Pane francese is italian and means french bread. It is the Italian version of baguette. Having the look of a ciabatta, the crumb is similar to a baguette.

It is a very tasty bread with a rustic look, that contains a small amount of whole wheat flour and such a minimal amount of yeast, that I really doubted that the dough would rise.  But never underestimate these small creatures. The long fermentation period give them enough time to proliferate and the bread had a nice oven spring.

Pane Francese

Yield 8 loaves of  250g

Poolish:

• 250g Water
• 250g  flour (Typ 550)
• 1g  yeast

Dough:

• 800g  flour (Typ 550)
• 200g  whole wheat flour
• 750g  water
• 25 g salt
• 1g  yeat

Mix water, flour and yeast for the poolish and ferment it overnight (10 to 12 hours).

The next mornig: Knead flour, 700g water and poolish  untill it is homogeneus (aroung 1 min). Let rest for 1/2 hour (Autolysis). In the meantime disolve the yeast in the remaing water.

After Autolysis: Knead the dough for 5 min, now add the salt and the yeast-water in small portions. Wait untill one portions is complete incorporated before adding the next one.

The dough is a little bit sticky now, but that is ok.

Now place the dough in a good oiled container and ferment for 3 hours. Give the dough three folds during this time.

Folding: Flour your countertop and  put the dough on it. Flat the dough carefully to a square. Now fold the right and the left side to the middle, then from button and top, too. You can find a nice tutorial here.

After proofing flat the dough carefully to a square (around 3 cm thick), cover the surface with flour and cut it in 8 Strips. Strech each stripe to a length of 35 cm.

Proof  them for 45 min.

In the meantime heat baking stone in the oven to 250°C.

Bake the loaves on the hot stone for 25 min with steam, until the crust is golden brown.

Wer viele beeindruckende Brote sehen möchte, sollte Susans wöchentliches Yeastspotting besuchen.