Schiaciattas.
Ingredients
BIGA
- 1/2 cup (4 ounces) lukewarm water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/16 teaspoon instant yeast (pinch)
- heaping 3/4 cup (3 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
Blend the biga ingredients till well combined. Cover the bowl, and let the biga rest, at cool room temperature, overnight. It will grow and become bubbly.
DOUGH
- all of the biga (above)
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 cup (8 ounces) lukewarm water
- 2 tablespoons (7/8 ounce) olive oil
- 3 tablespoons (1 3/8 ounces) sugar
- 3 3/4 cups (15 3/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt or 1 1/4 teaspoons table salt
TOPPING
- olive oil
- .5 pounds of raisin
- .5 pounds of dried prunes
- 4 tbsp of sugar
- 1 tbsp of cinnamon
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup (2 3/4 to 4 ounces) Sambuca liqueur (optional, but traditional and good)
- Mix all of the dough ingredients, then knead for 3 to 4 minutes, using an electric mixer or bread machine. Or knead with your hands for about 5 minutes. Since this dough is going to ferment for quite awhile, you don’t want to knead it fully; the gluten will continue to develop as the dough rises. Place the dough in a bowl, cover it, and allow it to rise for about 3 hours. Once an hour, pick up the dough, gently deflate it, and return it to the bowl upside-down from how it was when you picked it up. This is called a turn; it helps distribute the yeast and yeast food.
- Preheat your oven to 450°F, using a baking stone if you have one. Divide the dough into three pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough to a 1/8-inch thick, 12-inch circle. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces. Ed. note: Jen says she rolls the dough on a floured work surface to about 8 inches in diameter, then picks it up, drapes it over her hands, and stretches it over the backs of her hands to about 12 inches–the way you would when making strudel.
- Place the dough rounds on cornmeal-dusted parchment, or onto a cornmeal dusted baking sheet. Allow them to rise, covered, for about 20 minutes.
- Working with one piece of dough at a time, brush its entire surface with olive oil, then spread fruits over the dough, leaving a 1-inch border around the edge. U Sprinkle the fruits with 2 to 3 tablespoons Sambuca, brush the exposed edge of dough with additional olive oil and cinnamon sugar , and place the bread in the oven (preferably onto a baking stone, leaving it on the parchment if you’re using a stone). Bake for 8 minutes, then remove the parchment, if the schiacciata is on a stone. Bake for an additional 3 minutes, until the schiaciatta is golden brown. While the first bread is baking, prepare the second one. When the schiacciata is done, remove it from the oven, and place it on a rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining schiacciatas. Yield: three 12-inch schiaciattas.
