Bread Baking Babes: Royal Crown's Tortano

Is the world ready for another baking group?  And what compels baking aficionados to seek others with the same obsession (affliction)?  Is it the influence of the leavening ingredients?   I don't know, but there are a lot of us out there. Just look at the success of the Daring Bakers.   My love for bread is so deep, the opportunity to join with another group, devoted to yeast dough, was perfect.  The name of this group is Bread Baking Babes. And when Tanna extended an invitation to join, how could I refuse?  I could satisfy my constant desire to feel yeast dough in my hands.  And truth to tell, I was smitten with the fact that I'm now officially, a real babe. 

So, let me introduce you to the Bread Baking Babes (and look at the spiffy logo designed by Lien) :

A Fridge Full of Food (Glenna), Bake My Day (Karen), Cookie Baker Lynn (Lynn), I Like to Cook (Sara), Living on Bread and Water (Monique), Lucullian Delights (Ilva), My Kitchen in Half Cups (Tanna), Nami-Nami (Pille), Notitie van Lien (Lien), The Sour Dough (Mary aka Breadchick), Thyme For Cooking (Katie), and What Did You Eat (Sher)

Our first project is being hosted this month by the lovely Karen at Bake My Day.  The recipe is a fabulous, to die for bread, called Royal Crown's Tortano. It makes a big round loaf with a strong yeast flavor and deep chewy crust.  I made the recipe twice, and while my results were imperfect, the bread itself was marvelous. 

The amazing flavor and texture of this bread is due to it being a "wet" dough.  It's always fun to see a hideously sticky goo gradually firm up into a silky, sensuous dough.  And this was one of the wettest doughs I've ever dealt with.  The bread is not hard to make, but it does require setting aside an entire day, to accommodate the long period of time for proofing, turning and baking.  The actual work involved is not hard, and probably takes about 20 minutes in all.  The bread requires a simple pre-ferment, which develops overnight into a bubbly mixture smelling like beer. I started making the dough around 9:30 p.m.  Since I knew it would be early evening before I pulled a finished loaf from the oven, I used the time between working on the dough by gardening and watching/listening to television. I quickly learned that trying to make bread with background noise of various pundits arguing about Hillary, McCain, and Obama was maddening. Instead, I found the America's Next Top Model marathon perfect for my purposes.

As I said, this is a wet dough.  Here you see the almost liquid dough, churned 20 minutes in my Mixmaster, just before I turned it out onto the counter, .  It's tempting to add more flour, but resist the urge.  It all comes together eventually. The sticky dough was rolled in flour and placed in a bowl to ferment for almost 4 hours.  It was during this waiting period that Tyra got very angry at a young model and screamed at her for disrespecting the show.   Fierce!

After the 4 hour ferment, the dough has lots of large bubbles in it, which should be preserved as much as possible. Instead of punching down the dough, it's pulled out of the bowl and turned 4 times. The gentle  action of the turning, simply folding the dough into an envelope shape and letting it rest for 20 minutes before the next turn, helps firm the dough.

The dough is finally shaped into a large bagel form, left to rise for a final time, and then baked.

By the time the bread came out of the oven it was evening, hence the murky photos.  But, you can see the size of the loaf as my husband holds it up.

And the resulting bread was all that I hoped.  Try this recipe.  Don't be afraid of the sticky dough.  Like an ugly duckling, it becomes a beautiful thing indeed.  Warning: It's hard to resist this bread!

If you would like to make your own Royal Crown's Tortano, you can find the recipe at The Sour Dough (Mary aka Breadchick) or A Fridge Full of Food (Glenna).  And thank you for hosting Karen!  To see how the other Babes fared, go to these sites:

A Fridge Full of Food (Glenna), Bake My Day (Karen), Cookie Baker Lynn (Lynn), I Like to Cook (Sara), Living on Bread and Water (Monique), Lucullian Delights (Ilva), My Kitchen in Half Cups (Tanna), Nami-Nami (Pille), Notitie van Lien (Lien), The Sour Dough (Mary aka Breadchick) 

Comments

[Lien]

Beautiful bread indeed. Good holes there inside and shape-wise, fantastic. It really tastes good doesn't it?!

[Peter]

I'm in awe of the crust on this bread...I want bread like this.

[Glenna]

It's gorgeous!! Love that you recruited Bob to hold it up for you. The butter. Oh my. The butter melting into all those air bubbles. Homer drool big time! Your bread is absolutely gorgeous, a prom queen of loaves. Sigh. I want bread for breakfast....

[breadchick]

Sher, rotfl. I baked to ANTM too when I made this bread!! Well that and Project Runway...

I love that your bread didn't close up like mine. I'm making it again to try and get a nice big hole in the middle.

[Lynn]

Beautiful bread. I agree, politics and bread don't mix. It makes the bread angry. It looks like you found just the right background because your bread looks very happy indeed.

[Mer]

This bread looks fantastic! And what an honor to be so singled out and invited to bake bread with other "babes." :0)

[MyKitchenInHalfCups]

Sher you are a babe! Great photo with the man!
It's isn't hard but you really have to trust the recipe when it says don't add more flour because it does come together eventually. And it is really lovely when it does.
Thanks for baking with the babes.

[Lydia]

Great fun! I'm going to enjoy following the adventures of the Babes!

[Baking Soda]

Woohoo, nice bread! That one pic with the slice out is just too tempting.. the crust, the holes.... artisan bread!

[ilva]

sher, so good! and beautiful! Now we have to get going on the next bread!

[Monique]

What a great bread you made.
And it has a heartshape hole in the middle !
It must have tasted lovely with that !Whish I could eat it right from my computerscreen.

[Kevin]

Nice looking bread! I especially like the shot of the slice with the melting butter.

[peabody]

That is one good looking loaf of bread.

[kristi]

Bread is my absolute favorite food in the universe, and hence that first picture up there is what my version of heaven looks like. This looks delicious, and I'm bookmarking the recipe for the day when I have time to bake bread again. Thank you!

[Sara]

Mmmm, look at the butter melting....makes me want to bake another loaf!

[Rosa]

Wow, your bread looks fantastic! I bet it tastes great with cheese...

Cheers,

Rosa

[katie]

I'm so impressed with these...and so sorry I didn't get to play....
Next month!

[Deborah dowd]

I love that type of open textured bread! I can almost smell it!

[Andrea]

That looks so good with that butter melting into it. Oh my word...