Easy Italian Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What makes Italian bread different from regular bread? ›

Italian bread tends to include olive oil, herbs, and milk that add to its distinctive taste and texture.

Flour: Tipo 00 is a finely ground Italian flour that is considered the gold standard for pizza, pasta, and bread dough.

Focaccia is ½" to 1" thick with a light crust on the top and bottom. It's often described as "flatbread" or "Italian flat bread," but unlike the flat bread we're used to, it isn't flat at all, but thick and fluffy. The "flat" term in question simply refers to the pan in which it's baked compared to other breads.

Perhaps the most well-known and popular Italian bread, ciabatta is a slipper-shaped bread. It has a unique, almost plasticity, texture, which makes it possible to do practically anything with this bread.

According to Eva, the answer is that they use a different type of flour – Italian bread and pasta are made of durum wheat flour which doesn't spike your blood sugar levels as much and therefore it doesn't significantly contribute to weight gain as much as regular refined white flour would, for example.

French bread tends to be hard and crusty on the outside, with a light and soft crumb. Italian bread can also have a hard crust, but the crumb tends to be denser.

Too much extra flour worked into the dough while folding and/or shaping can cause dense bread. Over mixing can cause a dense loaf by the weakening and breakdown of the gluten (not likely to happen if you fold dough or hand knead). The flour you used is a whole grain with coarse bits of bran and grain in it.

Salt adds flavor to bread. If none or too little is used in a recipe, the bread will lack the right flavor and taste "bland." If you reduce the amount of salt, try adding some dried herbs to increase the flavor. Too much yeast in bread will give bread an off-taste.

Another difference is that 00 flour is made from durum wheat, while all-purpose flour is not. This means that all-purpose flour creates stretchier gluten strands and will tend towards producing a chewy pizza base, rather than a crispy one.

The name focaccia derives from the Roman “panis focacius,” meaning “hearth bread”, referring to the fact that focaccia was traditionally baked in coals in Roman times. Its recipe back then consisted of rough flour, olive oil, water, a very small quantity of yeast, and salt, and was probably quite plain.

What is Elvis bread? ›

This "Elvis" banana bread is loaded up with a smooth and creamy peanut butter glaze and brown sugar-candied bacon.

The name was given to the bread because of its flat, oval shape. Ciabatta in Italian means 'carpet slipper'.

Focaccia is a traditional type of Italian bread that is known for its fluffy and chewy texture and delicious flavour. Its origins date back to ancient Rome when it was known as "panis focacius".

Pane Siciliano is a traditional bread from Sicily made with durum wheat (semolina), sometimes a little olive oil (as I do in this recipe), and even sweeteners such as honey or barley malt syrup. The flavor is nutty, sweet, and with a buttery mouthfeel, thanks to the olive oil.

Bread is a good complement to soup or antipasto, and main courses (meat) or vegetable side dishes. Although it may seem odd, it's actually expected to use bits of bread to help other non-pasta food up onto your fork.

Like ordinary white bread, most are made from refined white flour. However, true French and Italian breads are made without added fat or shortening, so the calorie count could be marginally lower than a same-size slice of white bread.

Sourdough bread is healthier than Italian bread. Like the other bread types touched on thus far, Italian bread is made using commercial yeast. Since Italian bread does not traditionally use wild yeast that ferments slowly, Italian bread does not have the enhanced nutritional content that sourdough bread has.

It has yeast, water, oil and flour. But no salt. Without it, the bread has no flavour, but it also has a lighter crust and chewier texture. The reigning theory is that salt was taxed too heavily in medieval Florence, so bakers left it out.

In contrast, the flavor of Italian bread is savory and smokey. Being roasted in a flat stone oven is mostly to blame for this. To enhance the savory flavor, some Italian breads, like focaccia, are additionally sprinkled with herbs and spices.