Thursday, August 1, 2019

Italian Sesame Loaf

A wonderful bread from master baker, Nick Malgieri. This Italian Sesame Loaf with a mixture of bread flour and whole wheat flour, is coated with sesame seeds, baked to a lovely golden brown. In the recipe, the bread is baked as a 10-inch round loaf, but I've used a 11-inch oval banetton, since I prefer an oval loaf for my sandwich.






The bread has fabulous oven spring! With flavoursome taste from the whole-wheat flour, soft crumb and a nice crust, it makes a wonderful sandwich with sliced ham, cheese and greens. Yums!


Italian Sesame Loaf
(Bread by Nick Malgieri)
1-2/3 cups (375gm) room-temperature tap water, about 75
1/2 teaspoon (about 1.5gm) fine granulated active dry or instant yeast
3 cups (400gm) bread flour, spoon into a dry-measure cup and level off
3/4 cup (100gm) whole wheat flour
1-1/2 teaspoons (9gms) fine sea salt (I use scant 1 tsp)
1/3 cup (60gm) white untoasted sesame seeds
cornmeal for the pan

one heavy cookie or pizza pan lined with sprayed or lightly oiled parchment, plus a spray bottle filled with warm water

  1. Pour the water into a 3-quart or slightly larger mixing bowl and whisk in the yeast. Wait 30 seconds, then whisk again.
  2. Combine the flours and salt and use a large rubber spatula to stir them into the liquid. Scrape the side of the bowl to make sure that no flour remains stuck there. Once the dough is a coherent mass, beat it for a few seconds. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough ferment at room temperature for at least 8 hours. It will more than double in bulk.
  3. A couple of hours before you are ready to form and bake the bread, use a plastic scraper to remove the dough from the bowl to a well-floured work surface. Flour your hands and gently flatten the dough to a disk. Fold the two sides in to overlap at the middle, then roll the top toward you all the way to the end, jelly-roll style. Invert, flatten and repeat. Flour a small area on the work surface and set the dough on it, cover with a towel or sprayed or oiled plastic wrap, and let rest for 1 hour.
  4. Set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 450℉.
  5. Use a scraper to invert the dough onto a floured work surface and pull the sides of the dough in toward the centre to give the loaf a round shape, pinching the pulled-in pieces in place at the top. Invert the dough into a floured banetton or a basket lined with a floured cloth. Cover with a flat-weave towel or a piece of oiled or sprayed plastic wrap and proof the loaf until it puffs visibly, about 1 hour- it will not double in bulk.
  6. Invert the paper-lined pan onto the banetton and flip the banetton over onto the pan and remove it. Use an X-Acto knife or a single-edge razor blade to cut a slash across the diameter of the loaf. Spray with water and generously sprinkle with sesame seeds. Place in the oven.
  7. Wait 5 minutes and spray again, then decrease the oven temperature to 425℉.
  8. Bake the loaf until it is deep golden and the internal temperature reads 200℉ on an instant read thermometer, 30 to 40 minutes. Cool the loaf on a rack.


This post is linked with Cookbook Countdown #44


4 comments:

  1. Love the copious amount of sesame seeds used for the crust!!

    Xoxo Emily

    ReplyDelete
  2. What delicious loaf, I love sesame!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The loaf turned out just perfect, Joyce.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Greetings. The author's name is Santiago Vos but he doesn't
    like persons use his full domain name. Colorado is her birth place
    but she can have to move one day or one major. He is really fond of body building and now he
    has time to take on new stuff. Meter reading is my day job now but soon I will be on personalized.
    Her husband and her maintain a business site.
    You may want to check it out: http://na-zmarszczki.eu/Vichy-Liftactiv-Collagen-Specialist.html

    ReplyDelete