Filone

This was Filone, a classic Italian bread with an light and airy crumb and a nice crisp crust as seen.

I followed a recipe from Saveur No.147 issue although I reduced salt to 1 teaspoon to be healthier. To make this bread was not difficult at all but needed time: about 12 hours to make a traditional Italian starter called biga; 30 min to bring biga to the room temperature; about 10 min to knead the dough mixed with biga; 2 hours for the first rise; 1.5 hours for the second rise; 50 min to bake. Total 17 hours in my case. Then, let cool before serving.

That is fine with me if nothing rushes me because I simply like handling bread dough and am patient enough to wait for the dough to slowly rise. The best moment of making homemade bread is when I start to smelling fresh bread from the oven.

The house was happily full with fresh bread smell. My first Filone was simple yeasty divine.