Homemade Bread: the Easiest Recipe for the Italian Artisan Bread to Start off Real Bread Week

What's more inviting than the smell of freshly baked bread? Absolutely nothing. Preparing it at home is a real ritual, made up of ancient, wise and almost magical gestures. Only flour, water, yeast and salt: a few ingredients which, mixed and kneaded by hand, give life to an ancient food with a strong symbolic value, which has been and continues to be a pillar of nutrition.

Homemade bread is made in a few simple steps, as long as you carefully follow all our instructions: it is important to use a combination of 00 flour and manitoba flour, very rich in proteins and gluten, a little brewer's yeast, a teaspoon of honey, which will help leavening and give a nice color to the crust, salt and extra virgin olive oil.

To obtain a soft and well-alveolated crumb, the bread must rise well: mix the ingredients roughly, let the resulting mixture rest in the bowl, then make the folds as explained in the procedure. After the first leavening of about 3 hours, or in any case until the volume has doubled, the folds are made again to incorporate as much air as possible into the dough. This should be baked immediately, without waiting for a second leavening which, instead, will take place in the oven during cooking.

To obtain the crispy crust, you need to put a saucepan full of water in the oven for the first 20 minutes of cooking, so that it generates steam. The final result will be a puffy, fragrant bread with dense honeycomb, ideal to enjoy in the morning, lightly toasted and with a veil of jam, or to accompany any main course or vegetable side dish. Starting from this basic dough it is then possible to make smaller rolls, loaves and slippers.

To start off Real Bread Week, find out how to prepare it by following our simple recipe step by step.

How to Prepare Homemade Bread

Mix the 00 flour and the manitoba flour in a large bowl.

Add the crumbled fresh brewer's yeast.

Add the teaspoon of acacia honey.

Pour in the warm water.

Mix with a spoon.

Add the extra virgin olive oil.

Finish with a teaspoon of salt.

Mix again with a spoon.

Cover the bowl and let the homemade bread dough rest for 20 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface.

Knead vigorously with your hands.

Gently flatten the dough, spreading it out as if to form a rectangle.

Roll the dough on itself as if to form a loaf.

Take one edge and fold it towards the middle of the loaf.

Overlap the other flap on the fold already made.

Turn it over and rotate it on the surface with your hands, thus creating a pirlatura effect.

Form a ball.

Place in a bowl and grease the surface of the dough with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Cover with cling film and let rise for approximately 3 hours, until doubled in volume. You can place the bowl in a warm, humid place (or in the oven with the light on).

Once the leavening time has passed, the bread dough will be swollen and full of bubbles. Turn the oven at 220°C in static mode.

Deflate gently with your hands.

Turn the dough out onto a pastry board and spread it out.

Fold it over on one side first.

Then on the other, so that the dough, incorporating air, will then be well alveolated.

Knead with the palms of your hands wide open.

Start shaping the loaf.

Round the bread.

Gently place the bread on the baking tray, lined with baking paper.

With a sharp knife or cutter, make side cuts.

Make some central cuts, also.

Sprinkle the loaf of homemade bread with semolina or flour.

Place a saucepan with boiling water next to the loaf. Bake at 220°C in static mode for 20 minutes, in the central part of the oven. After this time, remove the saucepan and lower the temperature to 200°C for another 20 minutes; then lower to 180°C for 15 minutes, then to 160°C for another 5 minutes, opening the oven door slightly (you can use a wooden spatula to prevent it from closing again).

Take the homemade bread out of the oven and let it cool.

Cut into slices and enjoy.

How to Store Homemade Bread

Homemade bread can be stored in a paper food bag for 5 days. Once stale, it is excellent toasted for making bruschetta or crostini.