Among the rolling hills of Florence, in the village of Diacceto, is situated the Oven La Torre, famous for its naturally leavened bread baked in a wood oven, which distributes throughout the region. The business was founded in 1987, for the production of cakes, cookies and other organic baked goods.
Stefano Borselli and Janneke Zambrano decided to rely on a master chimney sweeper, Livio Piroli and together they built the oven, following step by step all the stages of processing. The result is an oven that weighs 400 tons with the dome, the real heart of the oven or mouth in which they introduce the foods, which has a diameter of about 3 meters: a mix of old and modern wisdom, which together give the possibility of optimize the cooking of foods.
Another feature of the products La Torre lies in the leavening, strictly "natural"! From the old country recipes, the yeast is still produced starting from the mother, a mix of flour and water, which thanks to microorganisms that are naturally present in the environment acidifies spontaneously in a more or less long period. Once ready, the yeast base will be joined to the dough and thanks to the former it finally will rise.
This "treasure" is retained because the more it is used, the most it will improve its performance.
Why should we prefer naturally leavened products?
Unlike beer yeast, the natural yeast includes several species of lactic acid bacteria, which lead to lactic acid fermentation and not only alcoholic just as in the case of beer yeast, the resulting product has a higher digestibility and shelf life, a naturally leavened bread of course will be conserved for a whole week !! The oven La Torre, constantly selects its yeasts which are kept alive for over 30 years.
The company is mainly oriented to process and search for vegan and macrobiotic products, which at the same time thanks to the 20 years experience of passion and production are delicious and healthy.
The secret of the panettone is that it is not a "mappazzone" !!
Among the most classic Christmas cakes, the panettone is certainly the best known, the oven Tower also offers variations on the traditional recipe by substituting sugar with malt or using plants beverages for the production of vegan recipes.
We asked our friends to reveal some secrets of their production also because the panettone La Torre is a real guarantee for all those who have to give up this sweet because of the low digestibility of industrial products.
To produce it, Stefano Borselli, explains to us that they are used to produce Italian flour and stone ground. Sweetening with malt, makes the product
suitable for all those who do not wish to use simple or refined sugars.
The preparation of yeast used for panettone takes about 48-50 hours, at its proper maturation various types of dough are prepared, and these, a little at a time, incorporate all the other necessary raw materials. We then move on to a further rising to 24 hours, then the panettone goes in cooking and thanks to the wood-burning oven you get a final product with exceptional flavors and nuances! Stefano Borselli says, "it is a whole different story ...." who can blame him?
