Bread with Mother Yeast (Criscito)
A traditional, typical and widespead product. Each bakery in the Vesuvius area keeps and hands down recipes with specific quantities of yeast to put in the mixture, or of resting periods for the dough. The bakers are considered masters in the production of a bread which has maintained, through time, the basic rules for its making unchanged so that the result is an authentic and high quality product.
The main trait of traditional bread-making is the leavening, which happens with the criscito: water, flour and some dough from previous batches (the so called 'mother yeast') left to ferment for over ten hours.
The typical 'palatone' bread found in the area's bakeries has an elongated shape and height greater than the base. It is prepared with wheat flour, mother yeast. strictly local water, and the right amount of salt. Some versions allow for the use of Brewer's yeast. The flour is added to the yeast melted in lukewarm water and the mixture is left to leaven for several hours. The dough is then molded into shapes which vary in weight (from half a kilo to 2kg) and are baked in a hot wooden oven, another must for this area's bread. The characteristics of the bread made in the Vesuvius National Park are its thin and golden crust and its delicious white crumb, which remains fragrant for several days.
