Home > Artisan Bread Recipes > Homemade Neapolitan Bread
by Lorraine
(Brooklyn, NY)
Ingredients:
16 oz. bread flour
72% hydration
11.52 oz. water
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Biga
6 oz. flour
4.32 oz. water ( 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon )
1/4 tsp inst. yeast
Dough
10 oz. flour
7.2 oz. water
3/4 tsp yeast
1 1/2 tsp. salt
Directions:
Mix biga in container large enough to hold 3 times the volume. Leave at room temperature for 8-24 hours, covered. When you are ready to bake add all the water to the biga and mix well. Then the yeast, mix well, then the flour and salt.
Leave for 20-30 minutes to absorb all the flour. Begin kneading by hand or machine for 7-10 minutes , dough will be soft but not sticky. Let rise until doubled, then gently press to deflate. Divide in 2 pieces, preshape and rest 10-20 minutes.
Shape into round or thick log shape (filone or palatone) on lightly floured surface. Let rise in warm, moist environment until almost doubled. Check by pressing gently, the indent should rise slowly.
Preheat oven 475 degrees with water pan already in there from when you first put on the oven. If you want to score round make 2 lines across and 2 lines down like tic-tac-toe design, to score filone 1 long cut. You make the scoring you want, but it does affect the crust.
Bake 10 minutes at 475 the lower to 450 for approximately 20-25 minutes. Test for doneness with thermometer.
Comments for Homemade Neapolitan bread
Dec 19, 2013
hydration 72%
by: Ms. Perfetto
Bread flour absorbs more water that all-purpose flour. This is the recipe I use for very crunchy crust Italian bread. One pound of flour ( 16 oz.) fills more that 2 cups . Use a lower hydration – 66% – 68% if you’d like to try the recipe again. I wish you great success with the recipe. I already explained that it forms a very crunchy crust.
Dec 09, 2013
72% hydration bread
by: Cathy (breadexperience)
Hi Nan, I haven’t made this particular bread but it’s a 72% hydration bread which means it’s a very wet dough. This bread sounds similar to Ciabatta which is a very wet dough as well. It makes great tasting bread but it is a bit tricky to work with. If you want to see how to work with a wet dough, refer to this post on making ciabatta. https://www.breadexperience.com/2010/12/ciabatta-with-olive-oil-wheat-germ.html
Happy Baking!
Cathy
Dec 08, 2013
Neapolitan Bread Ingredients
by: Nan from STL
I tried Lorraine’s Neapolitan Bread recipe and it was way too wet after adding the “Dough” to the “Biga” I’m wondering if the amounts are correct. Almost 12 oz of water to 2 cups of flour total sounds a bit too much. Would appreciate any other comments because I would really like to make better tasting homemade bread.
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