Ricotta Bread - Sardinian Recipe

The Ricotta Bread (in Italian panini alla ricotta) are a specialty of my region, Sardinia. I am a real expert of this bread because I love it madly. If you've never tasted you can not understand, because it is a mix of sweet and salty. Thinking of stuffing them for me is a real sacrilege, because it is so good to eat itself. But let 's see how you can do it!

Ingredients

Flour 500 gr

Ricotta Cheese 500 gr

Fresh Yeast 7-8 gr

Milk 70 ml

Brown Sugar 1 and 1/2

Saffron

Salt 2 teaspoons

  

• Put the sifted flour, the ricotta, the sugar and the saffron in the kneader.
• Take a glass and dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk and keep aside.
• Mix the ingredients in the kneader for a few seconds and the add the milk with the fresh yeast.
• After about a minute, add the salt.
• Keep on kneadind for 2 - 3 minutes until the ingredients are well blended and the dough will come away from the kneader alone.
• Remove the dough from the kneader and  knead a bit with your hands untilit will have a smooth surface.
• Make a ball shape.
• Put the ball into a lightly floured a bowl and cover with the plastic wrap.
• Let rise for about 2 hours in the closed and off oven and turn its light on if you want to speed up the rising process.
•  If you prefer to use less yeast, just allow the bread to rise longer.
• When the dough has doubled in volume, place it on a work surface lightly dusted with flour. Make the ball shapes, about 80 or 90 gr each.
•  Place the bread on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let rise, again in the oven, for about 1 hour. Put a bowl with water on the bottom of the oven, to prevent the dough to dry out.
• Bake in conventional oven at 200-220° for 15-18 minutes.