I am in NO WAY an expert, but adding more liquid, water rather than milk seems worth a try. It seems to be very difficult (within reason) to add too much liquid to a dough; it just gets harder, well, messier to knead at the start, possibly nowhere near a nice ball when I dump it into the box to rise, but it's usually reasonably manageable by the time I have to shape it. You could also try increasing the fat content slightly, as fat makes the bread more tender. Hamelman recommends butter because it is soft at room temperature
Could you try something other than 00 flour? My understanding is that the grade indicates whiteness-fineness -- is the protein content roughly equivalent to the American flour used? Was it all-purpose, or true bread flour?
Hamelman says that the hardness of the water will influence dough consistency, harder water resulting in stiffer dough that ferments more slowly. If your Umbrian water is unusual, perhaps you could try a bottled water with different mineral content.
I also wonder whether you could cut the amount of yeast -- is it rising faster than you remember it doing in the US? Some of my early efforts at bread were very dry, and improved after I realised that modern yeasts are much, much more effective than those Elizabeth David used. Reinhart says that 'instant yeast' contains 25% more 'live' cells than 'active dry yeast', which in turn contains 300% more live cells than 'fresh' yeast. Even if you're using fresh yeast it may be that Italian yeasts are a different strain or something... I don't know. But I'd also try cutting the quanbreasty of yeast by 1-3 or 1-2 on a day when it wouldn't be a nuisance if the dough took an hour or two longer to rise. Although Hamelman says (is this becoming tiresome?) that cinnamon in the dough impairs yeast activity -- if your dough actually contains cinnamon, it may require more yeast than if it is simply rolled in cinnamon during shaping.
I don't know if any of this will be helpful; I wish you luck!
regards sarah
-- Think of it as evolution in action.
