Bread Baking Babes: Royal Crown's Tortano

The second I opened the email invite to join Bread Baking Babes from Tanna, I knew I wanted in.  The second she sent the first month's recipe and it had "Crown" and "Royal" in it, I knew I was in love.

Okay, enough with the bad jokes. This bread was really fun, though long and complicated to make. I'm not saying it was hard, it was just different.  The dough was different, wetter and sloppier, which hurled me out of my comfort zone but in the end I enjoyed those sweating moments of wonder and Gene and I both are enjoying the big round loaf of chewy, hearty bread with a wide spectrum size of bubbles in the crumb, and that chewy/crisp crust that made every hour and every turn worth it.

This bread so inspired me that after baking it on an airebake metal pan, Gene and I went to Lowe's where I bought a couple of unglazed slate tiles to use for a baking stone and a couple more small ones to heat up for the bottom of bread baskets or to throw into a roaster to create steam for my next attempt.  Cost?  $1.88 per large tile and .99 cents per small tile.  That works for me.

You know what I had the most trouble with?  The baking part. Actually, my crust color is much lighter than what this recipe called for but at the time it FELT so dark.  I've told the story many times that I grew up in the kitchen of a cake decorator. I was my mom's apprentice, basically. In the cake frame of mind, overbaking is kin to a sin.  I can still hear my mom's voice saying "White cake is supposed to be WHITE!  Not BROWN!"  So there's something embedded in me that has a hard time letting any crust get dark brown. Someday I'll get over it and allow myself to bake a bread to a deep dark golden browned crust.  But I bet you I'll feel guilty the first time I do.

By the way, the flour I used made for marvelous-tasting bread. It's King Arthur European-style Artisan Flour, available (in this area--Springfield, MO) at The Cheddar Block on West Republic road between Kansas Expressway and the bridge that crosses over James River Expressway.

To view the rest of the Bread Baking Babes web sites, click on the links below:

A Fridge Full of Food (Glenna), Bake My Day (Karen), Cookie Baker Lynn (Lynn), I Like to Cook (Sara), Living on Bread and Water (Monique), Lucullian Delights (Ilva), My Kitchen in Half Cups (Tanna), Nami-Nami (Pille), Notitie van Lien (Lien), The Sour Dough (Mary aka Breadchick), Thyme of Cooking (Katie), and What Did You Eat (Sher)

Royal Crown's Tortano
(from Artisan Baking Across America by Maggie Glazer)

Recipe Quantity: One (1) 2 1/4lb (1200 gram) tortano

Time Required for Recipe: About 19 hours, with about 20 minutes of active work

Note about recipe: You will need to start this recipe the night BEFORE you want to bake the bread.

This is the most beautiful bread Royal Crown makes, a huge round loaf filled with radish size air cells, tanks to careful handling and lots of water in the dough. Joe adds potato for flavor and moistness and honey for color to this very wet, squichy dough. For extra flavor, the bread is leavened solely by its starter, so it rises very slowly and develops a nice but not aggressive acidity. To get authentic Italian flavor, you will need to bake this bread to a deep, dark brown so don't skimp on the baking time - the bread will not burn.

Recipe Synopsis

The Evening Before Baking: Make the starter and if you like the mashed potato.

The Next Morning: Mix the dough and let it ferment for about 4 hours. Shape it, proof it for about 1 1/2 hours, and then bake the bread for about 45 minutes.

The Evening Before Baking: Making the Pre-Ferment:

Ingredients Volume (English units)
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 cup water 105 - 115 degrees F
2/3 cup unbleached bread flour
1 small potato

Ingredients Weight
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 cup water 105 - 115 degrees F
3.5 ounces unbleached bread flour
3 ounce small potato

Ingredients Metric
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 cup water 105 - 115 degrees F
100 grams unbleached bread flour
85 grams small potato

Ingredients Baker's Percentages
eventually 0.3% instant yeast
eventually 73% water 105 - 115 degrees F
100% unbleached bread flour
1 small potato

Stir the yeast into the water in a glass measure and let it stand for 5 - 10 minutes. Add 1/3 cup of this yeasted water (discard the rest) to the flour and beat this very sticky starter until it is well combined. Cover with plastic wrap and let it ferment until it is full of huge bubbles and sharp tasting, about 12 hours. If your kitchen is very warm and the pre-ferment is fermenting very quickly, place it in the refrigerator after 3 hours of fermenting. In the morning, remove it and allow it to come to room temperature 30 minutes to an hour before beginning the final dough

Preparing the Potato: For efficiency, you may want to prepare the potato the night before. Quarter it, then boil it in water to cover until it can be easily pierced with a knife tip, about 20 minutes. Drain; if desired, reserve the water for the dough. Press the potato through a ricer or sieve to puree it and remove the skin. Store it in a covered container in the refrigerator. You will need only 1/4 cup puree.

Bake Day: Mixing the Dough

Ingredients Volume (English units)
3 3/4 cups unbleached bread flour
1 3/4 cups plus 3 Tbsp Water, including the potato water if desired, lukewarm
Pre-ferment
2 tsp honey
1/4 cup packed Potato puree
1 Tbsp salt

Ingredients Weight
20 ounces unbleached bread flour
14.6 ounces Water, including the potato water if desired, lukewarm
Pre-ferment
0.4 ounces honey
2 ounces Potato puree
0.5 ounces salt

Ingredients Metric
575 grams unbleached bread flour
420 grams Water, including the potato water if desired, lukewarm
Pre-ferment
14 grams honey
60 grams Potato puree
15 grams salt

Ingredients Baker's Percentages
100% unbleached bread flour
73% Water, including the potato water if desired, lukewarm
30% Pre-ferment
2% honey
10% Potato puree
2.4% salt

By Hand: Use your hands to mnix the flour and water into a rough, very wet dough in a large bowl. Cover the dough and let rest (autolyse) for 10 - 20 minutes.

Add the pre-ferment, honey, potato, and salt, and knead the dough until it is smooth, 5 - 10 minutes. It will start off feeling rubbery, then break down into goo; if you persist, eventually it will come together into a smooth, shiny dough. If you do not have the skill or time to knead it to smoothness, the bread will not suffer. This is a tremendously wet and sticky dough, so use a dough scraper to help you but do not add more flour, for it will ruin the texture of the bread.

By Stand Mixer: With your hands or a wooden spoon, mix the flour and water into a rough, very wet dough in the work bowl of your mixer. Cover the dough and let it rest (autolyse) for 10 - 20 minutes.

Fit the mixer with the dough hook. Add the pre-ferment, honey, potato and salt and the mix the dough on medium speed for 15 - 20 minutes, or until very silky and wraps around the hook and cleans the bowl before splaterring back around the bowl. This dough is almost pourably wet.

Fermenting and Turning the Dough:

Shape the dough into a ball and roll it in flour. Place it in a container at least 3 times its size and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let it ferment until doubled in bulk and filled with large air bubbles, about 4 hours. Using plenty of dusting flour, turn the dough 4 times in 20 minute intervals, that is, after 20, 40, 60, and 80 minutes of fermenting, the leave the dough undisturbed for the remaining time. Do not allow this dough to over ferment or forment to the point of collapse, for the flavor and structure of your bread will suffer.

Shaping and Proofing the Dough:

Turn the fermented dough out onto a well floured work surface, round it and let it rest for 20 minutes. Sprinkle a couche or wooden board generously with flour. Slip a baking sheet under the couche if you are using one for support.

Sprinkle a generous amount of flour over the center of the ball. Push your fingers into the center to make a hole, the rotate your hand around the hole to widen it, making a large 4 inch opening. The bread should have about 12 inch diameter.

Place the dough smooth side down on the floured couche or board and dust the surface with more flour. Drape it with plastic wrap and let it proof until it is light and slowly springs back when lightly pressed, about 1 1/2 hours.

Preheating the Oven:

Immediately after shaping the bread, arrange a rack on the oven's second to top shelf and place a baking stone on it. Clear away all the racks above the one being used. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees (230 C)

Baking the Bread:

Unwrap the bread and flip it onto a floured peel or a sheet of parchment paper. Do not worry about damaging the bread as you handle it; it will recover int eh oven as long as it is not overproofed. Slash it with 4 radial cuts in the shape of a cross. Slide the loaf onto the hot baking stone and bake until it is very dark brown, 40 -50 minutes, rotating it halfway into the bake. Let the bread cool on a rack.

Comments

[sher]

Yours looks wonderful! Do you have any left? We ate quite a bit of ours--dangerous bread indeed!

[Lien]

This looks fantastic! Isn't it amazing how this blob of wet dough can turn in to something so good! Great job!

[ilva]

What a great bread this is, it took me a long time to get going but now I will go on doing it for a long time!

[breadchick]

Glenna, I love the bread with the light golden crust. I completely appreciate the cake baker in the family story. My mom always thinks I'm over baking my artesian loaves. Glad you found the tiles at Lowes! Cheap and wonderful way to make a great baking environment.

[Addie]

Oooh, that bread looks good!! I've never tried to make bread before...partly because I'm impatient. :)

RYC: Feel free to use the smoothie recipe! I'm sure you could make it even better. :) I'm just trying to find recipes that aren't just meat and cheese since my doc said I need more protein.

[baking soda]

Love the belly button, I think those give a personal touch to the bread! Can't stand you found those tiles so easily..been looking everywhere here.
Amazing ovenspring!

[Jenny]

Very nice!

[MyKitchenInHalfCups]

Glenna I'm so glad to have you as a Babe with us! Every bread group needs a cake master!
I've got you beat on the tiles though, my small ones were only 30 cents each! Six of them pretty much cover a rack. Lots cheaper than the $30 for the pizza stone.
It took me three tries to get my belly button hole. Yours is great. And wonderful crumb. I so happy we've found this bread.

[Monique]

Whow, love your pictures , Glenna.
And your complete baking-a-royal-crown-lesson.....
I like the white look of your bread (my dark did taste a little burned) so: Hooray for Mom.

[Gretchen Noelle]

Beautiful bread! I understand not liking things too dark, I may have the same problem. It looks lighter than others, but more appealing to me. :)

[Glenna]

Sher--We do have a bit but only because we've been running back and forth to see Gene's sister in the hospital but, let me tell ya, I toasted a slice this morning for breakfast and it was divine with real butter and Ina Garten's blood orange marmalade--yum!

Lien--Yes! I really had no idea how "the blob" was going to turn into a nice loaf, but it did.

Ilva--Me too!

Mary--thank you! I still want to see how it looks/tastes with the darker crust but no matter the crust color it's a keeper of a recipe, huh?

Addie--I hear you. I'm impatient too! Thanks about the smoothie. I'll try that soon.

Baking Soda--I wasn't sure what to get but the guy at Lowe's said "This is what other people who are doing that use." Funny, huh?

Jenny--thank you!

Tanna--LOL! You win! Your deal was better than mine. That's hilarious!

Monique--thanks! Well, to be honest, I figure it would be more of a portrait of a failure, haha. I really didn't expect "the goo" to turn into such good bread.

Gretchen--Thanks! I still like the look of the dark breads but I'm not complaining. We're having lots of fun eating this.

[Lynn]

I know what you mean about a really dark crust. I always underbake cookies on purpose. I've been searching for the KA European flour. Even Whole Foods doesn't have it here!

[katie]

That looks sooo gorgeous...I'm really sorry I didn't get a chance to bake it.
I'm even sorrier I don't get a chance to eat it!

[Auntie Miranda]

Do I spy a beautiful new RED Kitchen Aid??? (Bread looks wonderful!)

[Glenna]

Lynn--I do too! I like them chewy. I also tend to almost underbake cakes because I love it to be very moist, so moist it leaves a fudgy film on the cake plate.

Katie--The eating part was the most fun! LOL! Try it some time. You'll like the recipe!

Auntie Miranda--You do!! Thanks for noticing. Mine bit the dust so Gene let me order the new Artisan which came with the free pasta set. I'm very excited!

[Sara]

Looks lovely. I have to get myself some tiles for the oven.

[Madam Chow]

Your bread looks fantastic - I love the holes! And I totally understand about letting things get "dark" - I recently made my first challah, and I wanted to pull it out while it was a light golden color, but resisted the temptation!

[Glenna]

Sara--Thanks so much and yes, go get the tiles. They're cheap and they make great bread! I tried them the other night and it's sooooo cool!

Madam Chow--Thank you! I appreciate that. Yes, I totally relate and challah is on my list too!

[patti]

i love making bread and this looks divine....

[Glenna]

Thanks Patti!

[zorra]

Looks great! Question: Why the potato is listed in the Pre-Ferment and then not added?

[Andrea]

Your tortano looks great! I was also worried about baking it too dark.