Thursday, June 23, 2011

The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Casatiello

 

One day I was browsing through the web and found The BBA Challenge group at Pinch my Salt. Very interesting, it's kindda like the Daring Bakers but they are following Peter Reinhart's book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

You're suppose to start from the 1st recipe and move your way through all the recipes in the book. I will, I promise, starting from the next bake, for now, I just had to make Casatiello, I had all the ingredients at home, the Italian salami and a wonderful herb-ed Gouda cheese. 


 It takes 1 hour of actual work, cutting, kneading, shaping and putting it in oven; The rest are simply proofing and waiting for the dough to leaven. I baked mine in 8" loaf pan, the book's picture is a round bread which I don't find it convenient.

Look at all the cheese oozing out on the surface!!!

Before I remember to take a cross section picture, we finished both loaf :) 
The bread's texture is pretty much like a normal sandwich bread, not too moist but not dry either, the only thing special is the crunchy crust, maybe it's because of all the butter? With the salami and the herb-bed gouda, the bread by itself is a satisfying breakfast. Next time, I will definitely try it with some other filling (perhaps cheese only with ham instead of the salty and fattening salami?), maybe even make it sweet with some nuts!