Your new favourite everyday white bread loaf
We are Italians and we love our bread.
In Italy we have several ‘panificio’ in every town; panificio is similar to a bakery, just more Italian.
The ‘panettiere’… the bread-maker, wakes up early every morning to bake all sorts of bread rolls following the traditional recipes and shapes of different areas of Italy – tartarughe, mantovanine, ciabatte, and the list goes on.
If you live nearby, you’ll be greeted by the most delicious smell every day at around the same time.
Bread rolls are a must in every household, and stopping by the panificio on your way home from work is part of people’s daily routine, whether you are wanting to make a panino – a panini with cured meat, have it by itself or to use as scarpetta for your pasta sauce – that is literally cleaning your plate from any leftover pasta sauce with bread.
My husband has this memory of going to get bread on his bicycle when he was younger, and always buying a couple of extra rolls for the road.
Traditional Italian bread is simple and doesn’t require any extra toppings because it’s just that good on its own.
As much as I love bread rolls, we tend to go through a fair amount of bread every week, so I’ve been baking an easy ‘everyday’ white bread loaf that everyone in the family loves, even our little one.
Keep reading if you want to learn the how to, plus you’ll be saving a few dollars every week by making your own 🙂
Everyday white bread loaf
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 15 mins + 2.5h for proofing minimum + 35 mins for baking
Quantity: 1 loaf
Ingredients
- 600g baker’s flour 00
- 300g lukewarm water
- 2tsp dried instant yeast
- 1tsp sugar
- 2tsp sea salt
- 2tsp white vinegar
- 20g grapeseed oil
- Butter and oil for greasing
Method
- In a small container put the water, dried yeast and sugar. Cover and set aside for a couple of minutes, until it is nice and frothy on top;
- In a larger bowl put the flour, salt and vinegar. Add the oil to the water mix and slowly start combining all ingredients with your hands;
- Form a ball and set it aside in a greased bowl to rise, until it doubles in size, for about 1.5hrs;
- Once the dough has doubled, work it for about 30 seconds to remove the excess air;
- On your kitchen counter, stretch the dough into a flat circle and roll it up to shape it into a loaf and brush the top with water;
- Grease a bread loaf tin and place the dough inside to rest, until it reaches the top of the tin, for 1-3hrs;
- Put the tin into a cold oven and set it at 200C, static and bake for 30-35 until golden brown on the outside;
- Let it cool down for about 15 minutes, then pop it over a cooling rack to cool down further.
Quick note: you may choose to mix all ingredients by hand or in a stand mixer, up to you 🙂
Buon appetito!
About The Author
alicebellavita
Hi! My name is Alice and I am Italian expat neo-mum living in Australia since 2011.