Ciabatta

 

Ciabatta is a Italian bread with  rustic texture on the crust (crispy when it's just out of the oven or toasted) and soft, airy on the inside. It can be eaten on its own, dipped in olive oil or hummus, or made into sandwich. I have shared two recipes for ciabatta in this blog post: one made using Biga, the other one (scroll below) made using Sourdough Discard.

Ciabatta Made Using Biga. Recipe credit to Brian Lagerstrom. Watch his video here.

Ingredients (makes 2 very big loaves) 

A: Biga (Italian starter for making bread)

175g water, 1/4 tsp instant yeast, 225g bread flour. 

B. Dough

180g warm water

250g bread flour

40g warm water

5g yeast

10g salt

all of the biga

Method:

1. Prepare biga by mixing all biga ingredients in a container until completely combined (no lumps of dry flour left), cover and leave it at room temperature to ferment until My poolish was ready in 4 hours (from 5.30pm to 9.30pm).

2. Cover the container and let the biga rest at room temperature for 1 hour, then transfer to the fridge and rest for 6 to 24 hours. I rested my biga at room temperature (around 27 degree celcius) until it has ripened - look for these signs: bubbly on the surface, volume more than doubled. It will also pass the float test i.e. take a very small portion of biga,  drop it into a cup/bowl of water and it should float). My biga was ready around 5.5 hours.

after mixing

after 5.5hours

3. Mix 180g water and bread flour in stand mixer at low speed (Spar mixer speed 1). Once combined and there is no dry flour, cover the mixing bowl with a towel for 30 minutes. This process is called autolyse which will give more elasticity and extensibility to dough.

4. Add 40g warm water, 5g instant yeast, 10g salt, all of the biga, and mix at low speed for 3 minutes.  Once everything comes together, increase speed (Spar mixer, speed 2) and mix for 6 to 7 minutes until the dough comes clean from sides of the mixing bowl and there is flapping sound. The dough is shiny and does not tear when you pull it (gluten has developed enough). Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, lightly oiled with olive oil, cover with a towel and rest for 30 minutes. 

5. Wet/oil hand and perform stretch and fold : pull dough, stretch as far as possible and fold it back over itself. Turn the bowl 90degrees and repeat the stretching and folding. Repeat this 2 more times. After 4 folds, grab corner of dough to roll the bottom of dough to the top. Then perform a coil fold (lift the dough from the middle and tuck the ends under itself). Cover the bowl and rest the dough for 30 minutes.

6. Spray water on bench top. Flip the dough to the benchtop and stretch the dough to a big and thin rectangular shape (12" x 18").  

Fold the length side of the dough onto itself (1/3), then fold the other side to cover the dough. 

After that, gently fold the dough over itself like a swiss roll. 

Gently transfer dough back into mixing bowl. Cover and proof for 60 minutes (dough will rise about 30%).

The dough will be soft and jiggly as shown in this video.

7. Dust the benchtop with flour (to prevent dough from sticking to the benchtop). Dust the dough with flour too. Use the dough scrapper to make sure the dough is well released from the bowl. Flip the dough to the benchtop. Dust the dough with flour again and gently pat it and shape into a square. Be careful not to push air out of the dough. 

8. Dust a piece of baking paper with flour. Divide the dough into two (or smaller pieces to suit your preference) and gently transfer each piece to the baking paper. Cover the dough with a towel and proof (on wooden slab if possible) for 30 minutes. Use poke test to check for readiness. Transfer the dough to the baking tray once proofing is completed.

9. Preheat oven to 260 degree celcius. Put cast iron pan on the bottom of the oven. Use a baking stone if you have one.

10. Place the tray into the oven (2nd rack from bottom). Pour 1 cup of boiling water into the cast iron pan which will create a lot of steam. Trap the steam by covering the baking tray with a big roasting pan. Turn down the oven heat to 240 degree celcius and bake for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes, remove the cast iron pan and bake for an additional 13 to 20 minutes until the crust is dark brown. 

11. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Ciabatta Made Using Sourdough Discard

Ingredients:

100g discard

300g bread flour

240g water

2g yeast

10g olive oil

6g salt

1. Whisk water, discard and yeast in a bowl until the discard is broken up. Fold in the flour until a very wet, sticky dough forms. Let the dough rest for 30minutes.

2. Add olive oil and salt, use your hand to squish the dough and mix in the oil and salt. Rest the dough for 30 minutes.

3. Perform 3 sets of coil folds (lift the dough from the middle and let the ends tuck under) every 30 min. This creates the strength needed to hold those big air bubbles. Cover the dough after each coil fold. After the last fold, cover the dough and let it rise at room temperature for 1 hour (it should be very bubbly) or overnight in the fridge for better flavour.

4. Heavily flour your bench top. Tip the dough out gently. Use a bench scraper to cut the dough into rectangles. Do not handle it more than necessary, or you will pop the bubbles.

5. Let the rectangles rest on a floured parchment for 45minutes or until the dough has doubled.

6. Bake at 230C with steam (a tray of water in the oven) for 15 minutes, then remove steam and bake for another 10 minutes until the crust is deeply golden.