Royal Crown Tortano Recipe

How to make it

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• First, you will need: stand mixer with dough hook, small pot with lid, baking stone or sheet, parchment paper, large mixing bowl.
• DAY 1: Make the preferment.
• Stir the yeast into the water in a glass measure and let it stand for 5 - 10 minutes.
• Add to the flour and beat this very sticky starter until it is well combined.
• Cover with plastic wrap and let it ferment until it is full of huge bubbles, and is sharp tasting, about 12 hours.
• DAY 2: Mixing the Dough.
• In the bowl of the stand mixer, stir together the flour and water into a rough, very wet dough.
• Cover the bowl and let it rest 10 to 20 minutes.
• Attach the dough hook.
• Add the pre-ferment, honey, potato and salt and the mix the dough on low speed 15 - 20 minutes, or until very silky and wraps around the hook and cleans the bowl before splaterring back around the bowl.
• This dough is almost pourably wet.
• Shape the dough into a ball and roll it in flour.
• Place it in a container at least 3 times its size, and cover tightly with a lid or plastic wrap, and let rest.
• Using plenty of dusting flour, turn and fold the dough (as for puff pastry) 4 times in 20 minute intervals: that is, after 20, 40, 60, and 80 minutes of fermenting, the leave the dough undisturbed for 2 1/2 hours.
• Do not allow this dough to over ferment to the point of collapse, because the flavor and structure of your bread will suffer.
• Shaping and Proofing the Dough:
• Turn the fermented dough out onto a well floured work surface, shape it into a round and let it rest for 20 minutes.
• Sprinkle a couche, tea towel or wooden board generously with flour, and place a baking sheet under the couche / towel if you are using one for support.
• Sprinkle a couple tablespoons of flour over the center of the ball.
• Push your fingers into the center to make a hole, the rotate your hand around the hole to widen it, making a large 4 inch opening. (The bread should have about 12 inch diameter).
• Place the dough smooth side down on the floured couche or board and dust the surface with more flour.
• Cover and let it proof until it is light and slowly springs back when lightly pressed, about 1 1/2 hours.
• Immediately after shaping the bread, arrange a rack on the oven’s second to top shelf and place a baking stone on it. Clear away all the racks above the one being used.
• Preheat the oven to 450F.
• Unwrap the bread and flip it onto a floured peel or a sheet of parchment paper. (Don't worry about damaging the bread as you handle it; it will recover in the oven as long as it is not overproofed).
• Slash it with 4 radial cuts in the shape of a cross.
• Slide the loaf onto the hot baking stone and bake until it is very dark brown, 40 - 50 minutes, rotating it halfway into the bake.
• Let the bread cool on a rack.