Yesterday, I tried to make Pane di Altamura. I failed horribly. I’m still getting used to my new oven and I’m not sure what happened, but the crust set too early, and the crumb came out extremely dense. Plus, my Semolina flour is pretty old and the crumb was brown instead of yellow. Ugh! The bread tasted okay, but its density was just too much. I ended up throwing out the loaves (and no, they wouldn’t have made good croutons).

After I threw out the loaves I was understandably a bit distraught and disappointed. I hate wasting things, especially food. But these loaves were heavy hunks of cooked dough. I told myself right then and there that I needed a win.

So, this morning as I was brooding over yesterday’s fail and figuring out what I wanted to bake, I ran across a video on YouTube by Martin Philip of King Arthur and his demonstration on making Pan de Cristal. I had never made it before, but I had made plenty of high hydration ciabatta (>90% hydration) and knew how to handle that wet of a dough. I decided to make it.

I just pulled the loaves out of the oven, and I am a happy man! They turned out beautifully, with a gorgeous, thin, golden-brown almost chestnut crust. Each of the loaves are feather-light, which is how they’re supposed to be. And that means that they got plenty of rise. The smallest loaf in the top-left corner of the picture didn’t expand as much as I had to manipulate it on my baking sheet to reposition it. But its crust still came out nice and airy.

As for how they taste, in a word, they’re incredible. The olive oil that’s used to grease the casserole pan I used for coil folds infused into the dough, giving it a subtly sweet and nutty flavor. I just ate half of the smallest loaf with some butter. But this bread would go great for dipping into olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Well, I got my win for the day. I needed it after my previous fiasco!