BBA Challenge part 7 - Ciabatta
June 24th, 2009
I’ve made ciabatta lots of times, usually with my own version of Carol Field’s recipe in “The Italian Baker” (an excellent book for Italian cakes and biscuits/cookies as well as bread. You can buy the book here.
This time, I made the poolish version from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. A poolish is a wet pre-ferment - Italian bakers would probably use the word biga for all pre-ferments, whether wet or firm. There is little difference between the two recipes, except that Field uses all-purpose/plain flour while Reinhart uses bread flour. Italian bakers would use Tipo 00 flour which is lower in protein than US/UK bread flour, and therefore will have less gluten in the dough, making it more tender to the bite. I tend to use either all plain/AP flour or a mixture of plain/AP and bread flour. This time I made the poolish with plain flour and added bread flour for the final dough. I left the poolish in the fridge for about 36 hours.
Reinhart’s recipe specifies adding 3oz of liquid (I used milk, to help tenderise the crumb) plus as much extra as needed to produce a wet sticky dough that sticks to the bottom of the bowl during kneading. I didn’t weigh exactly, but I used around another 3oz. Having seen the finished bread, I should have added more - the dough would have been harder to handle but I’d have got a more authentic result with the typical large holes in the crumb.
A few words about handling and shaping ciabatta: firstly, you can use absolutely loads of flour on the worktop and your hands to stop the wet dough sticking - so long as it is not mixed into the dough, it won’t spoil the texture of your bread. A dough scraper (flat metal or plastic blade with a handle) is an absolute must for separating and moving this kind of dough (I’ll put an amazon link on here when I have time!). Try not touch the dough with the very tips of your fingers, and when you do touch it, imagine that it’s red hot and you don’t want to burn your fingers.
While finishing the shaping of the ciabattas, I like to use some durum wheat flour (Dove’s Farm organic pasta flour) which, unlike ordinary wheat flour, will not dissolve into the surface of the dough, thus giving a nice floury rustic look to the finished loaf.
Ciabatta proving in parchment couche
When you bake ciabatta, do be sure to leave it until you have a thoroughly browned crust to get the best flavour. Here are a couple of photos of my results this time: as I said, I should have added more liquid to get bigger holes, but the bread still tasted excellent, with a pronounced rich flavour from the preferment.
Ciabattas fresh out of the oven
Sliced ciabatta showing crumb structure
June 24th, 2009 at 2:07 am
Your ciabatta look great. Your crumb is much more holey than mine.
Great baking along with you,
Susie
June 24th, 2009 at 2:48 am
“While finishing the shaping of the ciabattas, I like to use some durum wheat flour (Dove’s Farm organic pasta flour) which, unlike ordinary wheat flour, will not dissolve into the surface of the dough, thus giving a nice floury rustic look to the finished loaf.”
Ah, interesting! I can get semolina here, made from durum flour, but not durum flour itself. But I can whir-whir it and get something at least mostly resembling flour, so this could be what I’m looking for.
I had some clumps of flour sticking to my ciabatta. I would have preferred that it not, and tried brushing it off. Some did, others refused to unstuck. I’m gathering the durum flour will be easier in that respect. I’ll certainly give it a try next time.
Thanks! 
June 24th, 2009 at 6:24 am
Great post with lots of helpful tips - I need all the help I can get. I’ll be making mine this weekend and it’ll be my first time with a wet dough. Your tips and information are VERY useful. Thanks!
The bread looks great, too!
June 24th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Thanks for the post and tips! I have only made ciabatta twice…my preferment is in the fridge, ready to go…wish me luck!
June 25th, 2009 at 4:13 am
Wow, they look great, with real holes and everything! Thank you for your helpful tips, I’ve never made a wet dough before, so this will really help. I love that floury outside, and didn’t realise it was durum wheat flour, so thanks.
June 27th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
O.K. I did my ciabatta, but the large holes were not there! I have always used active dry yeast and at my high altitude, instant yeast rises very quickly. As soon as I touched my dough, it would deflate….what should I do differently next time?
July 27th, 2009 at 2:04 am
Hi Frieda, sorry for the slow reply. I think that once it’s fermented, it doesn’t matter what sort of yeast you used to start off with. Some suggestions that may or may not work: try a little less yeast next time, and try to keep the dough cooler. I’d also emphasize the things I said above: use a metal dough scraper to do as much of the shaping as possible instead of your fingers. When you do need your fingers, don’t touch the dough with the very tips, and be *really* gentle - imagine that every touch of the dough is burning your fingers. Good luck, and please let us know if you make any progress.