Pane Siciliano al Sesamo
Pane Siciliano al Sesamo
Sesame Seed Loaf
Lots of Italian bakeries in the US sell loaves that don’t quite taste the way they do in the motherland. This sesame-crusted loaf is an exception, though: I actually grew up eating a version in New Jersey that is similar to the Sicilan original. My Grandma Parla used to send me down the street from her house in North Brunswick to the long since closed Mento’s Market, a small grocery owned by Sicilians, for a loaf of bread and a pack of cigarettes (the 1980s were a simpler time). When I visited Sicily, I found a slightly shorter but identical-tasting sesame loaf in bakeries across the island, where it’s sliced into rounds and served alongside meals for soaking up sauce.
Ingredients (8)
Ingredients (8)
Instructions
Combine the room-temperature water (1 ½ cups), bread flour (3 ¼ cups), and fine semolina (¾ cup) in a medium bowl and mix with a spoon until the dough is shaggy and there is no dry flour left in the bowl, about 5 minutes.
Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes to allow the flour to hydrate.
Meanwhile, combine the warm water (1 ¼ Tbsp) and yeast (1 ¼ tsp) in a small bowl or ramekin and set aside to bloom for about 10 minutes.
Uncover the bowl and add the yeast mixture, “pinching” it into the dough with your fingers until it is incorporated, about 2 minutes. The dough will be very sticky, but don’t add more flour.
Sprinkle the salt (2 tsp) over the dough and “pinch” and fold it in, lifting and folding the dough to aid the process, until incorporated, about 2 minutes. The dough will be very sticky again, but don’t add more flour.
Cover with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for 15 minutes to allow the yeast to proliferate.
Uncover the bowl. Wet one hand, then lightly grasp one edge of the dough. Pull this flap of dough upward and outward, then bring it back down and attach it to the top of the dough. Give the bowl a one-eighth turn and repeat seven more times, until you have rotated the bowl a complete turn.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 15 minutes more.
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