King Arthur Flour (KAF) announced a bakealong recently. I decided to participate. I think I might just like xalongs. I mean, I participated in the paintalong not long ago.
Anyway, KAF’s bakealong is a monthly challenge. August’s challenge was a pane bianco. The name of which is kind of confusing to me. I mean, that’s just “white bread” in Italian. And yes…it is a white bread. But it’s stuffed? I mean, if I saw “white bread” in English, I think of…Wonder Bread or something. At least, I think of a white, sliced loaf bread. I definitely don’t think about a stuffed bread.
BUT ANYHOW, it was an interesting recipe to try, it smelled and tasted delicious, and it’s pretty. That last part isn’t a huge seller. I mean, I don’t mind eating ugly food if it tastes good. It’s more of a bonus.
I made my pane bianco with AP flour. I think I’m out of bread flour. Pretty sure. I didn’t actually check. But I do have that 25lb bag of AP flour handy. So that’s what I tend to reach for first. KAF recommends that you reduce the water to 1/4c if you use AP flour and I followed their recommendation.
I also subbed the instant yeast for active dry, also because I have a jar of that handy. I generally use a 1:1.8 (active dry:instant) ratio when subbing active dry for instant. And of course, I highly recommend that you proof your active dry yeast first. To do that, I made sure that my water and milk were at about 110-115degF before dumping in the yeast. I generally heat my liquid to the upper range for dry active yeast because I store my active dry yeast either in the fridge or freezer, also I threw in maybe half a teaspoon of sugar to help the yeast along. All of that tends to lower the temperature of the liquid a bit.
As for the stuffing, I probably ended up doubling the garlic (I really like garlic) and I used a mix of shredded mozz and freshly grated parm along with the sun-dried tomatoes and basil.
I think next time, I might do a mix of tomatoes and choke hearts. I think that might be really good. I think I’d also like to try it with bread flour some time as well. With AP flour, my bread ended up being very light and tender. It’s good. But I’d like to see if I get a noticeable texture difference using a flour with higher gluten content.
Random moosages as I see fit. 