Ciabatta
- Total Time
- About 6 hours
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:4 small rectangular loaves, 4 inches x 8 inches
- 1½teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1¾ounces hot-to-the-touch water (about 100 to 110 degrees)
- 2teaspoons iodized salt
- 16ounces unbleached bread flour
- 13ounces room-temperature water
- Vegetable oil (for coating the bowls)
- Cornmeal (for sprinkling on the baking stone)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
220 calories; 3 grams fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 1 gram monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 41 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 0 grams sugars; 7 grams protein; 259 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
- Step 1
Sprinkle the yeast on top of the 1¾ ounces of hot water to let it dissolve, and set aside. Sprinkle the salt on top of the flour and stir to incorporate. Make a well in the center of the flour — salt mixture, and add the cool water little by little.
- Step 2
After the yeast has dissolved into the warm water, add it to the mixture, stir to incorporate, then stop and let the mixture sit for 30 minutes. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and write the time with permanent marker on the top.
- Step 3
After 30 minutes, sprinkle flour on your work surface, then scrape the dough out onto it. Tap your hands in a little flour, then gently flatten the dough into a rectangle, with the short side facing you. Using a bench scraper, flip the top edge down to just below the center, then flip the bottom side up above the center. Do the same with each side, then turn dough over and dust off the flour. Place the folded dough in a a bowl slicked with vegetable oil and let it sit for 30 minutes, again, covered with plastic wrap with the time written on it.
- Step 4
Fold the dough again, using the same method as above. Place the dough in a second oiled bowl, covered with plastic, and let it ferment until it has doubled in volume, 1 to 2 hours.
- Step 5
As the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 475 degrees, and put a baking stone on the middle rack, and an empty pan (for water) on the bottom rack. After the dough has doubled in volume, sprinkle a little more flour onto your workspace. Then, sprinkle a lot of flour onto the back of a baking sheet. Scrape the dough out onto the counter, tap your hands in flour, and gently flatten the dough into a large, even rectangle of approximately 12” x 8” x 1” high. Use a bench scraper or a knife to cut the dough into 4 equal pieces, approximately 3” wide and 8” long. Fold each piece, top-down to center, then bottom-up to above-center, in the same way you folded the dough in step 3. Place each folded piece seam-side down on the floured baking sheet. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and let it rise for 30 to 60 minutes, or until the dough has doubled in volume.
- Step 6
Sprinkle more flour on the counter. Take one ciabatta piece at a time and stretch it very gently to lengthen. Turn it upside-down and place back onto the back of the floured sheet tray.
- Step 7
After all of the pieces have been stretched, sprinkle 4 tablespoons of a mixture of half cornmeal and half flour on the baking stone. Shuttle the ciabatta pieces off the sheet tray and onto the stone. To shuttle, first gently move the sheet tray back and forth to loosen the dough, then, as the pan is held above the baking stone, a quick shake up and down should help slide the dough onto the actual stone. (If you prefer, you can pick up and balance the piece of dough with two hands or even try to move it with the help of a spatula; you just want to get the loaves onto the stone.) Pour water into the pan on the bottom rack in order to make steam; you can also spritz the loaves with water. Avert your face as you pour the water and quickly close the oven door.
- Step 8
The dough should bake to a very dark brown in approximately 30 minutes. Let the bread cool before cutting into it.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
john
Rather than dumping the soggy dough on a floured board, I leave the dough in the mixing bowl, dip both damped hands down the far side of the bowl under the dough raising it up and folding it over towards you. Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat 3 more times until you have completed 4 folds, 360 degrees around the bowl. By the 3rd sequence, dough will be fairly easy to handle. Cleanup is much easier as the dough never leaves the original bowl until is ready to shape and much easier to handle.
Ed Hawco
With all this scraping, folding, cutting, folding again, etc., this recipe is an excellent candidate for an accompanying video. Just reading, it seems unbearably complicated.
Dan
A video would be very helpful, for any bread recipe in general so you know what the dough should look like and how moist it should be. For Ciabatta, The Great British Baking Show Masterclass has a great video on how to make this bread.
JJ Gunning Jr
The dough is a very wet dough...so it's easier to use the scraper to lift the edges as you "fold" the dough (a gentle form of kneading) to help develop the gluten. The exercise resembles folding a piece of paper into 3rds before it goes into an envelope - first fold the dough in the vertical orientation; then in the horizontal orientation. It takes about 15 seconds and it doesn't have to be pretty, just somewhat gentle to keep the gluten strands intact.
Tariq
Just use plenty of flour on the work surface and use two bench scrapers. You are right - a video would certainly help. It’s very tricky. For me, the bread came out wonderfully.
john
Rather than dumping the soggy dough on a floured board, I leave the dough in the mixing bowl, dip both damped hands down the far side of the bowl under the dough raising it up and folding it over towards you. Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat 3 more times until you have completed 4 folds, 360 degrees around the bowl. By the 3rd sequence, dough will be fairly easy to handle. Cleanup is much easier as the dough never leaves the original bowl until is ready to shape and much easier to handle.
Tariq
Just use plenty of flour on the work surface and use two bench scrapers. You are right - a video would certainly help. It’s very tricky. For me, the bread came out wonderfully.
Skip Descant
This dough was way too wet and sticky for me to work with. It was almost soup-like. I added a little more flour, but was still unable to form individual buns. It wasn't a total lose. I put the entire blob in the cast-iron cooker, and it all came out OK... But will not repeat....
Dan
A video would be very helpful, for any bread recipe in general so you know what the dough should look like and how moist it should be. For Ciabatta, The Great British Baking Show Masterclass has a great video on how to make this bread.
Lucy
Is it just me or was the result very salty?
Ed Hawco
With all this scraping, folding, cutting, folding again, etc., this recipe is an excellent candidate for an accompanying video. Just reading, it seems unbearably complicated.
Roni Jordan
My thoughts exactly.
afreeflyingsoul
A little clarification, please:
"Using a bench scraper, flip the top edge down to just below the center, then flip the bottom side up above the center. Do the same with each side, then turn dough over and dust off the flour."
I'm not entirely certain what you're doing with the bench scraper, could you provide more information regarding this?
JJ Gunning Jr
The dough is a very wet dough...so it's easier to use the scraper to lift the edges as you "fold" the dough (a gentle form of kneading) to help develop the gluten. The exercise resembles folding a piece of paper into 3rds before it goes into an envelope - first fold the dough in the vertical orientation; then in the horizontal orientation. It takes about 15 seconds and it doesn't have to be pretty, just somewhat gentle to keep the gluten strands intact.
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