Last Year during King Arthur Flour’s bake along, one of the featured recipes was Pane Bianco. I quickly fell in love with this beautiful shaped bread, and found it was easily adaptable for both savory and sweet applications. You can fill it with virtually anything you can dream up, and it is very easy and forgiving to bake.
Following the initial proof, you roll out the bread into a rectangle, top it with your desired fillings then roll it lengthwise into a long log. Next you cut small slits or one long slit along the center of the log before shaping into an S shape, to allow for expansion during the final rise.
Before final proof
After final proof
The finished product smells delicious and looks beautiful! Do allow it to cool on a wire rack for a half hour before serving, as the bread interior will continue baking during that time. I always bake my breads to 195° before removing from the oven. If the top is getting too dark before then, you can tent it with foil to shield the top from the heat. As you can see the one I slit all the way down the center darkened quite a bit more. I baked these together in the oven at the same time in my Wolf Convection Steam Oven and rotated the pans once during baking.
We thoroughly enjoyed the fresh baked bread the first day, then made pizza bread another day using the bread as our crust for a quick, easy and delicious meal! Buon Appetito!!
