Wow. That’s how I would describe this bread
in one word. I cook bread on a very regular basis, usually once a week and I
always like to experiment with new recipes, olive, garlic, parmesan, no-knead,
hamburger rolls, dinner buns … you get the drift. But this is by far the best
bread I have ever made, causing everyone in my family to scream out in unison
“BLOG WORTHY.”
It is so, so, good! It doesn’t have a
yeasty taste, or a sour taste. It’s just
Another thing to keep in mind when making
ciabatta is that the dough is supposed to be extremely wet. The dough is so wet
that it’s almost more of a batter than a bread dough. Do not be tempted to add
more flour, this is how ciabatta is supposed to be.
The biga has to be made the night before or
at least 8 hours before. Don’t skip this step as it’s the biga that helps give
the ciabatta its complex flavour, chewy crumb and extra-crispy crust.
Note: This recipe make 2 loaves or 16 rolls
or if you want the best of both worlds (like me) 1 loaf and 8 rolls.
Biga
½ cup of water
½ teaspoon active-dry yeast
1 cup all-purpose flour
Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the
flour and stir to form a thick, gloppy paste. Give it a good fifty or so brisk
stirs to build up the gluten. Cover and let it sit at room temperature for
eight hours or overnight.
By the following day, the biga will look
soupy with many big bubbles dotting the surface.
Ciabatta
2 cups + 2 tablespoons lukewarm water
1 teaspoon active-dry yeast
Biga
4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Dissolve the yeast in the water in the bowl
of a standing mixer. Scrape the biga into the water and squeeze it between your
fingers to break ti up. You don’t need to completely dissolve the biga; just
loosen it up and break it into stringy blobs.
Add all of the flour and the salt. Stir to
form a thick, very wet dough. Let this rest for 10-20 minutes to give the flour
time to absorb the water.
Fit your standing mixer with a dough hook
and knead at medium speed for 15-18 minutes (level 4 or 5 on a KitchnAid). Keep
a close eye on your mixer as it had a tendency to “wall” on the counter at this
speed.
The dough will start off sticking to the
bottom and sides of the bowl. Around the 7-minute mark, it will start to pull
away from the sides of the bowl, collect around the dough hook and regularly
slap the sides of the bowl. If the dough starts climbing the dough hook, stop
the mixer and scrape it down again. By the end of kneading, the dough will look
smooth and creamy with a glossy shine. It will puddle back into the bowl once
you turn off the mixer and this is fine.
Cover the bowl and let the dough rise at 30
degrees Celsius for 2 – 3 hours, until tripled in size.
Dust your work surface heavily with flour.
Set two sheets of parchment paper near your work surface. Scrape the dough out
of the bowl onto the flour, taking care not to deflate it too much. Dust the
top of the dough with more flour. Using a pastry scrape or pizza wheel, cut the
dough into two pieces for loaves or into 16 pieces for rolls.
Brush your hands with flour. Working gently
but swiftly , scoop the loaves (or rolls) one at a time from the work surface
to the parchment. Press your fingertips about halfway into the dough to dimple
the surface and slightly flatten the loaves (or rolls). Let the bread rise,
uncovered for 30 – 40 minutes. When ready to bake they should be pillowy with
many big bubble just beneath the surface.
Preheat the oven to 240 degrees Celsius
conventional, or 220 degrees Celsius of fanforced, while the loaves are rising.
If you have a baking stone put it in the oven now.
When ready to bake, slide the loaves, still
on the parchment, onto a pizza peel or baking sheet. Transfer them to the oven
to cook, either on the baking stone or directly on the baking sheet if you
don’t have a stone. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until puffed and golden brown. Slip
the parchment out from under the loaves and cool completely before eating.
Thank you to http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-hom-159913
for this recipe.
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