Pane Siciliano // Peter Reinhart, The Bread Baker's Apprentice

Peter Reinhart's Pane Siciliano is a favorite of mine because of the texture imparted by the semolina flour. It also has (is intended to have) a nifty S-curve (but, as you can see, Mistakes Were Made). It utilizes a preferment that has to be made in advance (ideally, a day in advance, but in this case it just got some extra rise time).

Part 1: Pâté Fermentée

This baking round confirms my observation about the differences between bread books: whereas my flour measurements for Glezer's formulas have come up light (leading to dough wetter than described), my measurements for Reinhart's pate fermentee came up heavy (drier than described). Proof again, if you needed it, that weighing is more accurate than scooping. But I still don't own a reliable scale.

I'm trying to minimize the time that I work the dough, as Glezer says mixing too much will aerate the dough and bleach the flours, resulting in a loss of flavor. This means adding an autolyse stage to my bread mixing (letting the dough rest after it comes together and before turning/making smooth). I'm doing this part by feel.

The PF rose quite briskly, as it's been hot weather in Southern California. I'd almost be inclined to reduce the yeast in this and the main dough -- in the picture, it's barely at the halfway counter by the clock.

Part 2: Main Dough

Mixing/Fermentation. This dough contains equal parts bread and semolina flour, plus the PF and small amounts of honey and oil. I added the oil after the rest of the dough was mixed and relaxed, as I've heard oil can interfere with gluten formation (however, I doubt whether a couple of tablespoons is that significant -- this is more important for brioche, I gather). It took some time for the oil to absorb.

The first rise was quite robust, even though I cut the rising time short; when I went to shape the dough, I found it bounding out of the bowl (honeycombing).

I made three loaves -- one quite lovely, the others ugly ducklings. Purists will note that the skin is not nearly tight enough! Bread does not suit a hurried soul!

Proofing. This bread proofs in the fridge overnight. The loaves were nearly ready to go when I pulled them out this morning. However, in the process of loading the breads into the oven, I suffered a terrible Bread Disaster (tm) -- I somehow misaligned the baking sheet as it was going onto the rack, and the sheet flipped a quarter turn and wedged between the door and the shelves. (I'm still not sure exactly how this happened.) With tiny screams of anxiety I scooped each loaf up and plopped it back onto the sheet -- hoping that there was some air left in the mangled loaves. There was a visible dough print left on the oven door!

Results. The bread, as you can see, turned into a kind of lumpy superloaf where the three original loaves got squished together in the rescue operation. The places where each loaf hit the oven door are visible if you know where to look. The interior of each loaf is dense and spongy -- this really was a super-rising bread -- and, of course, completely irregular, due to the accident. But edible! (After snapping the "results" picture, I returned the bread to the oven for approximately 10 minutes.)