Panmarino - Italian Rosemary Bread

This bread is called a Panmarino and when I first read about it in Carol Field's The Italian Baker, the story of this bread was so interesting I just knew I had to adapt Carol's recipe to a sourdough formula. It is a bit cold in my kitchen this time of year so I have opted for a 40% preferment in the final dough.

The story of Panmarino as told by Carol is that this bread recipe comes from a place called Ferrara near Venice and is the invention of a baker named Luciano Pancalde. Apparently years ago, Luciano was reading a biography of the d'Este family who once ruled Ferrara. He came across descriptions of the spectacular court banquets, which featured rosemary bread with a crust that "sparkled with diamonds". Of course, just like all good artisan bakers, Luciano experimented and baked until he came up with this wonderful aromatic, fresh rosemary fragrant, dome-shaped bread where you slash the top in the pattern of a star and sprinkle chunky crystals of sea salt into the crevices. 

I start all my breads on Wednesday evening for a Saturday morning bake but you can actually make this bread over a shorter time. The slow long ferments at cool temperatures helps to build flavour but if you want to use a different timetable check out SourDom’s discussion about baking timetables on the beginner’s blog.

The first night I got out my starter and made my first build of the preferment.

Day 1 evening - 1st Preferment Build                 

Starter                   12g            50.00%

Flour                      24g          100.00%

Water                    14g            60.00%

Total 1st build    50g                                           

The next morning (10-12 hrs later) I added some more water & flour for the second build.

Day 2 morning - 2nd Preferment Build    

Starter 1st build      50g          53.90%

Flour                      94g        100.00%

Water                    56g          60.00%

Total 2nd Build  200g    

Day 2 evening – Mix up dough

That evening I mixed up the dough as per the formula below. I started by dissolving and mixing the preferment with the water and milk. I let this sit for 10 minutes while I weighed up the flour and chopped up fresh rosemary. The recipe calls for 3 1/2 to 4 tablespoons of fresh rosemary finely chopped or 1 1/2 dried. You can adjust this to taste but I prefer a nice strong flavour myself.

I then combined the flour and diastatic Malt and mixed that into the liquids to form dough. I let the dough sit for 20-30 minutes before adding salt.

The salt, olive oil and chopped rosemary were kneaded into the dough, which was mixed until the gluten develops. The dough was then placed in an oiled bowl and covered in a plastic bag to seal it, before being put in the fridge overnight.                                       

Dough Formula                                       

Preferment 2nd Build 200g            40.00%

Water                       150g            30.00%

Milk                         150g             30.00%

Flour                        500g           100.00%

Diastatic Malt 10*        5g               1.00%

Salt                           10g               2.00%

Olive Oil                    40g               8.00%

Chopped Rosemary   30g               6.00%

                  Total   1085g                                                    

*Diastatic Malt 10 is powdered Malt blended with Bread Flour at 1g Malt to 10g flour. Diastatic Malt is normally added at 0.1% of flour weight. You could leave out the malt or substitute a teaspoon of Barley Malt if you wish.

Day 3 - morning 

In the morning before going to work I took out the dough and folded it once and returned it to the fridge. 

Day 3 - evening 

Take out the dough let it warm to room temperature over the next 4-5 hours as you gently stretch and fold it. I just folded it once every hour for four hours and kept it from drying out by putting it inside the plastic bag in-between folds. The dough should by velvety smooth, moist and blistered by the time it is ready for shaping.

The dough is finally shaped into a round ball or boule and placed in a round cane banneton or basket which I put inside a plastic bag and let rise for an hour or so before putting the whole lot back in the fridge for baking in the morning. Be sure to cover the dough in the fridge so it does not dry out too much. 

Day 4 – morning

Baking: I heat my oven to it’s maximum which is 250ºC. I use a baking stone, which I have allowed to heat up for 40 minutes before baking. Just before you put the loaf into the oven slash the top of the loaf in an asterisk with a razor blade. 

Sprinkle some chunky sea salt into the cuts

To provide steam I place my loaf in the oven at maximum temperature and then turn it off and throw a handful of ice-cubes into the bottom of the oven. I turn it off because my oven is fan-forced and the fan would blow all the steam away. I leave it steaming for 10 minutes and then turn the oven back on and set the temperature at 210°C and bake for 30 to 35 minutes longer.