Do you want to know how to make homemade crusty Italian bread recipe, with a soft, airy and open crumb and a fragrant crust, just as you would eat it if you were in Italy? Here is the basic bread dough for fast and easy homemade crusty bread.
You’ll only need 4 ingredients: flour, water, yeast and salt. A bowl to mix everything and a few hours of leavening. We’ll show you how to divide the dough into loaves and how to cook them perfectly. The result will surprise you!
You will have a crisp, delicious and fragrant homemade bread, which remains soft for days, even perfect for freezing. Worthy of the best bakeries!
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How to Make Homemade Crusty Italian Bread Recipe
- Prep Time: 15 min + about 4 hours of leavening
- Cook Time: 25 min
- Servings: 10/12
Ingredients
- 300 g (10 oz) of manitoba flour
- 200 g (7 oz) of “00” flour + more for dusting
- 400 ml of water (room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon of dry brewer’s yeast (about 10 g /0,35 oz)
- 1 teaspoon of sugar (about 10 g/0,35 oz)
- 1 teaspoon and a half of salt (about 15 g /0,53 oz)
Directions
Start by preparing the necessary ingredients to make homemade crusty Italian bread recipe. In addition to “00” flour, we will use manitoba flour, because it’s particularly right for leavened products as bread.
In fact, manitoba flour has a high protein content and has a high water absorption power (up to 90% of its weight) so it is perfect for making crusty bread with airy and open crumb. If you can’t find manitoba flour, use 500 g (1,1 lb) of type 1 flour (read the paragraph below “What is the Best Flour to Make Bread?”)
Step 1) – Choose a rather large bowl because the dough will have to triple its volume during the leavening. Then add the yeast, salt and sugar (which is used to activate the yeast). Now mix the flours together.
Step 2) – Stir with a fork (or if you prefer with a whisk) and gradually add the water at room temperature. Start with 370 ml, adding the rest of the water only if the dough requires it. You’ll need to get a soft dough.
Step 3) – Now sprinkle a handful of flour over the dough then cover with cling film and let rise in the oven (closed and off) for about 2-3 hours, the time necessary for the dough to triple in volume.
WHY THE DOUGH IN THE OVEN? The dough for bread, pizza or focaccia rises better and faster in a humid and warm environment, around 28 ° C (82 F), so this is the quickest and most handy solution. TIP: if the oven is too cold and you want to speed up the rising times, turn on the oven light.
Step 4) – As you can see, the dough has risen well and is very soft. Now turn the dough over on a floured work surface.
How to Fold Bread Dough
Step 5) – Don’t worry if the dough is soft, dust your hands and make two wallet-style folds, from left to right and vice versa. Then, still with floured hands, make two more folds from top to bottom and vice versa.
How to Shape Homemade Bread
Step 6) – In this step, sprinkle a little flour on the surface, lift the dough and turn it, so as to find the surface without folds above. Now with a sharp and long knife, cut 3 loaves of equal size.
Step 7) – With floured hands, lift the loaves from the ends and place each loaf in a large oven pan lined with parchment paper and lightly dusted with flour.
Then, always with floured hands, shape the sides and give the round shape to the ends of the loaves of bread. Sprinkle the loaves with a final handful of flour. If you want, with the same method, you can also make just 2 large loaves of bread or smaller ones (left ph.).
Now the loaves of bread must rise. Therefore, as before, place the bread to rise in the oven (off and closed) for about 1 hour / 1 hour and a half, until they double in volume.
The dough will not rise only in height but also in width, so at the end of the rising, you will see that the loaves will have stuck together. Don’t worry; it will be enough to separate them using a knife and flour, then give them back their shape by pressing them sideways and they are ready to be cooked (right ph.).
How to Bake Bread in the Oven at Home so Perfect
Step 8) – Preheat the oven to 250 ° C (482 F) and only when it’s very hot, enter the pan with the bread, in the lower part, in contact with the base of the oven. Cook for about 12 minutes. Then move the pan to the center of the oven and cook the loaves for 5 minutes.
Finally, without opening the oven, lower the temperature to 230 ° C (446 F) and allow to complete the cooking for another 5 minutes, until golden brown bread. Remove from the oven and let cool 5 minutes.
Homemade crusty Italian bread is ready! As good as that of the baker or even better because you did it!
How to Store Homemade Crusty Italian Bread
Double bag
Paper bag + plastic bag: to keep the bread fresh and crispy for 2-3 days, you can put it first in a paper food bag, then in a plastic bag. The humidity that the bread releases is absorbed by the paper bag and the plastic bag will limit its exposure to the air, preventing it from becoming hard;
White, soft and damp cloth
Wrap the bread in a white cloth, close all sides well and keep it in an open bread container, away from heat sources: the product remains crunchy and does not lose its original characteristics;
Freezer
If you realize you’ve made too much bread, your best bet is to freeze it. So store it in plastic bags suitable for food, close well and freeze. When you decide to eat it, it’s enough to take it out of the freezer a few hours ahead of time and let it thaw at room temperature without a bag. DO NOT defrost in the microwave.
What is the Best Flour to Make Bread?
Type 1 Flour and Type 2 Flour
They contain a fairly high amount of bran and wheat germ which make these flours rich in nutrients useful for the body. Type 1 Flour and Type 2 Flour have a high percentage of protein (12%) in particular gliadin and glutenin, the gluten proteins.
They alone are perfect for making bread, pizza and focaccia. Known as “bread flour” or “pizza flour”, when you buy them, always check the percentage of protein that must be equal to or greater than 12%.
White whole wheat
It’s another type of flour excellent for making homemade bread, rich in natural fibers. It has a high percentage of proteins (12%).
Manitoba flour
It’s considered a special flour because it absorbs even 90% of the liquid and is used to increase the effectiveness of weaker flours such as “00”. Rich in protein, it’s often used to make bread, because with it the crumb is soft, airy and open.
“00” Flour
We tend to use the “00” flour considering the absolute best but in reality the flour for the bread should have a higher gluten strength than “00”, otherwise it will fail to rise properly.
The “00” flour is obtained by macerating the innermost part of the wheat seed and contains practically nothing since in the grinding process all elements rich in fiber, vitamins and mineral salts are eliminated.
It’s low in protein (maximum 9%) and used alone is not suitable for products that require long leavening as bread.
Do you gave a recipe for pizza dough?
Hi Lori
Here you can find our pizza dough recipe!
Hi there!
I want to give this a try – looks delish! The closest to any of the flour types mentioned that I can find locally is Pillsbury Bread Flour, 12% protein. Can I use this for the full volume of flour needed in this recipe? Thanks for your help!
Hi Micki!
Sure try it! Then let us know how it is your bread! 😀
What I want to know is if Farina D’America Manitoba flour
is good for making crusty home made Italian bread.
Farina D’America Manitoba is perfect Charlie! Go ahead and make a great Italian bread!
question…i am trying to find a receipe close to my Italian grandmothers….i remember that there was definately NO sugar…can i skip the sugar? the rest sounds similar. She used to raise the dough twice and beat it down twice and then raise it a final time in the bread pan….this ended in a loaf that was very airy. My grandfather made his own and only beat it once because he liked his bread less airy….wondering what your opinion is on the beating it down and on the sugar…
Hello Sidney,
So as for sugar, nowadays it is often used together with yeast to make bread and pizza dough. The main function of sugar in dough is to provide nourishment to the yeast so that its metabolism receives the energy necessary to allow a dough to increase its volume. Making it simply: sugar activates yeast.
Having said that, I too remember that my grandmother didn’t use sugar to make bread. And I also remember that she kneaded the bread dough at least 2 or 3 times and that she made it rise up to 12 hours.
Today, I would say fortunately, we can take advantage of different and special flours to make bread dough, but also pizza (the doughs are similar and we will soon provide you with the recipe). With manitoba flour, for example, you have a more airy dough that lives up in a short time. With the help of sugar, the process is even faster. In a few hours you can eat homemade bread without making a lot of effort or waiting many hours. Then if you use the oven trick, letting the bread dough rise covered in the oven when is off, the times are even shorter (see step 3).
So, what about, welcome to modern times? 😉
In the end, you can skip sugar and use flour “1” or “2” if you prefer, which were more or less what my grandmother used (at that time the flours were not as refined as they are nowadays. Read the last paragraph: “what is the best flour to make bread”). Have patience because the rising times will probably be longer; proceed following the doses of this recipe. Let us know the result!