How do you make Italian bread? Chewy on the inside, crusty on the outside, and light throughout?

Answer 1

Sweet Italian Bread
2 tablespoons yeast -- or2 small envelopes
3 cups very warm water
3 tablespoons oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
10 cups white flour -- up to 11

Dissolve the yeast in the very warm water. Add oil, eggs, salt
and sugar. Let foam for a few minutes. Add enough flour to make dough smooth. Place in a LARGE greased bowl (I reuse the mixing bowl) and turn the dough to coat it. Cover, let rise for 1 1/2 hours while you do something else! Punch down the dough. Turn over, let rise another 30 minutes. Cut dough into 5 or 6 portions (more if you want a smaller loaf
size). Let rise 10 minutes. Flatten dough, pressing out all of the air (yes that's right, flatten it!). Form into loaves and place on a greased floured baking sheet (or in greased floured loaf pans). Cover, let rise 1 more hour. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Enjoy! (You can let loaves
cool and wrap them, put in ziploc bags and freeze to thaw, leave at
room temperature for an hour or wrap in foil and stick in a 300 degree
oven for 1/2 hour or so if serving hot)

Answer 2

More than the recipe, it is the ovens! You can achieve these effects most easily with a brick oven, possible with a commercial oven... very hard if not impossible to do with a home oven. You can bake very good bread at home, but that special texture you are talking about is an old-world technique that requires the intense radiant heat of an old-style brick oven, or a very expensive professional/commercial oven built to immitate those conditions. I bake A LOT, and I can't achieve that crusty/chewy artisan texture even though I can bake very good tasting bread (the crust isn't the same, the chewyness isn't either). A home oven just can't do it. This is also the same reason that if you bake pizza in your home oven you don't get that Brooklyn brick oven crusty-texture (even using the same dough recipe). This is also the same reason that home-baked Nan (flat bread from India) doesn't come out the same as from the Indian restaurant with a Tandoori oven (brick oven). Brick is the best. Definately bake bread at home, but don't feel bad if you still have to go to Panera to satisfy your crust cravings.

Answer 3

¼ hours 45 min prep
Change to: Loaves US Metric
5 1/2-6 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 packages active dry yeast (about 5 teaspoons)
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1 3/4 cups very warm water (120°-130°F)
cornmeal
oil (peanut or light olive)
1 egg white
1 tablespoon cold water

Not the one? See other Italian Bread Recipes
Oven Yeast Breads
Low Fat Yeast Breads
Italian Yeast Breads
Historical/Traditional Yeast Breads
In large bowl thoroughly mix 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, salt and undissolved yeast.
Add butter.
Gradually add warm water to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes with mixer at medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally.
Add 3/4 cup flour.
Beat at high speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.
Stir in enough additional flour to make a stiff dough.
Turn dough onto a lightly floured board and knead until smooth and elastic (about 8-10 minutes).
Cover dough with plastic wrap and then a towel and let it rest for 20 minutes.
To make loaves: Divide dough in half.
Roll each half into a 15x10 inch rectangle.
Starting at wide side, roll up tightly; pinch seam to seal.
Taper ends by rolling gently back and forth.
To make rolls: Divide dough into 6 equal pieces.
Roll each piece into a rectangle 8x5 inches.
Starting with wide side, roll up tightly; pinch seam to seal.
Taper ends.
Place the shaped dough seam side down on greased baking sheets sprinkled with cornmeal.
Brush dough with oil.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate 2-24 hours.
When ready to bake, remove from refrigerator and uncover carefully.
Let dough stand at room temperature for 10 minutes.
Make 3 or 4 diagonal slits in dough with a sharp knife or razor blade.
Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes for rolls, 20 minutes for loaves.
Remove from oven and brush with egg white beaten with cold water.
Return to oven; bake 5-10 minutes longer, or until golden.
**Note: I sometimes add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon (adjust amounts to your preferences) of dried oregano OR basil OR rosemary to the dry ingredients.
Sometimes I also add 1 bulb (head) of roasted garlic cloves to the dry ingredients.
To roast garlic: Peel as much of the outer skin away as possible, leaving the cloves unpeeled and the head intact (optional: trim the tips of the cloves off to expose the"meat" to the oil).
Place head (s) in covered casserole or on a piece of heavy aluminum foil.
Drizzle with olive oil, and bake covered at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes (mine takes over an hour in a terra-cotta garlic baker), or until cloves are soft and can be squeezed easily out of their skins.
Let roasted garlic cool before adding to the flour for the bread.