I love baking yeast breads from scratch…nothing smells quite as special as bread baking in the oven. I am fortunate to have both a Wolf M Series Convection Oven and a Wolf Convection Steam Oven. I frequently do side by side tests baking the same item in each oven to compare results.
Last week I prepared a biga for use with some Scali this week. The biga is a starter which you make at least one day ahead and then you can use it the next day or you can refrigerate it for use later the same week, or you can even freeze it for much later use. The biga recipe I use most is the one from Leite’s Culinaria. The biga is enough for about three standard sized loaves of bread. The Scali recipe I used this week is the one on King Arthur Flour’s website. I doubled the recipe and made two loaves using 2/3 of the biga.
Traditional Scali is braided and topped with an egg wash and sesame seeds. I did not have a lot of sesame seeds on hand, but the bread still turned out great! This bread is very fresh and goes well with pasta dishes, soups and salads, and it also makes awesome toast!
For maximum flavor I not only prepare the biga a day in advance and keep it at room temperature overnight. I also prepare the dough for the bread a day in advance and keep it at room temperature overnight, or if it is really hot in the refrigerator overnight before shaping and baking. This results in flavor much more closely resembling what you would get in a bakery.
The braided loaves look much more difficult than they are to prepare. You simply divide the dough into three, shape into a small log and let it rest about 15 minutes before rolling the logs into a longer strand and then braiding. To braid you press together all three strands at one end, then working from the outside in, you braid the strands alternating sides until you reach the end, then press together at the end and tuck it under. There is a great video here.
So, if you love that fresh out of the oven smell and flavor of home baked bread, try out some Scali – you won’t regret it!