Originally published at: http://breadtopia.com/sicilian-no-knead-bread/
This Sicilian no knead bread recipe holds a solid place on my short list of favorite no knead recipes. Huge thanks to its creator Ed Pillitteri from Seattle, who is generously sharing it with us. Serve with spaghetti, eggplant parmesan or lasagna and watch your family or guests weep with joy. Ed Pillitteri – Sicilian…
Feeling inspired by this recipe and reading the comments/tips, but living in the Netherlands with different produce, I wonder about 2 things; 1/ the flour. I have (and can easily get) durum semolina. My Komo mill arrived yesterday (yeah!), so I thought I could mill the semolina to get the flour. But since I haven’t read about this (to me) obvious work around, I was wondering if I was wrong in solving it like that? 2/ barley sirup. Completely unknown here in Holland! So I would have tot search and order on-line. That takes time, and I would like to bake today. Barley sirup doesn’t sounds European, which makes me wonder; what do they use in Sicily? Could one possibly substitute it with someting else that I cán get here?
Wow, I stand corrected! I CAN get barley malt sirup here! Fieuw!
I used my husband’s dry malt extract for beer brewing, otherwise followed the recipe. I also used the organic durum wheat from Breadtopia. Thank you, Breadtopia store!
Pics of
bubbles from the bulk fermentation
oiled saran wrap with seeds and shaped dough right before plopping into banneton
the crumb
I love the Sicilian style bread. Breadtopia sells Durum flour which i use with bread flour for the above and pizza dough.
Mike
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I have a question about the recipe - I don’t have access to the Barley Malt Syrup and really want to try this recipe. Can honey or corn syrup be substituted - I have the golden syrup on hand, or should molasses be used? The other question I have is that durum flour is hard to find as well - I might have to go to an Italian grocery store - am I looking for type “O” flour? I had purchased some durum flour but it is a fine grind of semolina and don’t know how to adjust this in the recipe, so I want to find durum flour.
Thanks, Sharon
As it happens, we sell both in our online shop here.
I made this mostly per the recipe … a measurement mistake in flour so I added a bit more liquid. Overall my dough looked wetter than Eric’s in the video. I used KAF Durum flour and Wheat Montana white flour (high protein) and the Eden barley malt syrup. After 12 hours at room temperature, I refrigerated for about 6 hours, pre-shaped and shaped cold, last rise 3 hours from cold in a cold kitchen (60F). Baked at 475 for 30 min in a Dutch Oven, reduced heat to 450 for lid off … 12 minutes plus another 4 with the oven door open and heat off.
I didn’t toast the seeds, added raw to top of dough. I added them heavy as I know from experience a lot get lost!
Result is delicious - soft, open crumb, thin crisp crust, great flavor. I happen to love durum and semolina and keep both in my flour stock. This is my favorite durum recipe to date. Thanks Ed and Eric!
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I made this bread yesterday and is delicious. I used my sourdough starter instead instant yeast.
Also made today a homemade creamy broccoli soup and the bread with it, yummy.
I had no sesame seeds, so used flax seeds.
Definitely a keeper.
Question: is there a typo in the recipe re: baking time?
“put the lid on and bake for 20 minutes… After 30 minutes with the lid on, remove lid…”
Which should it be, 20 or 30 minutes?
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Love this bread. I used yeast and home grown honey instead of barley malt syrup and it turned out just fine. I know I will make it again. Thank you for this recipe
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Can you substitute the barley malt syrup using dry malt powder? If so, how much should I use?
Yes you can but make sure the dry malt powder is non diastatic. As for how much to use the conversion is about 1:5 powder to syrup by weight. One tablespoon malt syrup is about 21g so use about 5-6g non diastatic dry malt powder. Now bare in mind that syrup will make the dough a little wetter and you’ve substituted it for powder so you might need to add a little more water. About 15g if you think the dough needs it but add it slowly till it feels right.
Bummer, what I have is Diastatic…. Can I use date molasses instead?
Ok I have an idea or two…
Date molasses can be used. Malts are just added for taste and sweetness anyway. Just expect a slightly different taste profile. Will be nice all the same.
Another option might be to deactivate the malt powder. Try heating the diastatic malt powder in the oven to 130°F/55°C spread out on a sheet of non stick baking parchment.
You could also try making a tangzhong by heating it with water until it gels then use one tablespoon of that as a substitute. In a small pan on a low flame heat 10g diastatic malt powder and 50g water. Keep mixing till it gels (it will definitely exceed the 130°F). It should only take a few minutes. Allow it to cool then use 1 tablespoon in the recipe.
Never done it before in order to make a diastatic malt powder into non diastatic powder so just an idea. Can’t see why it won’t work and you can probably use it as a straight substitute without worrying about hydration.
Thanks for your great suggestions!
I’m just hoping the malt powder will behave like flour when making the tangzhong. You’ve still got the other options though if it doesn’t work.
Best of luck and let me know how it goes.
I’m going to go ahead and use the date molasses since this would be the simplest solution. I tasted it and flavor was good. I don’t think that 1 T will make a big difference.
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I’ve bought some pasta flour for this bake. It’s near enough a mix of 50:50 durum and bread flour. Not quite the ratio for this recipe but it saves me having to buy two packets of flour.
When @eric converts this recipe to sourdough he substitutes 1/4 tsp dried yeast with 1/4 cup starter and gets a good 12+ hours ferment. I’ve seen this done in a lot of recipes where many people can use around 60g starter (which is about 1/4 cup) to 400-500g of flour and get a long ferment. If I do this out of the fridge, no matter what temperature, it’ll over ferment. I’m curious… can starters differ so much? I’m well aware all starters will differ but the timings seem to be well off. I can just about manage 20g starter to 500g flour in about 12 hours max. Either my starter is quicker and stronger or theirs are very slow. What might cause such discrepancy?
I’m either going to drop it to 20g or do some of the bulk ferment in the fridge.
Just baked this morning. I used fresh organic durhum flour from Janie’s Mill. I have barley malt on hand for bagel making so used that as well. I didn’t toast the sesame seeds first, but I used un-hulled ones and made a ‘paste’ with warm water. I followed the sourdough path for this recipe. I added an over night cold retard which I do for all my sourdough loaves. Can’t wait it cools down enough to slice.
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