I want to make The bread of Altamura in a Breadtopia Clay “Baker”. I have the equipped durham flour from Italy but need a recipe and appropriate clay baker times and temps.
Here is the detailed recipe that works well for me.
UPDATED 26 Feb 2018:
440g of water is too much for me. I have changed it to 347g. Much better results. I add the last 250g of water a minute or so into the initial mixing stage, add it slowly!
Start midday the day before you want to bake
At lunchtime the day before you want to bake, start preparing your starter leaven using your fresh sourdough starter. Take 30g of your normal starter and mix it with 40g of water and 50g of Sfarinato in a small bowl, cover with a plate and leave to ferment at room temperature until early evening.
Now do a second refresh by repeating the first, this time leaving it overnight at room temperature for 12-13 hours. This then is your 210g Sfarinato starter.
To make the dough, mix the Sfarinato flour with the water and your starter then leave covered for 30 minutes (to autolyse). Next, add the salt and dried yeast.
If you have a mixer, mix on slow speed for 2 minutes until well combined, then for a further 8 minutes on a medium speed until nice and smooth. Place the dough into an oiled bowl and cover and allow to ferment for 3 hours.
To knead by hand, for the next hour, using a wet or oiled hand, give the dough a stretch and fold every 10 minutes. That is, with the dough in the bowl, put your hand down the side of the dough and pull it up and across the bowl, rotate and repeat a couple of times. Keep the bowl covered with a damp tea towel.
Flour your work surface and shape the dough into a boule (round loaf) and allow to rest on the floured worktop for 25 - 30 minutes covered.
Reshape into the boule by turning dough over and gently pull into an irregular boule, taking care not to knock out too much air and place onto a piece of parchment paper – these loaves are not perfectly symmetrical and so don’t go into a proofing basket. Prove for 2 - 3 hours at room temperature until fully proved - you can check this by gently pushing the dough with your index finger. If it feels firm it is under-proved. If it bounces back quickly it still has more to go. When it returns slowly then it is ready to go…If it does not return, but deflates and wrinkles then it is over-proved.
30 minutes before baking preheat the oven and La Cloche to 500 F.
Bake the bread inside the cloche for 25 minutes and then remove the cover and continue to bake for a further 20 - 25 minutes until golden brown.
Test the baking by lifting the loaf and tapping the base which should sound hollow.
Allow to cool completely before cutting.
Ingredients: 600g Sfarinato di Grano Duro flour (Durum flour) 347g Water at room temperature 210g Sfarinato di Grano Duro starter (see below) 12g Super-fine Himalayan Salt 1g Bioreal Dried Organic Yeast (A large pinch)
I get my specified duram flour from ItalianHarvest.com NOT 00, 00 is for Pizza.
A questions SkyKing, how do you get 210 g of starter from a refresh of 30g starter+40g water+50g flour? Am I missing something? Is this the new math?
Thanks for your reply
ABrown
30+40+50 = 120g. The 120 in mid-day and another 210g that evening = 240g
Re water, correction on what wrote previously. I do use 440g water. I put in 375g of it initially, let is mix for a minute or so on slow. Then add 25 more and mix for another minute, and let it “sit” 30 minutes to get absorbed and equalized. I reserve the remaining water if needed to get proper density and hydration during later mixing.
Pane di Altamura
Flour: 100%
Water: 60%
Salt: 2%
Starter: 20% @ 60% hydration
Durum Flour: 500g
Water: 300g
Salt: 10g
Starter: 100g
Refresh your starter a few times building up a 60% hydration mature durum starter. Then onto the final dough…
1: Combine flour, water, salt and starter; knead till full gluten formation and the dough is nice and smooth.
2: Bulk Ferment till the dough is areated and has good extensibility.
3: Pre-shape into a round and bench rest for 20-30 minutes.
4: Shape and final proof till ready.
5: Bake.
Thanks for sharing these recipes! I’m excited to try them - I love the flavor of durum wheat.
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My pleasure Melissa.
Recipe given is the standard Pane di Altamura. They don’t aim for anything fancy and they aren’t concerned about a special crumb. It’s a hard dark crust with a close but soft crumb. Has a slight sweetness to it and lacks any tang often found in sourdough. Comes alive when toasted and dipped in olive oil. The only advice I can give is everything is down to getting the ferment just spot on.
Gotcha - my expectations are well managed for the crumb of a whole grain durum bread : ) Fantastic flavor, I’m sure, and I can imagine with olive oil, it’s even better.
I googled to see some photos and some of them remind me of my 100% kamut bread: gold and somewhat flat.
Do you use whole grain durum wheat or semolina di grano duro rimacinata?
I’ve tried your kamut recipes. Lovely breads. I find kamut more flavoursome on its own whereas durum bread is how you eat it to bring out better flavour. For Altamura only rimacinata will do. You’ll get more rise from durum flour, than kamut, but it’s tricky to find that fermentation sweet spot. Makes a lovely focaccia too as you can imagine with those toppings complimenting the durum flour. Keep it simple with extra virgin olive oil, tomatoes , and herbs.
Gotcha - I have medium semolina that i can rimacinar? in my Mockmill…macinare?.. I’ll mill it fine! 
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That should work. Looking forward!