This amazing and super easy panini bread recipe will make your kitchen smell like an Italian bakery! It's crusty, irresistible, super easy to make, and ready in 1 HOUR flat.
Prep Time40 minutesmins
Cook Time20 minutesmins
Course: Bread
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: Panini Bread
Servings: 10
Calories: 196kcal
Author: Katia
Cost: $1
Ingredients
4 cups(500 grams)unbleached all-purpose flour*, plus more for dusting(leveled)
1 3/4 cup(420 ml)lukewarm water, plus more if needed*
1 Tbsp(15 ml)olive oil
2 tspinstant yeast
1 1/2 tspfine salt
1/2 tspsugar
Instructions
Mix well water, yeast, and sugar in a jug or in a bowl and let it rest until foamy (about 5 minutes).
Combine flour and salt in a large bowl.
In the meanwhile, preheat the oven to 250F and turn it off.
Add the liquid to the dry ingredients, add olive oil, and mix with a spoon or a spatula to incorporate the flour*. Mix well until no dry flour remains, but do not overmix.
Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel or with cling film, then let rest in the warm oven for 30 minutes*.
Take the dough out and preheat the oven to 440F° (forced fan).
Gently scrape the edge of the bowl and pour the dough on a floured working surface. The dough is fluffy and a bit bubbly now, you don't want to deflate it.
Dust the dough with flour and cut it into 10 portions as shown in the pictures above*.
Gently roll out each portion, and keep dusting hands and surface with some flour if needed.
Place each portion of dough (panino) on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
Bake for about 20 minutes. If you have a conventional oven (without a fan), just bake for 5 minutes longer until golden and crusty.
Enjoy while they're still warm if possible, they're delicious!
Video
Notes
FLOUR: unbleached all-purpose flour works very well in this recipe. However, I love mixing half all-purpose and half spelt flour, and the result is delicious. WATER ABSORPTION: water absorption is the amount of water taken up by flour and may vary significantly depending on the flour, brand, and weather conditions. Either whole grain flour and high protein flour such as bread flour absorb more water than all-purpose flour. That being said, when you add water to the flour, start with the amount stated in the recipe. If the liquid is not enough to achieve that dough consistency as shown in the pictures above, just add graduallty a little extra water until the flour has been incorporated.WARM OVEN METHOD: this is a trick to help you to make the dough rise faster. Basically, preheat the oven at low temperature, then turn it off and create a warm environment for the dough to rise in. This shortcut works great when you run out of time.DOUGH CUTTING: I use a dough scraper, but if you don't have one, use a knife large enough to not require a slicing motion. The dough is pretty fluffy and you don't want to deflate any air pockets.NOTE: Nutritional values are estimates only.