PORTUGUESE FARM BREAD RECIPE | EPICURIOUS.COM

Portuguese Farm Bread Recipe | Epicurious.com image

(Pão) Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Jean Anderson's book Process This!. Anderson also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Anderson and Portuguese cuisine, click here. What I wanted to do here was turn the food processor into a bread machine, that is, to see if I could proof the yeast, mix and knead the dough, even let it rise in the processor. I'm pleased to say that it worked perfectly. I don't recommend this technique for bigger batches of yeast dough, for more complex recipes, and certainly not for wimpy food processors with small work bowls (you need at least an 11-cup capacity). For this simple five-ingredient loaf, however, a big, powerful machine does it all. This "daily bread" of Portugal is both crusty and chewy thanks to the steam ovens in which it's baked (I bake my bread at very high temperature over a shallow pan of water). Because Portuguese flours are milled of hard wheat, I've fortified our softer-wheat all-purpose flour with semolina and find the texture exactly right. This dough is unusually stiff and for that reason I use the metal chopping blade throughout ? the stubby dough blade merely spins the dough against the sides of the work bowl. I also use high-speed churning throughout (the ON button) instead of a "dough mode" because it does a better job of developing the gluten (wheat protein) that forms the framework of this bread.

Provided by @MakeItYours

Number Of Ingredients 5

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Ingredients

1 tablespoon active dry yeast
3/4 cup unsifted semolina (durum) flour
1 cup very warm water (110° to 115°F)
3 cups sifted unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

Steps:

Combine the yeast, semolina flour, and water by churning 10 seconds in a large heavy-duty food processor fitted with the metal chopping blade. Scrape down the sides of the work bowl, re-cover, and let stand until foamy, about 15 minutes.
With the machine running, add half the all-purpose flour down the feed tube. It's easier if you pour the flour from a spouted measuring cup into a wide-mouth canning funnel inserted in the feed tube or failing that, a stiff piece of paper rolled into a cone (the opening at the bottom should be at least 1 inch across).
Using a plastic spatula, scrape the work bowl, and if necessary, redistribute the dough so that it evenly surrounds the blade take care! Add the salt and remaining flour, distributing evenly over the dough, and churn for 10 seconds. Again scrape the work bowl and redistribute the dough.
Churn the dough for 20 seconds nonstop, shut the machine off, and let the dough rest in the sealed work bowl for 5 minutes. Now churn for another 20 seconds.
Leaving the blade in place, carefully redistribute the dough until it's of uniform thinness. Re-cover the work bowl, keeping the pusher in. Note the level of the dough in bulk, estimate what it should be when doubled in bulk, and mark that level on the side of the work bowl.
Let the dough rise in the sealed work bowl until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, lightly coat an 8-inch springform pan or 8-inch pie pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
When the dough has fully doubled, pulse quickly 4 to 5 times to punch down, then churn for 20 seconds nonstop. Let the dough rest in the sealed work bowl for 5 minutes, then churn for another 20 seconds. The dough will roll into a ball and leave the sides of the work bowl reasonably clean.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, shape into a ball, then roll in the flour to dust lightly. Place the loaf in the prepared pan, cover with a clean, dry dish towel, and set in a warm, dry spot until nearly doubled in bulk this will take about 30 minutes.
When the dough has risen for 10 minutes, position one rack in the middle of the oven and slide a second rack in the slot just below. Place a large shallow baking pan on the lower rack I use a 15 1/2 X 10 1/2 X 1-inch jelly roll pan and half-fill with water. Preheat the over to 500°F.
Center the risen loaf on the middle rack and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 400°F and continue baking until richly browned and hollow sounding when thumped, 20 to 25 minutes longer.
Remove the bread from the pan as soon as it comes from the oven, set right-side-up on a wire rack, and cool to room temperature before cutting.
Jean Anderson shares her tips with Epicurious:
"A big, heavy-duty food processor will make easy work of this chewy, stiff dough," says Anderson. Be sure yours is up to the task before you embark on this recipe, and feel free to divide the dough in half if your work bowl has less than an 11-cup capacity.
The most important thing to bear in mind when making bread in a food processor is that the machine can overheat and kill the yeast. Avoid this by pulsing the dough in stages rather than just pressing the "on" button. If you're concerned, touch the dough if it feels quite warm, let it rest for a few minutes before you process it any more.
For an authentic, chewy crust, the dough should be blasted with heat as soon as it's put in the oven. To ensure that your oven is hot enough, start preheating it at least 20 minutes before you bake.
"Bread really is the staff of life in Portugal," says Anderson, "and economic Portuguese cooks have devised numerous recipes to use up every last crumb. Stale pão is perfect for açorda de mariscos, a dry bread and shellfish soup into which eggs are stirred just before serving." Anderson's book The Food of Portugal has a recipe for this, as well as for sopa dourada, a sweet bread pudding.
Reprinted with permission from Process This! New Recipes for the New Generation of Food Processors Plus Dozens of Time-Saving Tips, © 2002 by Jean Anderson, HarperCollins Publishing, Inc.