Homemade Ciabatta

The most basic ciabattas have just four ingredients: water, yeast, bread flour, and salt. The characteristic feature of this bread is its use of a pre-ferment—also known as a starter—called biga: a loose mixture of water, yeast, and flour. Much like the sponge component in brioche bread, the biga provides a boost in flavor complexity, texture, and moisture retention in the final product.

Not quite as liquid and tart as a sourdough starter, the biga is stickier and uses commercial yeast to jumpstart the fermentation flavor, adding more of a latent nuttiness than a bright twang. This recipe uses a bit of spelt flour to add a touch of whole-grain sweetness to the loaf: You can just as easily swap it out for the same amount of bread flour, or, use whole-wheat flour instead to dial up the rustic aroma. Additionally, for a little more savory gusto, you have the totally optional additions of milk and black pepper. To keep it vegan, simply use water instead of milk; to keep it classic, eliminate the spice.

Take note that ciabatta bread needs a relatively wet, slack dough to form its signature airy crumb. Resist the urge to add flour to your dough before it hits your work surface for the final fold and shape. Once you are shaping it, though, do not skimp on the flour! Not only does it prevent the dough from sticking to your hands and your surface, it also clings to the loaf and bakes into that signature ciabatta crust.

The main component to this recipe is time. While not quite as intense a process as sourdough bread, the biga needs half a day’s worth of rest to develop its nuance, followed by a couple of rounds of folding before the dough is ready for final shaping and baking. A few hours more or less on the biga development won’t make or break the recipe, and you likely will be able to get away with fridging the dough for up to a day should you need to bake at a later time. This recipe yields 2 loaves.

As with all bread recipes, individual cooks have individual ambient conditions that will affect their particular dough in unpredictable ways, so rely more on the descriptions and less on the time indications to guide you through the process.

If you’ve made this recipe, drop us a note and a rating down below and let us know what your experience was like!