Mistake that turned out good!

Every once in a while, you get lucky and what starts out as a mistake turns out really good.  Most of the time, it usually ends up in the trash or the dogs/chickens get it.    But I must have done something to pleased the Baking Gods yesterday . . .

I bought a book shortly before Christmas called The Italian Baker.  My family loves Italian cooking (even though we come from a German background!).  So I decided to try one of the recipes.  The recipe is called Pane di Como Antico o Pane Francese (English  interpretation - French Bread!).  Upon reading the recipe, I had some doubts on the recipe.  You made a Biga (basically a sponge) the night before.  What made me question the recipe is that the author calls for half the yeast normally used in making the sponge.  The Biga recipe calls for 1/4 tsp so that means you would only be using 1/8 tsp.  Would that be enough for this recipe??  You see that is the only yeast you will be using.  Hmmmmm.    I figured the author OBVIOUSLY knew what she was talking about SINCE she wrote the book.  So I proceeded ahead.  Here is the recipe for the Biga and the bread:

BIGA:
1/8 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup plus 4 tsp water a room temperature
2 1/3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

Stir the yeast into the warm water and let stand until creamy - about 10 minutes.  Stir in the remaining water and then the flour, a little bit a time.  Mix with a wooden spoon (not metal!!).  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest overnight.  It should look like this in the morning.

So far, so good.

BREAD RECIPE:
3/4 cup Biga (above)
1 1/2 cups water at room temperature
Scant 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups plus 1 T unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp salt.

Mix the Biga and all but 2 tablespoons of the water with the paddle attachment of your mixer.  Mix in the flours.  Dissolve the salt in the remaining water. Add to dough.   Change to the dough hook and knead at medium speed until the dough is soft, moist and sticky, but obviously elastic about 4 minutes.  Finish kneading on a floured surface, sprinkling with additional flour, until smooth but still soft.

First Rise:

{This is where I got into trouble}  Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled - roughly 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours.  {That didn't happen for me - in fact, nothing happened for me - no rising - the dough just sat there looking at me}.  I was so frustrated.  So I waited another hour.  Again nothing.  For some reason, I didn't throw the dough out (which is what I normally would have done).  I covered the bowl with a dish towel and set it on my kitchen table figuring I would "deal with it later."

I completely forgot about it until this morning when I came down, saw the shrouded bowl and remembered I have a dead batch of bread dough I had to dispose of.  I took off the dish towel and much to my amazement . . . the dough had grown.  What was that line from Young Frankenstein "IT'S ALIVE, IT'S ALIVE.!!"  (I know, I need to get a life!)  So I figured, what the heck, let's bake this sucker and see what happens.

So to continue where we left off yesterday . . .

Divide the dough into two halves without kneading and shape into two round loaves {not sure how you can do that without some type of kneading}.  Line a baking sheet or a peel with parchment paper and flour it generously.  Place the seam side down on the paper and "dimple" the tops with your fingertips or knuckles.  Cover the loaves until they have doubled - roughly 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Baking - 30 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 425 degrees with a pan (not glass) on the bottom shelf and a baking stone on the shelf above it.  Gently remove the parchment paper.  If it sticks, wait 10 minutes into the baking, it will slide out easily.  Immediately put 1/2 cup of ice cubes into the pan below the baking stone, reduce the heat to 400 degrees and baking until golden, 35 to 40 minutes.  Cool on racks.

Much to my surprise, it turned out pretty good!!  Quite tasty, in fact!!  As I said, sometimes you get lucky and it works out.  BUT, I do think next time I try this recipe that I will increase the yeast in the BIGA back to 1/4 teaspoon instead of a 1/8 teaspoon.  That is an awful lot of work for so little yeast!!