This most awesome bread is a bit of a pain to make but is so worth it. You can slice it in half for toast or sandwiches, or slice it into pieces for appetizers. I worked with a few recipes to try to approximate the Italian Flat Bread we had in Rome in the spring of 2011.

ingredients

  • 4 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 3 tsp coarse kosher salt, plus more as you go
  • 1 ½ tsp instant yeast
  • 1 tbps olive oil, plus more as you go
  • 2 cups water, chilled

directions

1. Combine the flour, salt, yeast and water in a mixing bowl. Using a good mixer with a paddle attachment mix on lowest speed for 1 minute. Then let the dough rest for 5 minutes to hydrate the flour. It should be pretty sticky and wet.
2. Drizzle the olive oil over the dough, then resume mixing on low with the paddle attachment for 1 minute. The dough should get smother but should still be soft, sticky and wet. Transfer to a clean, lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for 10 minutes.
3. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled surface and stretch out the front of the dough and fold it onto itself. Do it for the back, left and right side. Then flip over the dough, shape into a ball and put back into the oiled bowl for 10 minutes.
4. Repeat this 3 more times for a total of 4 times. This should take 30 to 40 minutes.
5. Take a 12 by 16-inch pan and line with parchment paper. Drizzle at least 2 tablespoons of olive oil onto the parchment paper and distribute. Also sprinkle some salt onto the oil. Place the dough in the middle and using your fingers, dimple or press out the dough until it takes up around 50-70 percent of the pan. It should be rebounding back a bit. At this point, you should put plastic wrap over the dough and place it in the fridge overnight. If you know what you're doing or are in a rush to do it the same day, you should let it sit for 1/2 hour before continuing on.
6. Remove from the fridge about 2 1/2 hours before you plan to bake. Warm the oven for just a few minutes. You just want it slightly warm.
7. Drizzle some olive oil and shake a bit of salt on the dough and dimple out the dough out another 10% of the pan. Start from the middle and work toward the sides. Cover back up with plastic and put into the just warm'ish oven for around 8 minutes. Take it out and let it sit for 10 minutes.
8. Repeat that step 2 more times until the dough covers the whole pan. Instead of the last "sit for 10 minutes", let it sit at room temperature for around 1 1/2 hours or until it's risen to around 1 inch in height.
9. Preheat the oven to 500˚C. Place the pan in the oven parchment paper and all and IMMEDIATELY reduce to 450˚C. Bake for 12 minutes. Rotate the pan and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes until the top is golden brown. Watch it though because it browns very quickly.
10. Carefully slide the bread, parchment paper and all onto wire racks for cooling. If there's olive oil left in the pan you can drizzle over the top of the bread if you want.

Categories

Breads

servings/yield

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rating