Hello again! I decided to make Italian bread for my 20% project this week. I found a recipe from The My Way Chef, who is Italian, and I trust his recipes. I started by measuring all the ingredients the night before. I mixed the ingredients and kneaded the dough the next day in class. I let the dough rise and returned at lunch to knead it again, followed by a second rise. Later, I shaped the bread and let it rise again for a little. Finally, I put it into the oven. The aroma that filled the room when I took the bread out was wonderful. The moment when I looked at its golden-brown crust, I knew I was in for a treat. Now, let’s see if it tastes good. I grabbed a knife and sliced it into the bread, which looked perfect. The outside looked crunchy, and the inside texture was soft and fluffy. I couldn’t wait to taste it. As I took my first bite, I realized it was good, but not exceptional. The crunchy crust with a soft, fluffy inside is a good combination. The thing that made my taste buds dance was when I dipped it into olive oil. The Italian bread tasted like artisan bread; however, when you dip olive oil in artisan bread, it doesn’t taste as good when you have butter on it. Also, this bread was much softer. That is just my opinion. One struggle I had this week was that the bread could’ve used more salt. In addition, I did not make any adjustments this week. Next week, I am debating between making focaccia or ciabatta bread.
