Pane Mantovane
First attempt at a traditional Italian bread.
2024-10-05
I saw these on a reel on Instagram and thought they were incredibly cute - I had to try making them. As an aside: I tried searching for this on DuckDuckGo and multiple spellings came up (“mantovane”, “mantovana”. ChatGPT said “mantovano”. I don’t know which one is correct, and will be using mantovane, like in the IG reel - don’t come for me).
Ingredients
Makes roughly 6x100g rolls
- 336g bread flour
- 176g water
- 67g starter
- 7g salt
- 10g olive oil
Method
- Mix ingredients in a bowl till the dough clears the sides. Turn onto a counter and knead till smooth.
- Bulk ferment until ready (est. 4-5 hours. Ended up fermenting for roughly 8)
- Divide into 6 rolls, roughly 100g per roll
- Degas the dough with palms and roll into a long rectangle (as the dough allows - 20-30cm / 4mm thickness). Fold the long ends towards the center in thirds, then roll the far end towards you. Pinch to seal, then place it on a tray seam down
- Allow to proof till ready (about 2 hours). 30 minutes before proof is over, preheat the oven at 200c.
- Score deeply through the center (see notes)
- Bake at 200c for 15-20 minutes
Notes
- It’s quite a dry dough, so when hand-kneading, it’s best to get in there and squeeze dry bits into the dough
- The bulk ferment took about 8 hours, because I used a cold starter from the fridge. It wasn’t overly jiggly. I might try to push the BF a bit further next time
- Because the dough didn’t feel too sticky, I thought I wouldn’t have to use any dusting flour (I was wrong). As a result, my first roll ended up looking really tired and wrinkly. Use dusting flour - a little goes a long way
- A pre-shape would probably help with consistency. Maybe portion, form round > rest for 10-15 > degas, coerce into a rectangular shape > roll
- I end up getting the thickness that I want after about two passes. So, it’s probably best to roll it smooth side up, flip it upside down, then roll it up (and the smooth side will be on the outside)
- The score should run through the entire surface of the roll, horizontally. Not just the topmost part
Thoughts / Closing
I messed up the score - should have looked at photos beforehand
Because it’s a lean dough, the sourness really comes through. It’s got a crunchy crust that has some nutty notes? Definitely a great bread for dipping. “Soft baguette vibes” is probably the best way to describe this one.
I’m not sure if this recipe is “traditional”, but I tried to take reference from a few different recipes, of which I’ve listed below.
Links