Dana Cowin: I like making bread at home. My
bread is always flat. Chad Pagano: Time and temperature with yeast
means everything. What we're going to make is what's called a pre-ferment today,
specifically a biga, the traditional Italian pre-ferment.
Start with some room temperature
water here. Take our SAF yeast and simply broadcast it over the top of the water and
just give it a little stir. The SAF yeast, it tends to break up real quick and that's
ready to go, just pour it over. The goal here is even distribution of the liquid throughout
the dry.
Dana Cowin: So, what would have happened if
the water had been warmer? Chad Pagano: The most important thing about
bread is long, slow fermentation. The warmer we get that water, the faster the fermentation.
The fermentation is where the true body of the bread comes out. Get our hands in here,
we'll turn it on to itself and I do this right in the bowl. Now, we're just going to put
this aside. We're going to give it, oh, I don't know, 10 to 17 hours at this point.
Dana Cowin: Oh my goodness, it's a two-day process.
Chad Pagano: It's a process, it's a two-day process and through the magic of TV, if you
come down here, we have one that's been setting for exactly 17 hours now.
Dana Cowin: Goodness, Okay. Chad Pagano: Fully matured, fermented, ready
to go, go ahead and mix our dough. The pre-ferment should be thought of as a liquid, this is
our flavor and our structure to that bread and also it's going to give us the rising
ability. An additional measurement of water. We have more SAF yeast.
Dana Cowin: Oh. Chad Pagano: Take our flour, put that over
our biga and then very important, our salt. I'm trying to keep the salt for the time being
away from my fermentation which is underneath here.
Dana Cowin: Okay Chad Pagano: Right?
Dana Cowin: And why is that? Chad Pagano: If used improperly, we'll kill
the yeast, it'll kill your fermentation. When the proper amount is used at the proper point
in the dough, you're going to get a control of your fermentation. Start turning this and
you're going to feel how nice and soft that biga is. We're back to that ropey state where
it's just kind of pulling together. You need to knead it. Kneading, it's a real personal
undertaking, but three things need to happen. We need to have a fold.
Dana Cowin: Fold. Chad Pagano: We need to have a turn.
Dana Cowin: And a turn. Chad Pagano: And we need to have a stretch
Dana Cowin: Stretch. Chad Pagano: somewhere in there. If I kind
of do those folds nice and small a couple of times and while I'm doing it, do you
see how I elongated it kind of this way? Dana Cowin: Yeah.
Chad Pagano: I got a little stretch in, now I turn and I pull it back, and work that until
it becomes nice and smooth. Move this to a lightly oiled bowl and now we're going into
a secondary fermentation, about 4 hours. Turning the dough is folding it over itself into quarters
and turning the dough over. Once it's turned approximately two times during that four-hour
period, we'll be ready to work with this dough. Dana Cowin: That's fantastic.
Chad Pagano: It's been four hours, we're going to turn this into focaccia. Try not to use
any bench flour at this point. Dana Cowin: The holes--the fermentation is
so beautiful. Chad Pagano: Yup, you can use a nice, sharp
knife to divide this dough, cut, cut and just slightly pull away. We're going to use a lot
of olive oil. So this bread actually fries as it's baking. And that's what's going to
give us that beautiful, crispy, fried, crust. Use, I would say, exactly that much oil and
we'll just pick this dough up, put it right on here. Le's turn it over so it's oiled on
both sides. We're going to use our fingers, open our hands, open our fingers, spread our
fingers apart. Don't be afraid to dimple the dough. Let it naturally go where it wants
to go, lean on it and turn your hands, to walk it into the corner.
Dana Cowin: Mine is springing back. Chad Pagano: I think you're being cautious,
that's all. You're worried about it, attack it, we're going to top this. Now you could
use any toppings you want. Proofing is the final fermentation before baking. Put it on
top of your refrigerator somewhere where you're generating some heat. Cover it with a warm
damp towel and let it rise. At room temperature, it's going to take about an hour. So, we're
all proofed up, a little salt and black pepper and we are ready to go to the oven. We want
to create steam in our oven. Now our Bongard deck oven here has steam injection.
Dana Cowin: I don't have steam injection. Chad Pagano: 99 cents spray bottle is all
you need, room temperature water, mist right over the bread onto the side of your oven
and that will create the steam necessary to allow our bread to rise without forming the
crust too quickly. Dana Cowin: Do you only spray it once?
Chad Pagano: I may do this three or four times. All right Dana, so, we're out of the oven.
It's got a chewiness, tasty olive oil, potato is very nice, the savoriness of the potato,
I love it. [music 0:05:17.5]
[Audio Ends] Vanan Group of Companies