The brief I have decided to do first is this Italian Bakery/Cafe. This is a short brief so will be a good one to start the year with.
I did a brainstorm of the research I would need to do and what else I would need to think about for this brief.
The most important thing that I need to think about is Italy itself and the heritage/history of the country. This will help me create a strong brand which is informed by the research and is consistent across all deliverables.
When researching, the first thing that became apparent was that there are different speciality breads and different baking methods in the different regions of Italy. This is something that I didn't expect at all as it means there are a lot more different styles of bread than originally thought.
In Italy breads vary by regions, sometimes even from city to city. They have different flavours, shape, ingredients.
However, all around Italy you can find rustic Italian bread made with just four ingredients: yeast, water, salt and flour. Not usually a “pretty” bread but deliciously tasty. The fermentation of the yeast is what gives this bread its tastiness.
Simplicity is the main characteristic of rustic bread, as is life in the countryside. Rustic, as Italy has been for decades, and as it can be even today sometimes.
Good bread is an important part of Italian cuisine. In essence, to create an Italian bakery, the most authentic way to do it is to go along the route of less is more. A lot of modern breads are a lot more complicated, but Italian bread is simple and rustic.
The most famous type of Italian bread is Pizza. This actually originates from Pita bread.
"Pita. The Israeli and western name for the Arab bread called khubz adi (ordinary bread) or kumaj (a Turkish loanword properly meaning a bread cooked in ashes), baked in a brick bread oven. It is slightly leavened wheat bread, flat, either round or oval, and variable in size...The name had a common origin with pizza...In the early centuries of our era, the traditional Greek word for a thin flat bread or cake, plakous, had become the name of a thicker cake.
The new word that came into use for flat bread was pitta, literally pitch, doubtless because pine pitch naturally forms flat layers which many languages compare to cakes or breads...The word spread to Southern Italy as the name of a thin bread. In Northern Italian dialects pitta became pizza, now known primarily as the bearer of savoury toppings but essentially still a flat bread"
Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 611)
Types of Italian bread:
Ciabatta – Wheat flour and yeast comprise the ingredients used to make this Italian white bread originally produced in Liguria. Its shape should be long, broad and flat, with a slight collapse in the center. Ciabatta is soft, light and porous with a crisp crust. There are regional varieties of Ciabatta throughout Italy.
Colomba Pasquale – Natural yeast, butter, flour, sugar, and eggs are used to produce this bread, traditionally baked on Easter. It is shaped like a dove and coated with almonds and course sugar before baking.
Coppia Ferrarese IGP – Early forms of Coppia Ferrarese date back as far as 1287, when bakers were encouraged to produce bread in the shape of scrolls known as orleti. Each 3- to 9-ounce loaf of Coppia Ferrarese is shaped with two dough ribbons knotted together. Each end is twisted into a fan shape with four crostini, or spokes. Flour, lard, olive oil, and malt are used in the production of Coppia Ferrarese. Some 330 bakeries in the province of Ferrara produce this golden-crusted, aromatic bread.
Farinata – Native to Liguria, this pizza-like flatbread is made from a batter consisting of water, olive oil, and chickpea flour. Sea salt, black pepper, and rosemary are often used to season each thin, crisp pancake. Farinata and Cecina are virtually identical.
Farro della Garfagnana IGP – Historically, Tuscany had always cultivated the ancient grain, spelt. Although it ceased cultivation in the rest of Tuscany, Garfagnana continues to have a strong market for the grain. Rules maintain that no synthetic chemicals or other pesticides may be used in producing or storing spelt. Stalks of Farro della Garfagnana are generally floury after husking. They are streaky white in colour.
Focaccia – This relative of pizza is ovenbaked and flat. Focaccia is seasoned with Italian olive oil and can be topped with herbs, meats, cheese, or vegetables. Rosemary, sage, and sea salt are common seasonings for this Italian treasure.
Fragguno – Baked on Good Friday in Calabria and eaten on Easter Sunday. Fragguno is stuffed with foods such as salami, cheese, and eggs.
Grissini – Native to Turin and Piedmont, these breadsticks originated in the 17th century. The shape is irregular, twisty, and thin like a pencil. It is common to find grissini served with butter and wrapped in prosciutto.
Pandoro – One of the two Italian sweet yeast breads served mainly on Christmas day. This frustum-shaped bread with an 8-pointed star is usually coated in vanilla icing to represent snow. In ancient times, breads like Pandoro would be reserved for royalty, but everyone may enjoy them today. Domenico Melegatti, resident of Verona, attained a patent for producing Pandoro in 1894.
Pane Carasau – This half-meter wide Sardinian bread is thin and crisp. Pane Carasau is a twice baked flat bread that may last up to a year if eaten dry. Note: Pane Carasau is also known as Carta di Musica (sheet music) because of its extremely thin, paper-like quality.
Pane Casareccio di Genzano IGP – The week-long aroma of this bread is one of its most distinguishable characteristics. It is baked in soccie, or wood-fired ovens in Genzano, Italy. Pane Casareccio di Genzano became popular in Rome during the 1940’s; it was delivered from Genzano while still extremely fresh. Select ingredients including natural yeast, mineral salt, water, and flour are used in making this bread from the province of Rome. Pane Casareccio di Genzano comes in round loaves or long rods.
Pane di Altamura DOP – Originally, the dough for this bread would be home-made and then publically baked by a local professional. The baker would stamp family initials into the dough so it would come back to the appropriate household. The finished product is very crisp and aromatic. Pane di Altamura is known for its long shelf life.
Panettone – Native to Milan, Panettone is one of the two Italian sweet yeast breads served mainly on Christmas day. Acidic dough used to make Panettone is cured before being shaped into a cupola, which extends from a cylindrical base. Raisins, candied orange, citron, and lemon zest are added to the bread for flavoring. Regional variations for Panettone include serving with Crema di Mascarpone, or chocolate.
Penia – An Easter bread made primarily in rural parts of Italy. Along with the common sugar, butter and eggs, anise seeds and lemon are added to Penia for a unique flavour.
Piadina – Flour, lard, salt, and water make up the typical ingredients of this flatbread from the Romagna region. Piadinerie sell these fresh breads stuffed with items such as cheese, salumi, vegetables, or jams. Regional variation accounts for differences in thickness. Piadina are comparable to a Mexican tortilla.
Taralli – This sweet or savory ring-shaped snack is common throughout Southern Italy. Taralli can be sugar-glazed or flavored with poppy seed, fennel, salt, pepper, sesame, onion, or garlic. The rings gain a unique texture due to being boiled before baked. Note: Taralli are often dunked in wine.
Each bread has a specific reason for its baking, whether it be to be eaten with a certain drink or had at a certain time of year. This is something that I definitely need to take into consideration. I don't want this research to make things complicated with the amount of information there is, so have to make sure I don't broaden out too much.
History of Bread:
The earliest breads were unleavened. Variations in grain, thickness, shape, and texture varied from culture to culture.
Archaelogical evidence confirms yeast (both as leavening agent and for brewing ale) was used in Egypt as early as 4000 B.C. Food historians generally cite this date for the discovery of leavened bread and genesis of the brewing industry. Sources generally agree the discovery of the powers of yeast was accidental.
Recent evidence indicates that humans processed and consumed wild cereal grains as far back as 23,000 years ago in the Upper Paleolithic period. From the Neolithic period 9500BC simple stone mechanisms were used for smashing and grinding various cereals to remove the inedible outer husks and to make the resulting grain into palatable and versatile food.
As humans evolved we mixed the resulting cracked and ground grains with water to create a variety of foods from thin gruel, to a stiffer porridge. By simply leaving the paste to dry out in the sun, a bread like crust would be formed. This early bread was particularly successful when wild yeast from the air combined with the flour and water, this started a fermentation process which slightly raised the crust. These ancient breads would however be unpredictable depending on the type of grain, the flour texture, the liquid, the availability of wild yeast and espicially the weather.
Baking in Italy:
Baking flourished in the Roman Empire from as early as 300BC but it wasn’t until 168BC that the first Bakers Guild was formed, within 150 years there were more than three hundred specialist pastry chefs in Rome.
The whole craft was incorporated in a guild of bakers - COLLEGIUM PISTORUM - and was of so high repute in the affairs of the state that one of its representatives had a seat in the Senate. The ruins of Pompeii and other buried cities have revealed the kind of bakeries that existed in those historic times.
The Romans enjoyed several kinds of bread, with interesting names. Lentaculum, made originally flat, round loaves made of emmer, (a cereal grain closely related to wheat flour) with a bit of salt were eaten.
There was also oyster bread (to be eaten with oysters); 'artolaganus' or cakebread; 'speusticus' or 'hurry bread', tin bread, Parthian bread and the Roman Style Slipper Loaf. Breads were made richer by adding milk, eggs and butter, but only the wealthy and privileged could afford these.
Religious meanings of bread:
The role of bread in western civilization has been so important that it's ingrained into our very culture. As a food and also as metaphor it continues to be ensconced in everyday life. Other than modern conveniences (gas ovens and electric mixers) not much has changed in the way bread is made.
The way in which bread originated is as humble as the loaf itself. Wheat was originally simply chewed and eaten for its nutritional value; it was also eaten in a sort of porridge. The first primitive "loaves" were undoubtedly derived from this porridge in the form of unleavened cakes baked over an open fire. Later, when grinding wheat into flour was learned, wheat was turned into batter or dough.
Bread is used as much as metaphor as it is food. A simple search for the word "bread" in an online bible yields hundreds of results, and familiar stories abound. The book of Exodus reminds us that when the Jews were lost and starving in the desert God fed them with manna, or bread from heaven. In the New Testament Jesus uses bread as the ultimate metaphor when he refers to it as His body: blessed, broken, and shared. After more than two millennia this is still practiced in the form of Holy Communion each Sunday in Christian churches around the globe. And one of the most powerful Biblical metaphors is in the Lord's Prayer, where people pray to God for their life's necessities, while using the words Daily Bread.
The act of sharing bread or an entire meal together is sometimes referred to as "breaking bread." This is also the basis of the modern word companion, which is derived from the Latin phrase com pani, which loosely translates to with one whom bread is shared.
Research bibliography:
http://www.discoveritalianfood.com/italian-breads.html
http://garrubbo.com/types-of-italian-bread/
http://italicious.wordpress.com/20-breads-of-italy/
http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodbreads.html
http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/about/the-history-of-bread/
http://www.cheftalk.com/a/bread-in-history-religion-and-as-metaphor-part-iii
Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999
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