[Sicilian Crusty Bread Recipes
Melvin Amey
Martha is part of the husband-wife team that creates A Family Feast. She loves to cook and entertain for family and friends, and she believes that serving a great meal is one of the best ways to show someone that you care. Martha is a self-taught home cook, who loves to read cookbooks and try new recipes. After a decades-long career in business and online marketing, she now runs A Family Feast full-time. Her specialties are baking, desserts, vegetables and pasta dishes.
I am ready to make the Pane Siciliano and have a question on step 6 for day 2. After dividing into 3 am I rolling into a 2 foot long log vs. roll? Then is the crease lengthwise on the log and I am folding over and sealing such that I end up with a 2 foot long roll again?
Finally, a local craft bakery called the Crust has a similar bread only they add toasted sesame into the dough as well as spinkled on the outside. Thought that would be interesting and wondered if you ever tried that.
And Friends! Guess what? It worked! By dimpling only throughout the center of the dough, the focaccia base baked mostly evenly, making it easy to spread toppings and cheese over the top. And the finished crust, even under the weight of sauce, cheese, and a heap of sauted vegetables and pepperoni, baked up light and airy, just like focaccia.
Making great Sicilian-style pizza is a real balancing act. As noted above, the parbake was the piece of the puzzle that allowed everything to work for me, giving the unencumbered high-hydration dough time to stabilize while ensuring the toppings that would eventually blanket it did not overcook. But there are a few more keys to making good Sicilian pizza every time. In sum:
Then stretch it again to fit the pan. At this point, the dough can hang out in the pan for several hours. Cover it with plastic wrap to ensure the dough does not dry out if you plan on doing so. Dimple one last time throughout the center of the dough before transferring it to the oven to parbake it.
The base of this recipe is this overnight, refrigerator focaccia dough. If would like to make a sourdough version, follow the recipe for this simple sourdough focaccia bread recipe through step 5; then proceed with the recipe.
Alex, Just saw this sight and am going to try this one out. Looks good. By the way, I went to school with John Arena and went to the store they had in Franklin Square many years ago, the Centurion. If you see John Say hello for me.
This is the recipe my family requests whenever I offer to bring a dish to a party. From the first time I made this recipe until now everyone has loved it. Having said that is there a way to scale this up for an 1826 sheet pan? I feel kind of guilty when I make this at large family gatherings and not everyone gets a chance to have some because it gets eaten so quickly. Thank you for all your great recipes!
Detroit is a very specific style and has a fair amount of rule: upside-down layering of toppings (toppings, cheese, sauce last); specific pan; cheese frico crust; Wisconsin Brick cheese; etc. You can read more about it here: How to Make Homemade Detroit-Style Pizza
Looks fantastic and mighty authentic. Many recipes for NY Style pizza incorrectly omit the long cold rise of the dough, those folks might as well give up and use graham crackers for crust. Some of the best places in Brooklyn let the dough rise with a very light coating of sauce on them and then par-bake it. Your recipe is fantastic.
This is a question for the recipes in your book. To make a smaller Sicilian pizza, could you split the dough and use a 1212 pan? Or would another size work better? I do have heavy dark 99 cake pans, too.
Hi Marie and apologies for the delay here! I think the 1212 pan for half the amount of dough will make for a much thinner pizza, which is fine, but just something to keep in mind. I think the 99-pan is probably the better size for half the dough. Thank you for your kind words!
I like to use the Italian Flour Tipo 00 instead of all-purpose. But if I am out of Tipo 00 I use All-Purpose and that works fine too. I bake bread 2 -3 times a week because of how ridiculously simple this recipe is. The kids love it when they see it in the oven. No fancy bread machine, no electric mixer. I use just a fork and my hands.
A lot of bread recipes suggest using bottled water for baking because mineral or saline content would affect the flavor of the dough though not necessarily the proofing. If you add the sugar directly to the tepid water it gives the instant yeast nutrients for activation (method 2) but if the water is too hot the yeast dies (it produces a sour funky odor when this happens). You want the yeast to float on the water with minimal stirring and after about 10 minutes there should be a slightly rounded, irregularly bubbled froth (resembling sea form) on the top. Once your yeast is active you can add it to the dry ingredients.
I followed the recipe and let it rise twice, but it turned out flat, dense and dry :( Not sure what went wrong? I think I may have used a little to less yeast (was running low, might have been a bit closer to two teaspoons.
I sometimes just sprinkle the baking pan with cornmeal. NOT cornstarch. Actual cornmeal, and lay the bread on top. It protects the bottom (a little) from over browning and gives a nice crunch. The cornmeal is next to the flour in the baking aisle.
I am from Long Island, NY. I grew up with Italian bread that my mother bought weekly, from a Brooklyn man, who baked the bread in a hot outdoor, wood burning oven. I followed your recipe and your bread taste just as DELICIOUS! Bravo! Also, the texture is rustic. Soft inside but crunchy, crispy, just perfect crust. We eat it with olive oil, butter, garlic and various kinds of humus. I have a mixer for bread but never needed it for the recipe and never will. There is so little cleanup with this delicious recipe. The mixer could not make the bread any better in taste or texture. Thank you.
My kids love it when I bake a bread. Thanks for the the note that I can use wheat flour its a great + as I am trying to reduce the use of maida or APF at home. I am bookmarking your recipe for its simple andI love the way you have explained it.
@Nicole, glad to hear that the flavor worked out. The weather also has a lot to do with this recipe. There are times that I will put the bowl close to where I am cooking to get a bit of the warmth and it will rise higher. Also I have found if I mess with the dough too much it will not rise well. Hope some of this insight helps on your next go around :)
I was out of honey so I used a 1/8 cup of agave sweetener, and 1/2 cup more of water after combining the yeast water and flour since the dough seemed pretty dry, even though I only used 3/4 cup of flour for every 1 cup. However the wheat bread came out tasting great and very true to the pictures that have been posted. I also made it again using all purpose flour, again using an extra 1/2 cup of water when the dough turned out too dry. Came out pretty good :)
Thanks Kim for adding this, I do need to make a note on the recipe that the sugar activates the yeast and proofs it. Love your idea on letting the second rise happen on the pan for an instant loaf. I am going to try this out :)
Hi Kelly, When using an oat flour blend it can be a bit of trial and error. I would start by replacing 1/3 of the regular flour with your oat flour and work your way up from there. You may also need to adjust the amount of liquid to get it to the right consistency.
Thanks for a great recipe. I made it tonight and the texture was wonderful. I am also in Houston, and had to add over 1/2 cup more flour to make the dough less sticky so I could form the ball. I think next time I will reduce the water by 1/2 cup. I am also thinking that I will add a bit of honey or garlic powder for additional flavor.
Can this dough be frozen? There are just two of us and a full recipe makes way too much. I would like to split it and freeze half. Otherwise, I may experiment with making 1/2 recipe.
Brilliant absolutely brilliant, made perfectly even considering i live in a very cold wintery scotland! i only did the first rise but it still came out perfect, i actually made another dough the exact same but flattened it and made a beautiful italian flat bread with olive oil sea salt and fresh herbs! will be using this recipe time and time again! xxx
Thanks for the recipe! Made it tonight for my inlaws and it was enjoyed by all. I followed method 2 to activate the yeast. I also used a 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour (AP for the rest), mixed a little fresh rosemary into the dough, and sprinkled it with Alaskan sea salt before I baked it. About 22 minutes into the bake, I misted it with water, and misted water into the oven a couple more times every 3-4 minutes until done. This gave it a nice crisp crust as you expect from rustic Italian breads.
Hi Pam, I have not frozen this dough in particular but you can freeze dough in general. I will try it out myself this week and see what happens with this recipe. Once I have my notes on it I will update the recipe with it. In case you want to try it out before I post anything you would only let the dough rise once before you freeze it.
I made this bread tonight. TWO cups of water is WAY too much for 3 cups of flour. I thought so, but made it anyway. Big mistake. No way to salvage the mess it made. Is this recipe correct??????????????
Hi Kat, The water amount all depends on where you are. The trick is to add about 1/4 cup of water at a time until the dough is just a little wet. Some folks use the 2 cups some use less and some use more. Try it out again but add the water to the flour 1/4 cup at a time until the dough is just a little moist.
Carrie, I have tried both techniques with Caputo 00 Flour in my Kitchen Aid Mixer, the problem I am having is after the second rise, I split the dough and try to cook on my pizza stone in the oven and it is more like Foccacia rather than a loaf of bread. Putting olive oil on it, along with the pizza stone gives it a great crunch and the crumb is beautiful, just need to figure out what I can do to make it rise better.
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