Bread Baking Babes - Italian Knot Bread

May is Ilva’s month in Bread Baking Babe land. The recipe she chose for us is an Italian roll called Pane di Pasta Tenera Condita, or Italian Knot Bread. This is a pretty straightforward bread, and though the list of ingredients is a little long, it’s easy to make. The twist (heh) on this dough is that the buns are formed into knots. A technique I had a tough time wrapping my head around.

The dough starts with a biga - a preferment made the day before. I was a little nervous because the recipe didn’t specify if the biga should be soft or firm. Mine was very firm and I worried that it wasn’t right. Saturday afternoon I finished the dough and left it to rise. If it didn’t rise I’d have to bow out this month.

It rose.

I cut and weighed the dough into 125g-ish pieces then attempted to knot them following Ilva’s instructions. It didn’t go that well, but they turned out pretty ok.

I left some plain and sprinkled some with salt before baking. They are just lovely little knots, so tender on the inside. We’ve dunked them in soup, made them into sandwiches, warmed them and slathered them with butter. So, so wonderful.

Head over to Ilva’s for the recipe, then head over to the blogs of the rest of the Babes to check out their knotty breads.