Ciabatta Bread

"Ciabatta" aka "slipper bread" is one of the more well-known, if not the most well-known form of Italian bread in the states. It is made from a semi-sour dough, care of a preferment known either as a "biga" or "poolish." Ciabatta seems to have taken this country by storm in the past few years, finding its way onto most cafe menus, bookending panini and entering the lexicon of this country's increasing food awareness. Due to the serious metabolic activity and CO2 generation of the yeast during the preferment, the bread has a large, open crumb - perfect for dipping in oils. Although the ingredients or simple, achieving adequate fermentation, gluten development, working and shaping dough are sticky, pun intended. The dough is very wet, reaching as high as 80% hydration (water content is 80% of the flour weight.) I've made a few attempts, but this cook-at-heart is no baker. Luckily, I know a Culinary Institute-trained baker who is willing to share his secret from the inner sanctums of the food world. I left all proportions in their original form - by weight percentage of flour. Professional bakers measure in a different universe than the rest of us, and for good reason: baking is much more precise than cooking. Namely, you can't fix your mistakes. Once the dough is together, its game over. For the best, authentic results, I recommend getting a scale.

Ingredients:
Ciabatta recipe - or rather, formula
100% bread flour - King Arthur is recommended by the professional
75% water
2% yeast
2% salt
5% olive oil

We used 20oz of flour and got two loaves.

Yes, the percentages add to a logical 184%, but this in notation in the professional world. Flour is always given at 100% and each non-flour ingredient is given a percentage of the flour weight. Due to settling, weight is much more accurate than volume.

Method:

Preferment theory:
Why does bakery bread taste so good and our amateur attempts taste so, well, amateur. There is a complexity to bakery bread, call it "bread umami." While the ingredients are simple, real artisan bread has a slight sweetness, despite the absence of sugar. It has earthiness, and something that just grabs you by the tongue and screams "goodness." Time to let the secret out - it comes from a preferment or a starter. Yeast, water, flour go in and then the yeast feast. Flour is a starch, a long complex chain of carbohydrates. Once the yeast start their work, the starch is broken into a variety of smaller molecules, sugars being one of them. A proven starter can feed a bakery's production for eternity, provided the baker keeps adding flour and water. Legend has it that the CIA's sourdough starter is over 100 years old. As a semi-sourdough, Ciabatta needs a good preferment.

The Ciabatta starter is called either a biga or poolish. After measuring your ingredients for the dough as a whole. Take an amount equal to 30% of the flour weight from the dough recipe, and add it to the same amount of water, by weight, again, take from the dough recipe. (eg. if using 20oz of flour for dough, use 6oz of flour for starter and 6oz of water, leaving you with 14oz of flour and 9oz of water to add later to make the dough.) Add a pinch of yeast, mix, and set aside to get bubbly at room temperature for 16-20 hours.

After 18 hours, its ready.

Bringing the dough together:
Place preferment in a large mixing bowl. Add remaining water (room temperature). Mix well. Add remaining flour and yeast. Start mixing, either with a stand mixer on low or wooden spoon. This is not a dough that requires much kneading. After a few mixes, add salt and oil. Mix for about 5 minutes. This dough is very wet! Gluten does not need to develop too much. When you lift the spoon out the dough it shouldn't be very elastic or resilient. Still a bit stringy is fine. See picture.

Set dough aside, covered loosely with plastic wrap to rise for 2 hours, folding at 1 hour mark. To fold the dough, turn it out onto a floured counter. Bring the right side a little past the middle. Bring the left side over the right side. Bring the bottom to the top. Put back in bowl for 1 more hour.

Shaping and Baking:

Oven Setup. 6 unglazed ceramic tiles, about $1 at a home improvement store

Place a pizza stone or baking tiles on an oven rack in the lowest position of the oven. Preheat to 525 F. The oven needs to get HOT. Generously flour a counter or work bench and turn the dough out. If you made dough for more than 1 loaf, cut into pieces. A loaf should be about 12 inches long and 6 inches wide. Shape into these wide loaves handling as little as possible. The dough is soft and should form up easily. Be careful not to pop too many bubbles. Once the dough is shaped, pick up and place gently on a well-floured cookie sheet (no rim on cookie sheet since you'll use this to slide your loaves into the oven.) You can check the consistency of the dough by gently placing your fingertip in the dough. If it quickly springs back 3/4 of the way, you are all set. Dust top of loaves with flour. Cover loaves lightly with plastic wrap and let sit for 10 minutes.

2 Loaves shaped and resting. Dr. Pepper used for scale

Give your cookie sheet a shake to make sure the loaves slide easily. Fill a spray bottle with water. Open your very hot oven, aim for the back of the tile or pizza stone, give your cookie sheet a shake and slide the loaves onto the stones. Immediately, use the spray bottle to spray down the sides and bottom of the oven as well as give the loaves a quick mist. I even unscrew the top and shake a little bit more on the floor of the oven. It's going to steam a ton so watch out. Close the door quickly. You want the steam to remain in the oven. A moist environment is critical to develop crust. Drop oven temperature down to 475 F once you close the door. Bake for 20 minutes. Open the oven after 20 minutes for 30 seconds to let any remaining steam out. Close door and bake for another 10 minutes. To check for doneness, tap the loaves. A finished loaf should sound hollow. Edges should be a rustic brown, top a little lighter. For a thicker, deeper crust, turn off oven, wedge open door with a towel, and let loaves sit for 5 more minutes. Remove loaves carefully and place on a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes. This recipe is labor intensive but its worth it. The steaming, temperature adjustments, and venting are all part of the baking process. A professional oven does it automatically, but for homemade bread, we need to improvise.

While the loaves are cooling, enjoy the beautiful smell of fresh baked bread. Seriously. This is an important step. You just labored for 24 hours and as your reward, produced a loaf or two that looks, smells, and will taste like you picked it up from a bakery.

Insert using cookie sheet. Steam immediately

After 20 minutes, open oven to vent steam. Looking good.

Remove from oven after 10 more minutes. Cool on rack

Bottom got a bit "rustic." Gap in the tiles. No sweat, tastes fine.

Master baker got a little feisty with the tongs getting these loaves out. Crust is crisp, should separate from the inside a little bit due to expansion during baking then contraction during cooling. This is a good thing.

For examination, we sliced open the bread horizontally and opened it like a book. Note bubbles. I should have had a coin in the picture to scale them. Largest ones are about a quarter in diameter.

Check out definition and contrast between crust and inside. A product of the steam and high heat.

There you have them, our Ciabatta. The crust should be rustic, crunchy, something you'll need to work to rip apart. Inside is soft and chewy with huge holes. Outer crust is slightly bitter in the darkest places. Inside is slightly sweet, yeasty, and most certainly real bread.