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Casatiello: No Need to Make a Sandwich

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Slice of Casatiello: Italian brioche with Salami and Cheese

This savory Italian bread already has all of my favorite sandwich ingredients inside of it!

For week five of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge, I baked Casatiello. Peter Reinhart describes it as a rich, dreamy Italian elaboration of brioche.  His description is beautiful and poetic, but the Casatiello is even more so.  Rich, but light and fluffy, studded with chunks of salami and filled with oozing pockets of cheese, this bread stole my heart.

Casatiello Bread inside a Springform Pan

Not only was this one of the most delicious breads I’ve ever tasted, but I was able to start and finish it on the same day!  It doesn’t bother me that the other BBA breads took a couple of days to make, I’m always willing to wait for good bread.  But it was certainly nice to know that this time around my bread making efforts would be rewarded at the end of an afternoon rather than a day or two later.

And what a reward it was!

Casatiello Bread inside a Springform Pan

The process of making this bread was very similar to the Brioche that I wrote about last week.  But this one doesn’t contain nearly as much butter and I found that the dough was much easier to work with.  I took a ton of photos as I was putting this bread together, but due to some crazy technical difficulties this morning, I’m not going to be able to share them with you today.  It’s just been one of those days.

Once I am able to recover all of my step-by-step photos, I will add them to this post along with a more in-depth description of how I made this bread.  But in the meantime, check out these other BBA Members who have made Casatiello:

The Next Bread

This week we will be making Challah, the braided Sabbath bread of Judaism.  I’m excited about making Challah because it will be my first time braiding a bread dough!  The ingredients for this one are simple, and the bread can be made in one day.  The bread instructions begin on page 133 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Instructions (including photos) for braiding the dough begin on page 84.  Good luck and happy baking!

Want to Bake Along With Us?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun!  First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book.  Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread! But first, please visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group!

If you haven’t already, you might want to bookmark the BBA Challenge Page.  From there you can see which breads are coming up soon, find answers to Frequently Asked Questions, visit and/or add yourself to our World Map, see the BBA Challenge Blogroll, and check out the continually updated slideshow of BBA Bread photos from our ever-expanding group of bakers!

For those of you who are participating in The BBA Challenge, here are some questions:  How did you like the Casatiello?  Do you think it deserved a week of it’s own, even though it’s basically a variation of the brioche we made last week?  Which meat, cheese or other ingredients did you add to the dough?  What type of pan did you bake it in?  Did you learn anything new while using this formula?

And remember, if you wrote a blog post about Casatiello, or have photos available online, please leave a comment and share your link!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. kellypea says

    I honestly think this is my favorite so far. I love bread recipes that I can play around with and this one has such possibilities! Playing around may need to wait until I make some progress, however. My rich brioche has just been lightly brushed with egg and is waiting to be popped into the oven. Guess what I'm having for dinner tonight? Hahahahaha! Your photos, as always, are completely amazing.
    Reply

  4. Kate says

    Liked this bread more than I expected to. I did mine with bacon and cheese. I think the amounts of meat and cheese could be increased, but really quite a good bread. Looking forward to the challah.
    Reply

  5. mags says

    Your casatiello is beautiful Nicole. And such lovely photos. http://othersideof50.blogspot.com/2009/06/casatiello-bread-bakers-apprentice.html
    Reply

  6. Deb says

    Your photos are great once again Nicole. It is strange how we all prefer different breads in this challenge. Although Casatiello was good, I prefer the brioche bread. Oh well, that's what makes us all unique! http://tinyurl.com/mouv43 My Casatiello experience.
    Reply

  9. Joey D says

    Lovely Nicole! I did want to point out one thing that kinda irked me about the recipe... it's not a Casatiello, it's a Tortano. Not sure why Peter used the name, but this started a HUGE discussion with my 88-year old Napolitan father (you know us Italians). Casatiello is a type of Tortano, made for Easter, with eggs braided into the loaf. Peter's recipe doesn't have any lard in it (Casatiello is also known as "Neapolitan Lard Bread"), doesn't have any eggs braided into the loaf... and wasn't presented in a "corona" braid -- it's classic form. Ah well, it's been said that Italians will look for anything to argue about. As for the recipe itself... I used a larger dice, wine soaked/pepper salami, and cubed provalone... came out "a real-ah a nice-uh". Not quite as pretty as yours. But... oh it was yummy. LOL.
    Reply

  10. Danielle says

    It took me a while, but finally! My post is up! You were right about this bread, it is SO GOOD! http://bonvivant.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/casatiello-your-sandwich-in-a-slice/
    Reply

  11. AP269 says

    Those cheese pockets look great! Will use cheese cubes instead of shredded cheese next time, too. Here's my post: http://ap269.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/bba-challenge-5-casatiello/
    Reply

  12. ATigerInTheKitchen says

    Your bread looked gorgeous as usual! I love the round tin you used. I may try that next time. My loaf looked so boring but the bread was incredibly delicious! Will use cubed cheese for cheesy pockets next time, too.... http://www.atigerinthekitchen.com/2009/09/casatiello.html
    Reply

  14. Shawn says

    Hi, I've been baking the sourdough bread from BBA and was going to try casatiello next in a spring form pan. What size did you end up using 8 or 10 inch?
    Reply

  15. Adriana Stein says

    I’ve joined the BBA Challenge a little too late, but as they say better late than never, right? I wonder if there is any brazilian baker in the group. Im writing about the BBA Challenge in portuguese in my blog, it would be nice to exchange ideas in portuguese.
    Reply

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