Ciabatta. Old Italien baking tradition. Did you think so?
Well, I did. But to my surprise, I could read a few days ago, that it was invented as late as 1982 by two gentleman called Arnaldo Cavallari and Francesco Favaron.
It was a response to the French baguette that was very popular in Italy at that time, and the two bakers were determined to produce something equivalent.
One of them, I don’t know who thought that the shape reminded him of his wife’s slippers. Therefore, they named the bread Ciabatta, slipper in Italian.
Despite the low age, the bread has been very successful. You can find it almost all around the world.
And that is not so strange. It is a real crowd-pleaser with its thin crispy crust and soft crumb filled with oversized air pockets.
It’s the number one choice for all sorts of grilled sandwiches.
After reading this, I realized that It was quite some time since I baked Ciabatta. I couldn’t understand why.
ABOUT FLOUR AND STARTER
Below you will find the amount of flour and starter used for this recipe.
The total hydration of the dough is 77%
MIXING THE LEVAIN
A “real” ciabatta always begins with a Biga. A Biga is a starter based on flour, water, and yeast that is left to ferment for at least 12 hours. I prefer to use a mature and lively sourdough starter instead. But then it’s not allowed to be called a Biga anymore (according to real baking aficionados), so let’s call it levain instead. Making a levain is easy. You just mix water with flour and starter in a kitchen bowl. Be sure that all flour is hydrated. Cover it with clingfilm and let it ferment for 12 hours at room temperature. When it’s ready, it should look something like this.
MIXING THE DOUGH
Now it’s time to add the rest of the ingredients, except salt.
Mix everything thoroughly and let the dough rest for an hour.
There is one thing you should know before you start baking this Ciabatta. The dough is wet. Very wet. If you hate dealing with wet sticky doughs, you should probably try something else. The easiest way to deal with it is probably with a dough mixer, but not everybody has a mixer. Therefore I decided to use the stretch and fold technique. It worked pretty well. Just dip your hands in some water now and then. It will prevent the dough from sticking to your fingers.
After a while, you will feel how the dough changes and becomes easier to handle.
I repeated the stretching and folding once every half an hour during the bulk fermentation process. I added the salt during the first stretch and folding session.
After the last session, I let the dough ferment for an additional hour.
SHAPING THE LOAF
Now it’s time to stretch out the dough. Spread flour on your working surface. Don’t make the same mistake as I did. Don’t skimp with the flour. You will regret that later. I thought I had spread out tons of flour. But it was still not enough. I’ll come back to that later.
Stretch out the dough to a flat rectangular shape. Be careful not to pressure out too much gas out of the dough.
Let it rise for an hour.
Now it’s time to cut the dough into pieces. Cut the dough in half lengthways and divide each half into strips.
It was at this point I started to face some problems. The dough was sticking to the surface despite all the flour I had spread on it. It also stuck to the bench knife I was using. The first Ciabattas looked like something made by an ape. And suddenly I remembered why it was so long ago since I baked Ciabatta.
But I didn’t give up. I cut the rest of the Ciabattas with a knife dipped in the water while I scraped them loose with the bench knife. The last ones looked pretty decent.
Lessons learned.
Next time I will use a bread mixer. The stretch and folding worked pretty well, but I think the structure of the dough will improve if you run it in a mixer.
Use more flour on the working surface.
About flour.
The hydration of this dough is about 77%. That may not sound like much. Especially if you’re living in the US or Canada. Remember that your bread flour is stronger than what we are used to here in Europe. The flour I used has 11.5 % protein. You may have to increase the water amount to get the same result if you are using a much stronger flour. I have found recipes from the US with 80% hydration.
Sourdough Ciabatta
Ingredients
Levain
- 250 gram Wheat flour
- 250 gram water
- 80 gram sourdough starter
Ciabatta dough
- 420 gram water
- 580 gram levain
- 630 gram Wheat flour
- 2 tabelspoon olive oil
- 20 gram sea salt
Instructions
Levain
- Mix water with flour and starter. Be sure that all flour is hydrated. Cover it with cling film and let it ferment for 12 hours at room temperature.
Ciabatta
- Mix all ingredients except salt. Be sure that all flour is hydrated. Let it rest for an hour.
- Add the salt and stretch and fold if you don't have a dough mixer. I repeated every 30 minutes, 4 times in total. I normally stretch 4 times each set. Total time for bulk fermentation was 3 hours. If you have a mixer you just run it on a medium speed until the dough is smooth and stretchy.
- Scrape out the dough onto a floured working surface. Stretch out the dough carefully to a rectangular shape. Try to degass the dough as little as possible. Let it rise for 1 hour. Pre heat the oven to 480ºF / 250ºC with two oven plates. If you have a baking stone you should place it on the upper plate.
- Cut the dough in half lengthways and divide each half into strips. Transfer the dough stripes to a parchment paper. Slide the dough stripes and parchment paper into the oven and bake for approx. 20 minutes. Pour water on the bottom plate to get some steam.
- Let the ciabattas cool on a wire rack.
