THE DOUGH DOCTOR IS IN... By Tom Lehmann – American Institute of Baking

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Grandma and her husband came to the Unites States from Italy—Sicily to be exact—and settled in Roseland, a small neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. Her idea of a great pasta dish was a plate of cooked pasta with a can of heated Contadina tomato sauce poured over it. But when it came to making Polenta and bread, she really excelled and took a lot of well-deserved pride in making these wonderful foods every weekend for the family. Grandma is gone now, but I still think of her every time I make her Tuscan bread. If only I could make her polenta as well as she did!

Tuscan Bread Dough Formula
Ingredients:
Flour (Caputo, Ceresota or all-purpose) Grandma used nothing but Ceresota brand flour; it was a “Chicago” thing): 100% (20 pounds)
Salt: 3% (9.5 ounces) 
Sugar: 2% (6.5 ounces)
Olive oil: 1% (3.25 ounces)
Active dry yeast: 0.5% (1.5 ounces) OR instant dry yeast: 0.375% (1.25 ounces) OR fresh yeast: 1% (3.25 ounces)
Water (slightly warm/95˚F): 50% (160 ounces/10 pounds)

Procedure:
Place water in mixing bowl and stir in the active dry yeast or the fresh yeast. If you’re using instant dry yeast, you can add it with the flour.
Add the flour, salt, sugar and oil.

Mix in the mixer until a smooth, satiny dough appearance is achieved (Grandma used to knead the dough by hand for a measured 30 minutes while telling us about all of her neighbors and what was new in her Roseland neighborhood).

After mixing, remove the dough from the mixer and oil it lightly with a little olive oil. Place the dough back into the mixing bowl or another suitably sized container, cover it to prevent drying, and allow the dough to rise for two hours at room temperature.

Punch the dough down well and begin scaling it into 24-ounce dough pieces.

Form each piece into a ball and set it on a wood peel dusted with corn meal, cover lightly to prevent drying and allow the dough ball to rise for about 20 minutes at room temperature (Grandma used to put the dough onto a cloth towel dusted with corn meal and then carefully transfer it by hand to a cookie sheet to bake).
Transfer the risen dough ball(s) to a very lightly oiled baking pan.

Dock the top of each dough ball by cutting a couple of slits on the top using a sharp knife or single-edge razor blade.
Take the panned dough to the oven and bake at 400°F for about 45 minutes.

Grandma used to take the leftover dough and form it into long, thin strings of dough by rolling it under her hands. These were placed directly onto a lightly oiled pan and taken to the oven for baking as Grissini (breadsticks)—not much bigger in diameter than a pencil, and just as crispy, but oh so tasty!

The dough can also be made into rolls by reducing the scaling weight to about two ounces and then handling it in essentially the same way. When making rolls, the baking time should be 18 to 20 minutes.

 

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