From The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger
bread machine
5 Servings
- 1 C warm water
- 1/4 C Biga (see page \pageref{biga}).
- 1 1/2 t bread machine yeast
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 1/2 C bread flour
- 1 C semolina flour
- 1 t gluten flour
- 1 1/4 t salt
You can experiment with the flour a bit, I’ve had good luck with 1 cup bread flour, 1/2 cup wheat flour, with about 2 T of buckwheat flour added to the 1/2 scoop before you measure out the wheat flour on top of the buckwheat flour... gives the loaf a more rustic look and flavor. Put all ingredients into the bread pan, use the French bread cycle, 1 1/2 Lbs loaf (if you have a 2 Lb machine), light crust. If you use the dough cycle (works great), preheat the oven to 425° F, form dough into a loaf (whatever shape you want) and bake for 35-40 minutes.
So, here’s how this actually works. You lazily add some ingredients for Biga into your machine, and do the 10 minute dough cycle thing, then you let it sit for six hours. You can do this in the morning and then fiddle with it when you get home from work (more than six hours, but who cares). When you decide the Biga is ready, you grab a box of zip locks, and dump in 1/4 cup balls of Biga, one per ziplock. When you’ve processed all the Biga, write what it is and the date with a Sharpie on each bag, and chuck it all in the freezer. Now, you’re ready to make awesome bread whenever you feel like it. The morning of bread making day (or the night before if you want to get fancy with the timer), grab some Biga from the freezer and dump it out of the bag into your bread machine pan. When you feel like making bread (or if you’re OK with using the timer to cook bread while you work), set up the machine following the Semolina Country Bread recipe. About 4 hours later (or longer if you’re delaying the cycle with the timer), you’ll have really great bread. Here’s a tip, on “rise 3" or the final rise cycle of your machine, if it does more or less than 3, take a peek at the dough ball. If it’s all on one side of the machine, whack it with a spatula until it’s spread out evenly on the bottom of the pan, or at least mostly in the middle. That way your bread won’t look freakishly tall on one end and short on the other. If you’re leaving the machine to cook all day while you’re at work, you’ll just have to trust your luck.
If you get tired of this recipe, grab the book, there’s a few more Biga-based recipes in it, and it’s a great book. Me, I’m lazy, and this is a good system, it works for me.
\label{semolina-country-bread}