Bread from Ticino

The recipe for this simple and tasty bread has been familiar to me for a long time. It appears on our table quite often, not only because of its excellent taste, but also because of its attractive appearance. There is no need to cut the bread from Ticino: an appetizing loaf is easily divided into portioned airy buns with a thin crust and the most delicate crumb - it's so convenient!

This wheat bread comes from the Italian canton of Switzerland - Ticino / Tessin. According to sources, there he is known under the name Bread of Ticino (Pain tessinois, Tessiner Brot). Most likely, this beautiful and tasty pastry came to Switzerland from Italy (riia pan means lined up). I strongly advise you to try homemade Ticino bread made with your own hands.

Ingredients

• Wheat flour of the highest grade (400 grams)
• Water (230 milliliters)
• Vegetable oil (2 tablespoons)
• Salt (1 teaspoon)
• Sugar (1 teaspoon)
• Fast acting yeast (0.5 teaspoon)

Directions

1. The recipe for this simple and delicious homemade bread includes wheat flour (I have the highest grade), water, salt, sugar, refined vegetable (I use sunflower) oil and fast-acting yeast. Yeast is suitable not only fast-acting - you can take dry (also half a teaspoon without a slide - this is about 1.5 grams) or pressed (you need 3 times more, that is, about 5 grams). Such yeast is not immediately mixed with flour, but pre-activated in a warm sweetish liquid for 10-15 minutes. In our case, you can slightly warm up half a glass of water with a teaspoon of sugar and dissolve the yeast in it. Remember that high temperatures kill yeast, so do not heat the water too much!
2. In a dish suitable for kneading and fermenting the dough, sift (preferably twice) wheat flour. Thanks to this, the flour will not only be loosened and saturated with oxygen, but possible debris will also go away.
3. Add sugar, fast-acting yeast and fine salt to the wheat flour. Mix everything well with a fork or whisk so that the additives are evenly distributed over the flour.
4. We make a depression in the flour mixture and pour lukewarm water into it (in terms of temperature, it should not be hot, but pleasantly warm for the hands).
5. At the initial stage of kneading the yeast dough, you can simply stir all the ingredients with a spoon or fork so that the flour is moistened by absorbing the liquid. If you want, you can immediately knead the dough with your hands. If you have a bread maker or dough mixer, be sure to use their help - it's faster and easier. Then add vegetable oil and knead the dough.
6. You need to knead the dough for this bread for a relatively short time (the kneader will handle it in 5-6 minutes, and you will have to work with your hands for about 10 minutes). As a result, it will become smooth, homogeneous, completely non-sticky and elastic enough. We round the dough into a ball and put it in a bowl, which we literally grease with a drop of vegetable oil so that it does not stick to the dishes during fermentation. We send the dough to heat until it doubles in volume at least. This can take 30 minutes or more than an hour - it all depends on the activity of the yeast. Where is the best place for dough to roam and what does a warm place mean? There are several options. First of all, in the oven with the light on (it turns out about 28-30 degrees - the ideal temperature for fermenting yeast dough). Then we tighten the bowl with the dough with cling film or cover it with a towel made of natural fabric (linen is best suited) so that the surface does not wind up and does not become covered with a crust. You can also let the dough ferment in the microwave, in which we first bring a glass of water to a boil. The dough will rise with the door closed, and the glass will stand in the same place. Then the bowl does not need to be closed with anything, since the water will evaporate, thereby maintaining the necessary humidity. Just make sure that no one accidentally turns on the microwave, otherwise the dough will disappear and there will be no homemade bread.
7. After 1 hour, the yeast dough grew in volume by 2.5 times. It has become much softer, more airy and looser.
8. Lightly sprinkle the work surface with wheat flour, divide the dough into 10 parts (I like 5 buns in a loaf the most) of the same size and roll each into a ball.
9. Cover the baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly dust it with wheat flour. We shift the blanks onto it in such a way that we get 2 caterpillars - each with 5 balls of dough. Sprinkle a little flour on top of the workpiece.
10. Cover the future bread from Ticino with a light towel or cling film. Let it stand in warmth for about an hour or until the balls increase in volume by about 1.5 times.
11. About 20 minutes before the start of baking, turn on the oven to warm up - 240 degrees. Since there is no baking in this yeast dough, we will bake the bread at a high temperature and high humidity, that is, steam. Steam can be created in two ways. Firstly, just throw a few large ice cubes into an already heated oven at the very bottom. Or put a bowl of water on the bottom of the oven in advance. Immediately before planting in a hot oven, it is imperative to make shallow cuts along the entire length of the workpieces - they will open during the baking process. To do this, you can use a new blade or a very sharp knife.
12. We bake Ticino bread at 240 degrees on an average level for about 30 minutes until beautifully browned. As with rich products, there will be no rich golden crust.
13. Remove the finished loaves from the baking sheet and cool on the wire rack. From the specified amount of ingredients used, two products are obtained, each weighing 315 grams.
14. When the Ticino bread has cooled, we break off a bun for ourselves and enjoy fragrant, tender and very tasty homemade cakes. Bon appetit, friends!