🇮🇹🇩🇪

MikiLab's recipes

Browse the recipes and make them at home: doses recalculated for the home oven, explained step by step.

MikiLab doesn't want to teach the craft to anyone who has practised it all their life. Hands, flour, the home oven and time always change something.

Sitor's Workshop

176 recipes

Other ways through the recipes

Recipes are of two kinds: those checked or tested by Michele and the drafts written by Sitor, Michele's AI avatar: an artificial intelligence based on Anthropic models. Each recipe clearly states which kind it is.

Free for personal use. Recipes and texts © MikiLab: reproducing or selling them is forbidden, links are welcome. Official prints and shares carry the MikiLab logo.

© MikiLab — Sitor's Manual · Made with Michele's hands

Other languages: use your browser's translator.

Radio

Pane allo Zafferano

Enter doses, hydration and times. Hydration is computed automatically.

Saffron BreadIllustrative image
MikiLab
MikiLab
Saffron Bread · 17/10/2026

🇮🇹Saffron Bread

Saffron Bread

Recipe no. 24 · mikilab.de/24

Type 1 flour W280

Sitor draft

Michele's touch: soaked breadcrumbs

In all my savoury recipes I add a little soaked breadcrumb, the «Brösel» (German bakers call it an old-bread soaker). It makes the crumb softer, brings crust flavour and keeps the bread fresh longer. Optional: the recipe works without it, but I always do it.

Dry breadcrumbs

50 g

Water

150 g

for this recipe, with 1000 g of flour

  1. The day before: stir the breadcrumbs and water into a soft paste. Cover and keep it in the fridge overnight.
  2. The next day: add all the paste to the final dough (not to the preferment), with the other ingredients. The recipe's water stays the same.

Use plain breadcrumbs, with no salt or seasoning. Best of all is your own bread from yesterday, dried and grated.

MikiLab
MikiLab
Sitor's Manual

Saffron Bread

Farina tipo 1 W280 · Proof: 42 min · Difficulty: Medium
Flour1000 g
Water700 g
Sourdough150 g
Salt20 g
Saffron threads (natural yellow-orange colour)2 g
Olive oil10 g
Honey20 g
Miglioratore Naturale Pro (2% on flour weight)20 g
Apple cider vinegar (Essig)10 g
Coconut fat10 g

Baking: 235°C · 42 min

Method

1) INFUSION: the night before, steep the saffron threads in the warm dough water for colour and aroma. 2) BIGA (indirect): 350 g flour, 155 g water and 3.5 g fresh yeast; mature 16-18 h at 18 °C. 3) AUTOLYSE: mix remaining flour with the saffron water, rest 40 min. 4) DOUGH: incorporate biga and 150 g refreshed sourdough, then honey, oil and Natural Improver Pro; develop gluten. Add the salt (20 g) near the end of mixing. 5) BULK: 1.5 h at room temperature with 2 stretch-and-folds. 6) 16°C RETARD: mature 14-18 h (or fridge 4-6°C) for aroma and open crumb. 7) SHAPE: shape the loaves and proof 2-2.5 h in a floured banneton. 8) BAKE: 235°C with steam for the first 15 min, then 215°C, ~42 min total. COCONUT FAT, OIL AND VINEGAR (my method): add the coconut fat once the dough comes together into a ball; add the olive oil, apple cider vinegar and salt last.

Allergens: Gluten, Lupin

© MikiLab — Sitor's Manual · mikilab.de · Do not reproduce or sell without the logo and consent
Medium

Sourdough (Lievito Madre) check

  1. Put the starter in a straight clear glass jar, mark the level with a rubber band and note the time.
  2. Ready when doubled, with a domed top.
  3. Good signs: bubbles against the glass, smell of yogurt or sweet milk.
  4. Collapsed dome and sharp smell (vinegar, solvent) = «over-proofed»: refresh again before use.
  5. Discard: fuzzy mould, pink or orange streaks.
  6. Keep it around 28 °C (e.g. oven off with light on; check with a thermometer).
  7. Note how many hours it takes to double: if it gets faster each refresh, it's getting stronger.

Use it when it is active and stable: it doubles regularly after a refresh. If you have no starter, ask a bakery for a piece or use dried starter to reactivate (about a week).

On TikTokRecipe no. 24

What you need· draft

  • Scale (1 g)Where: houseware
  • Large bowlWhere: houseware
  • Oven thermometer · optionalWhere: houseware / online
  • Clear glass jar with rubber bandWhere: houseware store
  • Room thermometerWhere: houseware / online

Allergens

GlutenLupin

Always check the labels of your products.

Oven and steam can burn.

Recipes and texts © MikiLab. Free for personal use. Official prints and shares carry the MikiLab logo.

The MikiLab label

Long fermentationSourdoughVery little yeastNo eggsNo additives
Total fermentation
≈ 16-18 h
How it rises
sourdough starter
Baker's yeast
0,4 % of flour
Salt
2 g per 100 g flour
Added fat
1 %
Added sugars
2 %
Flour
Farina tipo 1 W280

Michele's method: the preferment or sourdough works at least 12 hours. More flavour, longer keeping, less yeast.

Calculated from the recipe: facts about the method, not a nutrition label nor medical advice.

Process diagram

MikiLabSaffron Bread🫙1. PrefermentBiga🥣2. Mixing🤲3. Shaping🔥4. Baking235 °C · 42 min🌬️5. Coolingmikilab.de
70% hydr.1000g flour235° · 42′ StaticIndirect

🥖 Phase 1 · Biga (evening before)

Flour350 g
Water155 g
Fresh yeast4 g

16-18 h at 18°C

Phase 2 · Main dough

Rescaleg
How much flour?
Flour650 g · 65%
Water545 g · 54.5%
Preferment (Biga)150 g · 15%
Salt20 g · 2%
Saffron threads (natural yellow-orange colour)2 g · 0.2%
Olive oil10 g · 1%
Honey20 g · 2%
Miglioratore Naturale Pro (2% on flour weight)20 g · 2%
Apple cider vinegar (Essig)10 g · 1%
Coconut fat10 g · 1%

Procedure

1) INFUSION: the night before, steep the saffron threads in the warm dough water for colour and aroma. 2) BIGA (indirect): 350 g flour, 155 g water and 3.5 g fresh yeast; mature 16-18 h at 18 °C. 3) AUTOLYSE: mix remaining flour with the saffron water, rest 40 min. 4) DOUGH: incorporate biga and 150 g refreshed sourdough, then honey, oil and Natural Improver Pro; develop gluten. Add the salt (20 g) near the end of mixing. 5) BULK: 1.5 h at room temperature with 2 stretch-and-folds. 6) 16°C RETARD: mature 14-18 h (or fridge 4-6°C) for aroma and open crumb. 7) SHAPE: shape the loaves and proof 2-2.5 h in a floured banneton. 8) BAKE: 235°C with steam for the first 15 min, then 215°C, ~42 min total. COCONUT FAT, OIL AND VINEGAR (my method): add the coconut fat once the dough comes together into a ball; add the olive oil, apple cider vinegar and salt last.

The why

This recipe's steps explained by Sitor (AI). The quantities stay Michele's.

Machine Sheet

Production Mode: Manual

Hourly Yield: ≈ 40-80 pcs/hour (by hand)

No machine active: manual work. Turn on the Machine Park in the Lab.

Bread with a natural yellow-orange colour and warm aroma from saffron threads (no dyes). Indirect method with BIGA (18 h at 18°C). Infuse the threads the night before in the dough water.

Useful terms *

  • * Autolyse: an initial rest of flour and water (20-40 min) before salt and yeast; it develops gluten and makes the dough more extensible.
  • * Full development (incordare): knead until the dough is smooth, elastic and pulls away from the bowl (gluten fully developed).
  • * Final proof (appretto): the second proof after shaping, before baking.
Michele

Made with Michele's hands

MikiLab 🇮🇹🇩🇪