3 3/4 cups flour...Bread flour is best
1 1/2 tsps salt
1 1/3 cups water
2 packages yeast...instant, rapid rise....doesn't matter
1 tsp sugar.

Now there are many ways to put this together...I usually put the dry ingredients into the Cuisinart and pulse to mix then slowly pour cold water through the feed tube until it comes together....adding a bit more water or flour until it makes a soft-ish dough.

Sometimes I use warm (body temp) water....add the sugar and yeast....let it sit until bubbles show, then stir salt into the flour and add in flour and keep adding until you can't stir, turn out on a board and knead in enough flour to make a dough that is smooth and elastic.

Then put the dough into a covered bowl, place in a cool or warm place and allow to rise until double....it will rise faster in a warm place but taste better if it rises for longer in a cool place.
Punch the dough down and allow to double again.
Place on your board....divide in half and form each half into a loaf of the desired shape....cover loosly with oiled plastic and allow to double.....meanwhile heat the oven to 425.
When loaves are double....slash and place on a cornmeal covered cookie sheet, or on a peel and slide into the oven...
Bake 25 to 35 minutes....or until an instant read inserted into the middle reads 190 to 210.
Enjoy!

Thanks Linda! I have my aunt's hamburger buns rising now, and now I can get this started also. If I'm gonna run the oven I might as well do more than just the rolls! I think I'm going to add asiago cheese to it also.

Tami

You might not think this is easy, but it really is. Recipe can be cut in half to use in your KA or Food processor.

Italian Bread Pictorial

Wet Dough Food Processor

Italian Bread
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This recipe is also perfect for both Focaccia and Pizza.

Sometimes I make a Biga the night before using 1 1/2 cups of the flour used in this recipe with one cup of water and 1/2 teaspoon yeast. If you don't have time to make the biga then this the recipe works just fine as follows. This is a very wet dough and needs to be mixed in a machine for a long time before you can finish kneading by hand. I use a Magic Mill Machine. If you are using something like a kitchenaide you have to watch it carefully as it climbs up the beater or hook.

8 cups Bread flour
1 tablespoon Yeast
1-1/2 tablespoons Salt
About 4 cups of water
2 tablespoons olive oil. (optional)
. Mix flour yeast water and oil( Optional) (not salt) together for a
minute and leave for 20 minutes for the water to be partially absorbed.
Add salt and mix for about 30 minutes until the dough comes together
enough to be worked by hand. Continue kneading until smooth. Place in
an large oiled bowl and rub olive oil on top, cover and let rise until
more than doubled. Pour out on to surface and divide into the number of
loafs you require. Do not punch out the air. Shape into loafs, sprinkle
tops with flour and leave to rise on a flour/cornmeal dusted surface.
Heat tile/stones in oven to 500 degrees while bread is rising. Slide
loafs on to hot stone and spray with cold water, three times, three
minutes apart. Lower heat to 450� and bake for about 30 minutes. (I can
do two loafs at a time in the oven on a large stone).

Focaccia:

To make Focaccia use some of the dough and place in a oil rubbed pan
(I use a rectangle shaped cake pan) Cover with plastic wrap and let
rise. Using you fingers indend the focaccia and drizzle with olive oil.
Sprinkle with whatever toppings you prefer. Salt, Rosemary, Sauted or
thinly sliced onions, black olives, etc....

Focaccia can be baked directly on heated pizza stone as well.

I also use this recipe to make a number of large pizzas. .

In Bernard Clayton's 'New Complete Book of Breads' he has a really easy recipe called 'Italian Batter Bread'. It works well with a heavy duty mixer.

The link has an adaptation of that recipe; I don't have the book in front of me to verify exactly what the original was. The advantage to this recipe is that all the kneading is done by the machine, then you just dump the blob of dough on a baking sheet.

Here is a link that might be useful: batter bread

This thread just 'begs' the question of exactly what is the
definition of Eye-Talian bread. Is it the chewey
crust?. . . or the dense center? In my 'minds eye',
it is what was produced by a local Italian bakery, when I was but a mere child. It has since burned down, but everyone in this small town, defines Italian Bread by their product. On Sunday mornings, everyone went there after church.
And they always gave a small roll to any little children
that came into their store. GOD, I miss that place.

Eye-talian bread is French bread in fatter loaves!

What's the expression? I can't describe it but I know it when I see it! Where I grew up in the land of Eye-talian immigrants, Italian bread was definitely not fat French bread.

Now I live in the South and we have only one grocery store bakery that makes passable Italian bread. lbpod - I sorely miss the Italian bakery bread too. And the bakery stromboli. Yum.

I have Linda's recipe rising. I will save Ann's for another day. Store bought just isn't satisfying the craving, so we are trying this route. I have already punched down the dough for my aunt's rolls once. Waiting for it to rise one more time, before making the rolls and letting them rise again and baking. The Italian should be about ready to punch down. When we come back from dinner, I'll be ready to bake that. I love hearing about the memories food inspires! Maybe that's why I love reading cook books. It sure isn't because I like to cook! DH teases me every time I buy a cook book, cause he knows I don't plan on making any of the recipes in them!

Tami

LOL Tami, you are just like me, I only cook because I love to eat good food! If someone would cook for me just for the fun of it, I would gladly do the dishes and lick the plates! I much prefer the joys of EATING to the joys of Cooking.

From my experience there is no such thing as Italian bread , as we think of it, in Italy. The bread you get there is very crusty, all most hard, usually round and flat, never served with butter.

Chase, I'm not surprised. A lot of things seem to be attributed to specific cultures and it turns out that it's not even close.

Elery also says that the bread sold in the Italian grocery wher ehe worked as a teenager was hard, crusty, chewy. It was normally dipped into olive oil or red sauce and the owner dunked it into coffee in the morning, much like we do donuts.

Annie

I just took the Italian (with asiago added) out of the oven. The rolls have been finished. As soon as the bread is cool enough to put away, I am headed for bed. Seems like I've been making bread all day!

I'm sure the bread in Italy varies by region. We vacationed in Tuscany two years ago, and while we generally enjoyed all the food we encountered, the bread was a huge disappointment. Tuscan bread is hard, dry, and unsalted. It was exactly the same, regardless of whether we ate in street markets or 4-star restaurants. The stuff I get here in Italian markets is very different, but then, not many Tuscans immigrated to this part of the world.

The bread I ate in Italy was very like the Italian bread I remember growing up in New Jersey.
In Iowa....French bread, Italian bread....all the same!....in the bakery department of the supermarket....they are side by side....look almost the same and cost the same....but on the nutritional info list, the Italian bread has 127 grams of sodium and the French 126 grams!
And I would give a lot for a good old Jersey hard roll....or to know how to make them.

The French & Italians use a different flour composition than American flours. It makes a noticeable difference in finished product. KA makes 3 flours that are fun to try - Italian Flour, French Flour, & European Artisan.

Here's a link to the Italian.

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: KA Italian Flour