The Piedmontese biova is another bread I wanted to try, and I made it taking advantage of the fact that Molino Squillario sent me some of their delicious flours.
The bread requires w300 flour or all-purpose flour, or at least with not too low protein content, but I also partially used Molino Squillario flour and the result was unprecedented.
Leavened goods are really my passion and often my photos may look similar to one another among the various breads, but they always differ with some different ingredient balance that determines the final result… not to mention the spiced ones.
You can eventually reduce the amount of yeast, create the dough in the evening, leave it for an hour at room temperature, then put it in the fridge and continue the rising and various steps to make our Piedmontese bread.
Approx. 240 kcal for each biova
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 3 Hours
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 8 biove
- Cooking methods: Electric oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients to make Piedmontese Biova
- 4 cups w300 flour (or 2 3/4 cups w300 flour and 1 cup Molino Squillario's 5-grain flour as I did)
- 1 cup water
- 0.7 oz lard
- 1 tsp dry yeast
- 1 tsp barley malt
- 2 tsp salt
Preparation of Piedmontese Biova
You can make the dough by hand or with the stand mixer, the important thing is to work it well.
I kneaded with the stand mixer, I added water and yeast, let it dissolve, then added half of the flour and kneaded for a few minutes.
Next, I added barley malt, salt, and lard and continued kneading until the ingredients were absorbed.
Finally, add the remaining flour, salt, and knead for a few more minutes until a well-mixed dough is formed.
Transfer the dough to a large bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise until doubled.
Once risen, place the dough on a floured surface, lightly flour it on top if necessary, and flatten it a bit with your hands to create a dough that is tall but roughly the right size on each side.
Cut the dough into 4 parts…..
roll each piece to create a long strip of dough, roll it up on itself….
then flatten again a long, narrow strip and roll it up again.
Transfer the resulting buns to a non-stick baking sheet and let them rise until doubled.
Once risen, cut the risen buns lengthwise and transfer each half to a baking sheet with the cut side up.
Once this operation is done on all the buns, let them rise again for at least 1 hour, and they should almost double.
Once risen, score the surface of the biove about 0.4 inches deep with a blade and bake in a preheated oven at 392 °F for 25 minutes, checking the baking.
Place a pot of water in the oven during baking; it will help provide moisture for the bread.
