Easy Italian Bread Recipe

Hey, I'm John Kanell, and today on Preppy Kitchen, we're making some delicious Italian bread. So let's get started. In the bowl of your stand mixer, we're gonna add two cups of warm water. It's about 110 degrees Fahrenheit. We're gonna bloom one tablespoon of active dry yeast in here. That is a little bit more than a packet, so you'll have to open two packets if you're using those and measure out a tablespoon. And to help our yeast wake up, one tablespoon of granulated sugar. Some food for them. Give this a stir, and we're gonna set this aside for 10 minutes until it is very foamy. My yeast is nice and foamy, so now it's time to add three cups or 360 grams of all-purpose flour. If your yeast was not foamy, you have to start over. We're gonna add more flour later, but this is to get us started. I'm using a scale for best results, but I'm also being careful to sprinkle this in slowly as scales have a delay. I don't want to scoop it out. 360. For some flavor, one and a half teaspoons of salt. And one tablespoon of olive oil for some richness. Very nice. Scale is done. I'm gonna stir this together with a spatula to get it started. And by the way, if you like my videos, hit that subscribe button. There's two new recipes every single week. Good. Before I pop this onto the stand mixer, I wanna measure out the remaining flour. I need two and a half cups or 300 grams more of all-purpose flour. 300. Our bowl goes on. So does a dough hook. I'm gonna mix on low and add my flour in half a cup at a time. Give the flour a chance to be combined before adding more. Incorporate it. And by the way, we call this Italian bread, but really it's Italian-American bread. Italian immigrants in the late 19th century took traditional Italian recipes with American ingredients and made something new. They also didn't have the wood-fired ovens that you'd have back in Italy. This recipe is softer and has a thinner crust than a traditional Italian bread. Definitely scrape the bowl down as you go because there's a lot of unmixed nonsense happening here. Back to mixing. All right, let's add the rest of the flour in and let that incorporate. Once we pop this into a bowl to rise, you have two choices. We can continue the recipe and have some bread ready pretty soon, or you can pop this into the fridge for up to 24 hours and come back to this recipe later. If you do chill your dough, you'll want to bring it out, let it come to room temperature for about an hour before you form it and shape it. So my dough has come together now, but it looks like a chunky disaster with no structure. You see how it just breaks? No stretching. We're gonna run the mixer on medium-low for about five minutes until it develops some structure and pulls away from the bowl. It's been five minutes, however, my dough is not fully pulling away from the bowl and it's sticking to my fingers, meaning it's more than tacky. It's sticky. Tacky is fine. It feels sticky, but it won't stick to your fingers. If the dough's coming off on your fingers and not pulling away from the bowl, we need to add some more flour. So while mixing on medium-low, we're gonna add flour a tablespoon or two at a time. Let's just see what that's like after that. It's almost there. I'm gonna add one more tablespoon of flour and that should be it. If you're wondering, why do I have to add flour? Why isn't the recipe just right the first time? Well, there's a couple reasons for this. One, I'm making this on a rainy day, so it's quite humid and that humidity can affect the recipe and add a little bit more moisture in. I also used a scale and added in exactly how much flour I'm supposed to down to the gram. Although using a scale is best practice, most people use measuring cups and in general, they overfill them by quite a bit. So in the recipes, you err on the side of using less and add a little bit more bit by bit to get the perfect amount of flour. One more tablespoon. I'm gonna let this run for two more minutes and then we'll come back. All right, it pulled away from the bowl. It's tacky but not sticky and that means it's time for a rise. Separate the dough from your dough hook and add a little bit of oil to a large bowl. Work that up the side. Now we can transfer our dough into our oiled bowl for a rise. Just flip this over once and now we can cover it up and pop our dough into a nice cozy place for about an hour until it's doubled in size. In you go. My dough has risen and it is a monster. We're gonna press it down now so, yes. Ooh, that felt so nice. Lightly flour your countertop. And I have a rimmed baking sheet that's lined with parchment paper at the ready. Right now we have to develop some more structure in this bread and shape it into our two loaves. So let's plop that out. Divide your dough into two equal-ish pieces. I'm using a bench scraper which is one of my favorite kitchen tools. Now we're going to create a ball. Think of this as a giant dinner roll. So you can pinch the edges together and really I like to work on the un-floured part of my countertop for this part. So cup your hands together and pull the ball towards you to create some tension. Just like that. So now I have more of a dough ball. And repeat that process for the next piece. Pinching the edges together. Turning it upside down. Cupping your hands together. And pulling it. Then turning it and pulling it. Turning it and pulling it. Turn and pull. Now back to your floured surface. We're gonna stretch and roll our dough into an eight by 11 inch oval. So give it a start. And give it a roll. You need gravity to help you out. The dough will spring back because we developed a little bit of structure when we brought it together in that ball that had tension. Seven by 10. Okay, just keep rolling and stretching. All right, so now we're gonna flip the dough over. It's really like an amorphous pizza so feel free to re-stretch it back to that eight by 11 inch oval after you move it. Now, from one of the long sides, we're gonna roll this together. This develops more structure for our dough. I'm gonna pinch the edges together but also pinch the seam together just so it keeps its place. Pinch, pinch, pinch, pinch, pinch. And transfer this seam side down onto our baking sheet. And there we go. Now we're gonna repeat that process with the next blob of dough. So once again, stretch and roll to an eight by 11 inch rectangle. It's easier if you stretch it and roll it out like this. Roll this again just like a delicious, unflavored jelly roll made of dough. All right, just pinch the edge together. Pinch, pinch, pinch, pinch, pinch. And then transfer that over as well. For the very ends of your dough, you could pinch that together or tuck it under. Whatever you prefer. Tucking it under gives you a cleaner, more rounded look. Perfect for a big sandwich. Now we're gonna brush this with our remaining one tablespoon of olive oil, just very gently. This olive oil will give us a nice golden crust. Personally, I prefer a soft sandwich bread. I'm always like torn because I love the idea of like a crusty European style baguette. But when I'm eating it, it's like cutting my mouth up nonstop. So soft bread has its places. Once you've brushed with olive oil, we're going to loosely cover with plastic wrap. And then let these guys rise until they're noticeably puffed. So 30 to 40 minutes. 20 minutes into your rise time, grab a nine by 13 inch dish, and we're gonna fill it with half an inch of water. Arrange two oven racks in your oven, one in the middle and one at the bottom. This will go into the bottom so it gets nice and hot and steamy for your bread. Then set your oven to 375. And by the time your bread has risen, everything will be ready. My bread has risen up. We're gonna remove the plastic now. Grab a sharp knife or a bread lame, and we're gonna make three diagonal cuts in each loaf. These cuts are not just decorative. They give you a more even bake. Into the oven, 375 for 30 to 35 minutes, rotating after 20. Your bread will be golden. And if you lift it up and tap the bottom, it'll sound hollow. In you go. Once your loaves come out of the oven, let them cool for a minute and then transfer to a wire rack so they can cool but the bottoms don't get steamy and wet. Once your bread's room temperature, it's ready to slice and use as you please. Giant delicious sandwiches, sliced bread for an amazing grilled cheese. The list goes on. What am I left with? An impossibly soft and satisfying bread. It is so versatile and you're gonna fall in love. No preservatives, homemade and it smells and tastes amazing. It's just plain delicious and so soft and lovely. I hope you get a chance to make this delicious recipe and if you like my videos, hit that subscribe button and check out my bread playlist.