Sourdough Friselle (Italian Rusk) | The Excellent Loaf

To the uninitiated, the common-or-garden sourdough friselle (“free-ze-leh”)—a kind of Italian-style rusk—may appear to be a standard bagel, cut up in half and toasted. However these crunchy rings embody the sentiment of the Mediterranean, a logo of creativity in using on a regular basis substances to create lasting culinary staples. 

When in Italy, I bear in mind having them most frequently topped with a combination of tomato, basil, herbs, salt, pepper, and a glug of olive oil—nonetheless my favourite strategy to eat them. Because of their extra-crisp texture that absorbs liquid with out going too soggy, they are surely the proper bruschetta base. They will also be damaged up and scattered over a contemporary salad, not in contrast to panzanella or fattoush. Or you’ll be able to take a sweeter path and high them with ricotta cheese and a drizzle of honey.

Positive, you should utilize any crunchy bread as a base for these scrumptious bites, however friselle are distinctive in that after baked, they final practically indefinitely. This implies you’ll at all times have a container of them within the pantry able to go.

What’s extra, these deeply golden rings have a texture not in contrast to stale bread, which makes a chunk that’s concurrently crunchy and yielding. Think about capturing, in my view, one of the best a part of your favourite loaf of sourdough bread—the crunchy crust—and making one thing solely composed of that. That, in a nutshell, are friselle.

The chance to make use of friselle in your day-to-day cooking is as limitless because the makes use of for a superb piece of toast. Consider them as the proper crunchy counterpoint to something you could be getting ready that’s tender and juicy. For those who want a platform for sauteed peppers, an olive tapenade, or virtually something with olive oil—they have you lined (or, ought to I say, they are often lined).

Learn on for recommendations for placing these easy-to-make and easy-to-enjoy friselle to good use.

What Are Friselle?

Friselle are a standard Italian bread that’s double-baked and sometimes formed like a hoop. Like a rusk, double-baking leads to bread with an distinctive shelf life. They’re very crispy and onerous, meant to be softened with water, olive oil, or one other liquid earlier than topping with greens, cheeses, or meat.

Friselle are widespread in Southern Italy, however you’ll additionally discover them all through the nation. Historically, they’re formed as a hoop, baked till simply golden, then cut up in half and baked once more with the crumb-side dealing with up.

What Can You Eat With Friselle?

Whereas it’s potential to eat them plain as a crunchy cracker, friselle are finest when softened with liquid, normally water, earlier than topping with olive oil or different dressing.

Listed here are just a few of my favourite methods to eat friselle.

• High with tomato, basil, olive oil, salt and pepper
• High with sauteed bell peppers, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper (peperonata)
• High with ricotta cheese with a drizzle of honey
• High with burrata cheese (or mozzarella) with tomatoes and basil
• Break up the friselle into small chunks and use them to high a salad or soup (much like croutons)

Flour Choice

Friselle are hearty and rustic, and to enrich this route, I wish to make them with a big portion of complete wheat flour, like Cairnspring Entire Grain Expresso. Whereas it might be nice to make sourdough friselle with 100% complete wheat, in testing, I beloved the mixture of complete wheat and durum.

Why Use Durum Flour?

Durum flour is often utilized in pasta-making or pizza, in addition to bread (like Pane Siciliano, which is 100% durum flour). It brings a phenomenal golden coloration to a loaf, however, extra importantly, I like its textural contributions. Including 50% durum flour to this recipe leads to sourdough friselle with a excessive stage of crunch and crispness, extra so than when solely complete wheat flour is used.

Learn extra about what durum flour is and how one can use it in your baking in my information to utilizing durum.

Why Use Malt in These Sourdough Friselle?

Diastatic malt powder is non-compulsory for this recipe, however I add it to assist add coloration to the outside of the friselle when they’re baking. Moreover, it brings a really delicate sweetness to the flavour profile.

Baking Schedule

I like making these friselle as a result of they’re very straightforward to combine and ferment all in a single day. This implies you’ll be able to combine the dough within the morning utilizing your sourdough starter and have them prepared for dinner that night.

If you wish to combine and form them on day one, then bake them the following day, you’ll be able to cowl the sheet pans after shaping them into rings and place them into the fridge. The following day, take them out, uncover them, and allow them to end rising on the counter till they cross the poke check. It will take about 1 to 2 hours.

Sourdough Friselle Recipe

For tips about calculating baker’s percentages or modifying this components, together with halving or doubling the recipe, see my put up on baker’s percentages.

Vitals

Whole System

Desired dough temperature: 78°F (25°C) (see my put up on the significance of dough temperature).

Sourdough Friselle Methodology

1. Combine – 9:00 a.m.

Place the water, flour, sourdough starter, salt, and non-compulsory malt in a big bowl. With moist fingers, combine totally till no dry bits stay. This can be a quite dry and stiff dough. If the dough feels moist or very sticky, add just a little flour; subsequent time, maintain again just a little of the blending water to higher fit your flour.

Subsequent, strengthen the dough for a couple of minutes by grabbing the dough within the bowl with one hand, folding it over to the opposite aspect, rotating the bowl a bit, and repeating. For this dough, I kneaded for about 5 minutes till the dough smoothed and have become elastic.

Tip the dough out to the counter and collect it up into a big ball. Then, place the dough, seam aspect down, into your calmly oiled (I used olive oil) bulk fermentation container (or hold it within the mixing bowl, gathered up right into a ball with the seam aspect down within the center) and canopy.

2. Bulk Fermentation – 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (2 hours half-hour)

At a heat room temperature, 74-76°F (23-24°C), bulk fermentation ought to take about 2 hours and half-hour. As a result of this dough has decrease hydration and is quite agency, it doesn’t require any stretches and folds throughout bulk fermentation.

For extra on this essential step when making sourdough bread, see the information to bulk fermentation.

3. Divide and Preshape – 12:00 p.m.

After 2 hours and half-hour, the dough ought to have risen just a little (I’d estimate round 20% quantity enhance, relying in your flour), be barely puffy to the contact, and be smoother on high.

Line a half baking sheet with parchment paper.

Gently scrape the dough from the majority fermentation container to a clear work floor. Utilizing a bench knife, divide the dough into eight items, every weighing 165 grams. You may need a small little bit of scrap dough left over.

Preshape a bit of dough into a decent ball, much like preshaping pizza dough or dinner rolls. Make sure the ball has a easy, uniform floor on high with the seam on the underside. Switch the preshaped ball to the ready baking sheet. Repeat for each bit of dough.

You’ll be able to see how I preshape these sourdough friselle in my pizza dough preshaping video beneath.

Cowl the dough with a plastic cowl (I like these reusable baking sheet covers that snap on) or a reusable plastic bag.

Let the dough relaxation, lined, for half-hour.

Observe: I floured the baking sheet within the picture above, however utilizing parchment (as indicated within the recipe) is simpler!

4. Form – 12:30 p.m.

Gently switch the entire preshaped balls to your work floor. Line one other half baking sheet with parchment paper.

Working with the primary ball of dough in entrance of you in your work floor, use your index and center fingers to punch a gap within the middle all the way down to the work floor. Decide up the piece of dough and use your thumbs to push via the opposite aspect, making a gap within the center. Stretch the dough out to magnify the opening. You wish to guarantee the opening is quite massive; in any other case, it would shut when the dough proofs and bakes.

Observe that it’s essential the dough additionally just isn’t unfold to this point that it turns into very skinny. One hallmark of a superb friselle is that they’re quite thick as soon as baked. Why? If they’re too skinny, when soaked in liquid, they may change into too tender and crumble quite than keep crunchy.

Switch the ring to one of many baking sheets and repeat with the remaining items of dough. You need to have 4 rings on every baking sheet. Cowl the baking sheets with plastic covers or reusable luggage.

5. Proof – 1:00 p.m. to three:00 p.m.

At room temperature, the friselle dough will want 2 to three hours to proof.

In a single day choice: For those who want to bake these the following day or many hours later, place the baking sheets into the fridge. Whenever you wish to bake them, take them out and allow them to proof on the counter for 1 to 2 hours till they cross the poke check.

6. Bake – 3:00 p.m.

The friselle are able to bake after they have overvalued, and a delicate poke slowly, however not utterly, springs again (also called passing the poke check).

You shouldn’t have to steam your oven when baking sourdough friselle. Place one oven rack within the backside of the oven and one within the high third, and preheat to 450°F (230°C).

Uncover the baking sheets and slide them into the oven. Bake for quarter-hour, rotating the pans from again to entrance and switching racks midway via, till friselle are calmly browned on high and start forming a crust (see picture beneath). Take away the baking sheets from the oven, cut back the temperature to 325°F (160°C), and let the friselle cool for five minutes.

Utilizing a fork, insert the tines into every friselle throughout to separate it, then gently pry it open (in the identical approach you’ll open an English muffin). Utilizing a fork—versus a clean-cutting knife—ensures the inside is tough, which is conventional.

Place every half, open aspect up, again on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining items of dough.

Return the baking sheets to the oven and bake for 45 to 60 minutes. The friselle are performed when the outside edge and internal circle are coloured a deep brown and don’t have any give when poked.

Take away from the oven and let cool utterly. Retailer these sourdough friselle stacked in a dry, sealed container. They may hold indefinitely if stored dry.

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Sourdough Friselle FAQs

What’s Subsequent?

For those who’re searching for extra Italian-inspired breads, and you’ve got further durum flour readily available, you should definitely take a look at my Pane Siciliano (durum bread with sesame seeds).

Or perhaps these friselle made you crave chewy sourdough bagels (you wouldn’t be the one one)?

Buon appetito!