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Ciabatta #3

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Italy

Known as an Italian recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.

Ingredients 16 ingredients

  1. -- (filtered or bottled)
  2. 1/2 Cup water -- warm (110 F)
  3. 27 Ounces BREAD flour
  4. YEAST MIXTURE:
  5. Cornmeal
  6. -- (filtered or bottled)
  7. 1/2 Teaspoon yeast
  8. DOUGH:
  9. 2/3 Cup water -- warm (110 F)
  10. 1 1/2 Teaspoons yeast
  11. -- (5 1/4 - 5 1/2 cups)
  12. 2 Cups ice water
  13. 1 Cup BREAD flour
  14. Cut
  15. SPONGE:
  16. 1 Tablespoon salt
Contains GlutenEggs Read from the ingredients, not verified. Check labels.

Cook safely

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

  • Oven and hot trays. Use dry oven gloves for trays and dishes: a hot tray looks just like a cold one. Open the oven door away from your face and let the first rush of heat out.
  • Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.
  • Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

Method

  1. NOTE: This is messy, but worth the effort. Try not to add extra flour until you've tried the recipe as is. (Additional flour will cause the texture to be more like that of French bread than of this feathery light loaf.) The dough should spring up in the oven and give you a nicely rounded bread, even though it may look flat after the second rising.
  2. 1. SPONGE: Dissolve 1/2 tsp. yeast in 2/3 cup warm water. Add 1 cup flour and stir to incorporate. Let rise, covered, until tripled in volume (about 4 hours).
  3. 2. YEAST MIXTURE: When the starter is ready, dissolve 1 1/2 tsp. yeast in 1/2 cup warm water and let stand for 10 minutes.
  4. 3. DOUGH: In the bowl of a heavy duty mixer (KitchenAid), combine -- the YEAST MIXTURE -- 2 cups ICE WATER -- 1 cup SPONGE -- 27 ounces bread flour (5 1/4 - 5 1/2 cups) -- 1 TBL salt
  5. Mix at speed #2 for 1 minute.
  6. 4. Add the SALT and mix for 2 minutes. Let rest 20 min. (the dough will be very wet and will not hold a shape).
  7. 5. After the 20 minute rest, knead at speed #6 until the dough pulls away from the sides and bottom of the bowl, about 12 to 15 minutes. -- If the dough first cleans the sides of the bowl and later starts sticking again, just keep kneading, for a minimum of 12 minutes. (You can prepare the ingredients the day before and refrigerate overnight if you wish, doing the kneading in step 5 the next day.)
  8. 6. Decrease speed to #4; knead another 5 or 6 minutes.
  9. 7. FIRST RISE: Transfer the dough to a large, oiled mixed bowl. Cover with a tight-fitting lid or plastic wrap and let rise until TRIPLED IN VOLUME, about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. (The ideal temperature is about 75 F.)
  10. 8. SHAPING: Pour the dough onto a heavily floured work surface and cut into two pieces. Flour your hands. Keep the floured side of the loaf facing down and pull five ends of the dough from the outside edge to the center. Press these ends down and flip the dough over. Cup the heels of your hands around the dough and rotate, all the while pinching the dough underneath with the both heels of the hands to shape a taut, smooth ball.
  11. 10. SECOND RISE: Set the loaves (preferably on baking parchment) in a cool spot, dust WELL with flour, and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
  12. 11. BAKING: Meanwhile, 20 minutes before the bread finishes rising, put a baking stone on the oven's lowest rack and heat the oven to 450 F. To prevent the loaves from sticking (if not using baking parchment) sprinkle the baking stone now with cornmeal.
  13. 12. STEAM: For a crisper crust, put 1 cup of ice cubes(or 1 cup boiling water) in a pan on the oven floor (or lowest rack in an electric oven) just before putting in the bread.
  14. 13. Using a baker's peel or a baking sheet, gently transfer the loaves to the stone, taking care not to deflate the dough. Bake until the crust is dark brown, about 30 min. (For a lighter colored crust, reduce the temperature to 425 F after five minutes.)
  15. 14. Remove the finished loaves from the oven and let cool on a rack about one hour. Freezes well.
  16. >From: "Jack A. Sears"

Plating

Cookware for this recipe

  • Saucepan
  • Baking tray
  • Mixing bowl
  • Electric mixer
  • Chef's knife
  • Vegetable peeler
  • Wooden spoon
  • Spatula
Source Not stated: saved from a website or mailing list, rights unverified
Credit

Recipe By: Adapted from FINE COOKING, Dec. '95. Saved from the Bread-Bakers mailing list (http://www.bread-bakers.com/archives/recipe/text-zip/b1q97/b1q97.txt), file Recipes/www.bread-bakers.com/archives/recipe/text-zip/b1q97/b1q97.txt in the Internet Archive item cooking-recipes (https://archive.org/details/cooking-recipes).

What was changed: Read by machine from the mastercook text: title, ingredients and method as written, columns closed up and wrapped lines joined; credit lines kept apart; e-mail addresses removed; an all-capitals title given ordinary capitals. Not rewritten.