The amazing bakers at King Arthur Flour create beautiful recipes (<— like this!) that inspire me and are written with excellent instructions and lovely photos. Their Baker’s Hotline is awesome – talking to a real baker on the phone takes the frustration out of baking. I love KAF!
I also adore their baking guides and videos to help improve different skills and techniques. Check out their video about how to kneed bread – perfect! And I use their excellent products, especially their flours. Needless to say, I am a huge fan of King Arthur Flour!
So when I spotted this gorgeous award-winning recipe for Pane Bianco on the King Arthur website, I had to try it! I need something extra special for an upcoming Dutch Oven Gathering (DOG) to enter the one-pot competition.
The trouble is, I only have two hours and this recipe takes at least 3 1/2 hours. So I adapted the recipe by using frozen dough. I also have been curious to see if frozen dough might be a good option for Dutch oven cooks who don’t have the time or level of confidence to make bread from scratch. The experiment worked! Here’s the recipe, adapted from King Arthur’s Flour recipe for Pane Bianco.
—->NOTE: Shaping this bread is the key to success and is the most challenging task of the process. Before you begin, King Arthur does a great job of explaining this important step so take a minute now and go to their blog to read about how to shape the dough. P.S. I over stuffed this loaf. It was messy but delicious! If you want a pretty bread, reduce the filling (see the blog post to see how much filling for a pretty presentation).
Ingredients
- 2 loaves of frozen bread (I used Rhodes Bake n Serve White Bread)
- 1/2 pound pancetta (bacon is a great substitute), fried and chopped
- 8 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 4-ounce jar of sun-dried tomatoes, drained and chopped
- 1 4-ounce can of sliced black olives
- 1/2 cup chopped basil
- 1/4 cup shredded cheese
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
Directions
- Follow the directions on the back of the package for “Regular”
or”Refrigerator” method to thaw the dough. I followed the “refrigerator” method by placing the frozen loaves on a plate, spray top of loaves with oil, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 12 hours. When I pulled out of the fridge, each had doubled in size and was ready to be shaped. Here’s what it looked like when I was ready to start baking. - While the dough is thawing, prepare a 16-inch camp Dutch oven by cutting a round of parchment to fit the bottom of the oven. This quick YouTube shows you how to make a custom round of parchment for any size Dutch oven.
- Set out the chopped pancetta (or bacon), minced garlic, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, chopped basil, and cheeses so that they are within reach for constructing the roll.
- Roll out the dough until it is approximately 22 inches long and 10 inches wide.
Pinch the seam together until the two pieces of dough are joined together. Use the rolling pin to seal the two sides together. - Sprinkle the chopped pancetta across the dough, then the basil, garlic, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and cheese.
- Above is over-stuffed but hey, it tasted sooo good!
Starting from one of the long edges, roll the dough around the filling to form a log. Pinch ends together then tuck them under the log.- Using a very sharp knife, slice through the log length-wise beginning one-inch from the top and ending one-inch from the bottom.
- OK – this is the tough part. Get a friend to wash her hands and help you transfer the sliced dough roll to the prepared 16-inch oven with the cut side up.
- Arrange the sliced roll into an “S” then tuck the ends underneath the roll. Again, read KAF’s blog post for the details of shaping. Shaping is EVERYTHING!
- Place the lid on the oven and place in a warm place. In an hour, start a chimney of charcoal. When bread has doubled, make a ring of 13 hot charcoals to fit beneath the 16-inch camp Dutch oven. Place the oven over the ring of hot charcoal. Add 19-20 hot coals around the lid of the oven. Bake for 35-45 minutes until bread is golden brown and internal temperature is 190-200. Remove from heat. Slice and serve with warm marinara sauce.
