 30 years. Our children have wonderfully doubled in number since David married Amanda, Monica married Dan, and Matthew married Sarah. And the newest little treats that have been added to our potpie are six adorable grandchildren - Ethan, Angelina, Nathan, Audrey, Maleia and Caleb! I hope you’ll subscribe to my Paladini Potpie blog, and keep up with all the fun new ingredients I add. Hopefully you’ll enjoy our stories and ideas, and find something you’ll want to put into your own potpie! Bon appétit!