Coppia ferrarese

In the morning: the lievito madre

The specification raises the coppia with a lievito madre that each bakery makes in the province from strong flour (W 300–350) and water, at 45% water. At home, refresh an active sourdough starter of your own the same way: strong flour, 45% water. Once it has risen, in 4–5 hours by the specification's account, it is ready.

1. 1Refresh the lievito madre

   Start
   Hands-on 5 min

   Knead 30 g of your active starter with 40 g of strong type 0 flour and 18 ml of water into a smooth, pliable ball. Put it in a lidded container and mark its level on the side.

   Check A smooth ball, soft and pliable but not sticky, with no dry flour, its level marked.

   Tip Our guide: these quantities follow the specification's madre, a strong flour with 45% water; you need 50 g for the dough and keep the rest as your starter.

   Tip No starter? The specification's own method makes one in about six days. Our guide, its quantities divided by ten: knead 100 g of strong type 0 flour with 45 ml of water and 1.5 ml of red wine vinegar or grape must by hand for 10 minutes into a soft ball, and leave it 24 hours, covered, away from any heat.

   Tip Then, every 12 hours for five days, knead in about 20 g of strong flour and 9 ml–10 ml of water and leave it again. On the last day knead it well and leave it in a container under a cotton cloth; the next day it is ready to refresh as above. If mould appears, throw it away and start again.

2. 2Let it double: 4–5 hours

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   Rest 4–5 hTemp 26 °CStart 4 h timer

   Leave it, covered, at about 26 °C until it has doubled, 4–5 hours.

   Check It stands at twice its mark, domed, full of small holes when torn, and smells pleasantly sour.

   Tip Our guide: if it has not doubled in 5 hours, the starter is weak: refresh 30 g of it again the same way and wait once more.

The dough: hard, kneaded slowly and refined

The specification's proportions, for the flour: 35% water, 5–7% pure pork lard, 2–4% extra virgin olive oil and 10% lievito madre, with brewer's yeast, salt and malt, and no bread additives. This page makes four coppie from 500 g of flour with the quantities of a published home recipe whose proportions sit inside those (35% water, 6% lard, 4% oil, 10% madre), with the specification's type 0 flour in place of that recipe's 00, and that recipe's 9 g of salt and 5 g of malt, for which the specification gives no figure. The specification requires brewer's yeast too but sets no amount; that recipe uses none and no serious source gives a home dose, so this page leaves it out rather than invent one: the dough rises on the madre alone.

1. 3Dissolve the madre

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   Hands-on 5 minTemp 20 °C

   Pour 175 ml of cool water, about 20 °C, into the mixer bowl, stir in 5 g of malt and break in 50 g of the lievito madre, squeezing it with your fingers until it has dissolved.

   Check Cloudy water with no lumps of madre left; the thermometer reads about 20 °C.

   Tip Our guide: cool water keeps the dough from warming during the long knead.

2. 4Knead slowly for 15–20 minutes

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   Hands-on 15–20 minOfficial textStart 15 min timer

   Work all the ingredients in the mixer for 15 to 20 minutes. The slow movement mixes them evenly, spreads the fat through the dough and keeps it from warming, which a hard dough (pasta dura) needs.

   Check A firm, smooth, compact dough that no longer sticks to the bowl or your hands, cool to the touch.

   Tip Our guide: add the 500 g of type 0 flour and mix at the lowest speed with the dough hook until it comes together, about 3 minutes. Add the 30 g of lard in small pieces and knead until it has disappeared, then the 20 g of oil and the 9 g of salt, and knead on at the lowest speed to make up the 15–20 minutes.

   Tip Our guide: the specification's fork mixer turns slowly; the lowest speed of a stand mixer is the home version. By hand, push the dough away with the heel of your hand and fold it back, for the full time: with so little water it is hard work.

   Tip Our guide: about 790 g of hard dough is a heavy load for a home mixer: if the motor labours, finish by hand.

   Tip Do not add water to soften it: the specification's 35% makes a hard dough on purpose.

3. 5Refine the dough: 15–20 passes

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   Hands-on 10–15 minOfficial text

   Pass the dough through the rollers 15 to 20 times to refine it.

   Check Smooth, silky and slightly shiny, with no tears or dry patches; cut through, it is dense and even.

   Tip Our guide: on a lightly floured board, roll the dough with a rolling pin into a sheet about 1 cm thick, fold it in half, give it a quarter turn and roll it again. Count 15–20 passes.

   Tip Our guide: or cut it in four and pass each piece through a pasta machine at its widest setting, folding it in half each time.

   Tip Shape straight after: the specification wants the coppia shaped completely before it starts to rise.

Shaping the coppie

Each coppia is two pieces of dough. Each piece is pressed into an oval, the pastella, and rolled up into thin, spiralled horns whose points are the crostini; then the two halves are joined in the middle and pressed hard, the stretta. Keep the pieces you are not working under a cloth so that they do not dry.

1. 6Divide: eight pieces, in pairs

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   Hands-on 5 minOfficial text

   By hand, break the dough into pieces of the weight you want, then divide each piece in two.

   Check On the scale: eight pieces of about 98 g, in four pairs.

   Tip Our guide: the dough weighs about 790 g. Cut four pieces of about 195 g, then halve each: eight of 95 g–100 g, for four coppie of about 195 g–200 g.

   Tip Our guide: cover them with a cloth or film at once.

2. 7Press each piece into an oval: the pastella

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   Hands-on 8 minOfficial text

   Press each piece with your hands until it takes the oval shape called the pastella.

   Check An even oval about 1.2 cm thick, about 14 cm long and 6 cm–7 cm wide, with no cracks.

   Tip Our guide: flatten the piece with the heel of your hand into a rough oval, then roll it lightly with the rolling pin, lengthwise, to an even 1.2 cm.

3. 8Roll up the crostini

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   Hands-on 12–16 minOfficial text

   Working the two pastelle at the same time, one in each hand, roll the dough up until the crostini have their final shape.

   Check Each piece is a tight roll about 15 cm–18 cm from point to point and about 3 cm thick in the middle, tapering at both ends to thin, spiralled points, with a short flat tail of dough left unrolled.

   Tip Our guide: lay a pastella with a narrow end towards you and hold that end flat with the fingertips of one hand. With the other, fold over the far tip and start rolling it towards you under your palm.

   Tip Our guide: roll in short strokes. Push the roll away from you so that it unrolls a turn, pressing so that the dough under your palm thins and widens, then draw it back, rolling it up further than before. The roll grows longer sideways, and its two ends draw out into thin, spiralled horns whose points are the crostini.

   Tip Our guide: stop about 2 cm from the end you are holding, leaving a short flat tail. Bakers roll two at once, one under each hand; at home, one at a time is fine. If the dough springs back, cover it and give it 5 minutes.

   Tip Our guide: the sizes in the check are our estimate from the dough's weight, not measured on Ferrara's coppie: if your roll is much shorter and fatter, give it a few more strokes.

4. 9Join the halves: the stretta

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   Hands-on 5 minOfficial text

   Join the two half-coppie by hand, pressing them together.

   Check Two rolls bound together by a flat middle, like a ribbon, with four thin twisted horns spread out like a fan, an X about 15 cm–18 cm across the points and 10 cm–14 cm deep. It holds together when you lift it by the middle.

   Tip Our guide: lay two rolls side by side, parallel, with their flat tails towards each other. Lay one tail over the other in the middle and press the overlap down hard with both thumbs, pushing the middle of each roll in towards the join: the four points spread out into an X.

   Tip Our guide: lay each coppia on a sheet of baking paper as you finish it, two to a sheet, side by side with their long sides parallel and at least 4 cm apart, the sheets on boards or upturned baking trays.

The rise

1. 10Rise under a cloth: 1½–2 hours

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   Rest 1 h 30 min to 2 hTemp 26 °C–28 °CStart 1 h 30 min timer

   Cover the coppie with a cotton cloth and leave them somewhere warm, about 26 °C–28 °C, for 90–120 minutes, until they pass the check.

   Check Visibly puffed, the middle soft and swollen; a light finger press there leaves a dent that springs back slowly.

   Tip The specification lays the shaped bread on wooden boards under a cloth and gives it 70–90 minutes, depending on the room temperature; its dough has brewer's yeast as well as the madre. Our guide: without it the home dough is slower, and the home recipe this page follows gives it 90–120 minutes.

   Tip Our guide: if they have not passed the check at 120 minutes, leave them covered and check every 15 minutes.

   Tip Our guide: only the first pair bakes at the end of this rise; the second waits about 30 minutes more (see the baking steps).

2. 11Heat the oven

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   Hands-on 2 minTemp 200 °C

   After about 45 minutes of rising, put a baking stone, steel or heavy baking tray on the lowest shelf and heat the oven to 200 °C, top and bottom heat, no fan. It needs at least 45 minutes.

   Check When the first coppie are ready, the oven shows 200 °C and has been heating for at least 45 minutes.

   Tip Our guide: the specification bakes on a fixed hearth heated from below; a hot stone low in the oven is the home version.

Baking

1. 12Into the oven, then shut it

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   Hands-on 2 minTemp 200 °COfficial text

   Bake on a fixed hearth heated from below. Load the bread with the vents open, then close the vents and the doors, so that the steam formed in the first part of the bake stays in and helps the bread grow.

   Check Two coppie on the stone, and the door shut within a minute.

   Tip Our guide: slide one sheet of baking paper, with its two coppie, onto the hot stone and shut the door at once. A home oven has no vents: keep the door shut. Add no steam: the specification keeps in the steam the bread makes.

   Tip Our guide: as soon as the first pair goes in, move the second sheet, still covered, somewhere cooler, about 20 °C, so that it rises more slowly while it waits its 30 minutes or so.

2. 13Bake the first pair: 18–20 minutes

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   Cooking 18–20 minTemp 200 °CStart 18 min timer

   Bake for 18–20 minutes at 200 °C with the door shut. The specification in force gives no time or temperature; the summary published with the application in 2000 gave 18–20 minutes at no more than 240 °C.

   Check Golden all over, with paler, almost blond streaks along the twisted horns; the points are dry and crisp, the base sounds hollow when tapped, and a probe in the middle reads at least 95 °C.

   Tip Our guide: if the middle is still pale, give it 2–3 minutes more; watch the thin points, which colour first.

3. 14Take the first pair out

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   Hands-on 2 minOfficial text

   Reopen the vents when you take the bread out, to let out the moisture gathered in the oven.

   Check The first pair is on the rack and the oven door is shut again.

   Tip Our guide: a home oven has no vents: opening the door does the same. Lift the coppie onto a wire rack with their paper, then shut the door.

4. 15Let the oven recover: 5 minutes

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   Cooking 5 minTemp 200 °CStart 5 min timer

   Leave the door shut for 5 minutes, so that the oven and the stone come back to 200 °C.

   Check The oven shows 200 °C again.

5. 16Bake the second pair: 18–20 minutes

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   Cooking 18–20 minTemp 200 °CStart 18 min timer

   Slide the second sheet onto the stone, shut the door at once and bake for 18–20 minutes at 200 °C; then open the door, as before, and lift the coppie onto the rack.

   Check Golden all over, with paler, almost blond streaks along the twisted horns; the points are dry and crisp, the base sounds hollow when tapped, and a probe in the middle reads at least 95 °C.

   Tip Our guide: by now this pair has risen about 30 minutes longer than the first: 2 minutes to load, 18–20 to bake and 7 to take out and let the oven recover. That is about 2 hours if the first pair went in at 90 minutes, and about 2½ hours if it needed 120.

   Tip Our guide: the cooler wait keeps it from rising too far. If a finger pressed in the middle leaves a dent that no longer springs back at all, it has risen as far as it should: bake it the moment the oven is ready.

6. 17Let them cool

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   Rest 30 minStart 30 min timer

   Leave the coppie on the rack for at least 30 minutes before you eat them.

   Check Cool to the touch; the points snap cleanly and the middle is soft and compact. It smells strong and appetising, and tastes well salted (sapido).

   Tip Our guide: the middle goes on setting as it cools; broken warm, it is gummy.