Sourdough ciabatta bread with Spelt

Ciabatta is a very versatile bread. You can fill it with Mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes. Or, you can choose to tear it up and dip it in olive oil with herbs.
This long slipper like bread (ciabatta means slipper in Italien) is well known almost all over the world, and for good reasons.
A sturdy, crispy crust envelope a crumb, full of holes, providing the perfect foundation for a panini filled with delicious ingredients.

In this recipe for sourdough ciabatta, I have included an ingredient that will make it even more delicious, namely Spelt flour.
Spelt is an ancient grain, also known as Dinkel wheat, that was important from the bronze age to the middle age.
It was replaced by bread wheat over time but has reacquired some of its popularity lately. Bread baked with Spelt flour gets a unique taste that is appreciated by many bakers.

I have written a blog post about different kinds of flour where you can read more about Spelt.

This recipe is quite similar to a previous sourdough ciabatta recipe I have written about. The main difference is that I have included Spelt flour. But I have also paid more attention to temperatures, both regarding water and during fermentation.

ABOUT FLOUR AND SOURDOUGH STARTER

I have used the following types of flour in this recipe.
600 gram of wheat flour with 11.5% protein content.
280 gram of whole Spelt flour with 12% protein content.
The starter used in this recipe is based on wheat flour with 11.5% protein content. I took out the starter from the fridge and fed it 5 hours before it was time to mix the levain.

MIXING THE LEVAIN

It is still unusually cold for the season here in Sweden, so my kitchen can rarely hold a temperature over 70°F/21°C at night. Therefore, I decided to pre-heat the water a bit to give the levain better conditions.
I mixed 200 grams water with a temperature at 86°F/30°C with 200 grams wheat flour and 60 grams starter until everything was incorporated. The final temperature at the levain was 77°F/25°C.
The hydration was 100%.
I left the levain to ferment overnight, approximately 8 hours.

MIXING THE FINAL DOUGH

I mixed flour and water and let it autolyze for an hour. I decided to heat the water also for the final dough to 86°F/30°C.
It always amazes me how the dough changes after just one hours rest. From being a shaggy and sticky lump of flour and water, it becomes soft and extensible.
After the autolyze, I added salt, olive oil, and the levain. I mixed everything together by pinching the dough with my hand, followed with some folding.
The final temperature after mixing was 75°F/24°C.
The hydration was 79%.

BULK FERMENTATION

I performed 3 stretch and folds during the first hour of fermentation. This dough is quite sticky, but if you wet your hands, it works fine. After that, I moved the dough to a lightly oiled plastic container and let it ferment untouched for 5 hours. I also wanted to increase the temperature a bit, so I placed it next to the stove that was still warm from baking sourdough breakfast rolls that morning. At the end of the bulk fermentation, the temperature had risen to 79°F/26°C, and the dough had expanded at least twice its original volume. There were lots of gas bubbles on the surface, and the dough jiggled a lot when I shook the bowl as you can see in this video.

DIVIDE AND SHAPE

You have probably heard that you should use only a small amount of flour when dusting the working surface.
That does not apply to Ciabatta.
Dust plenty of flour on the working surface and on the top of the dough, still in its container.

From now on, I did my best to be as gentle as possible with the dough. There was a lot of gas captured in that dough, and I wanted to lose a little as possible when handling it.
I tried to loosen the dough from the walls of the container with a plastic dough scraper by carefully inserting it between the dough and the walls.
Then I turned the container upside down and let the dough fall down to the floured surface. I divided the dough into four pieces with a bench knife and pulled them apart.

Next, I prepared a kitchen towel by flouring it generously. Don’t skimp with flour here or you will face problems when it’s time to transfer the dough to the oven.
I placed the dough pieces on the towel, stretched them slightly, and separated them by dragging up a crease in the kitchen towel. After I had floured the dough pieces on top, I placed an extra kitchen towel over them.
Finally, I covered everything with cling film.

PROOFING

I let the dough proof for 2 hours. The temperature in my kitchen was 74°F/23°C.
The dough was slightly over-proofed when I made the finger poke test, just the way I want it. Ciabatta is not supposed to rise too much, or it’s not a ciabatta anymore.

BAKING

First of all, I preheated the oven to 480°F/250°C.
I cut 4 pieces of parchment paper to fit the size of the dough and placed on a metal plate. A pizza peel or a flat piece of wood, like a board, will also do just fine.
I placed the plate with the parchment paper just beside one rectangle of dough and flipped it over to the plate by dragging up the towel.
After that, it was easy to slide the dough and parchment paper into the oven.
The baking time was 30 minutes.
Finally, the ready ciabattas were left to cool on wire racks.

The biggest challenge with this sourdough ciabatta is handling the dough. It is quite wet and sticky, but after a couple of bakes, you will get the hang of it.
You also have to be gentle with the dough. Ciabatta is supposed to have an open crumb with big holes in it.
That means, don’t mess with the dough more than necessary.
But it also means you don’t have to think about pre-shaping or shape the dough.
And the best of all, You don’t have to do that dreadful scoring.

Ciabatta is probably one of the most well-known types of bread in the world.
There is a reason for that, but when you bake it with sourdough starter and Spelt flour, everything gets just a little bit better.
So wake up your starter, buy some Spelt flour and start baking.

Sourdough ciabatta bread with Spelt

Ciabatta is probably one of the most well-known bread in the world, and for good reasons. It manages to be simple and rustic, but also incredibly delicious at the same time. Using sourdough starter and Spelt flour in the recipe enhances taste and flavor even more.

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Course brunch, Side Dish

Cuisine Italian

Servings 4 loaves

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Levain

• 200 gram Wheat flour with 11.5% protein content.
• 200 gram water
• 60 gram sourdough starter 100% hydration

Final dough

• 400 gram Wheat flour with 11.5% protein content
• 280 gram whole spelt flour with 12% protein content.
• 490 gram water
• 15 gram olive oil
• 20 gram sea salt

Instructions

 

Levain

• Mix flour and water with the sourdough starter until all flour is incorporated. Let it ferment about 8 hours, or until the volume has increased considerably.

Final dough

• Mix flour and water and let it autolyze for an hour. Add salt, olive oil, and levain and mix until completely incorporated. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes and perform a stretch and fold. Repeat 2 or 3 times at 15 minutes interval.
• Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container. Let the dough ferment for 5 hours or until it has at least doubled in size.
• Flour the working surface generously. Loosen the dough from the walls of the container with a plastic dough scraper by carefully inserting it between the dough and the walls. Turn the container upside down and let the dough fall down to the floured surface. Divided the dough into four pieces with a bench knife and pull them apart.
• Flour a kitchen towel generously. Transfer the dough to the kitchen towel and stretch it to the desired size. Sprinkle flour on top of the dough and cover with another towel. Cover with cling film.
• Proof for about 2 hours or until slightly over-proofed. Check with finger poke test.
• Preheat the oven to 480°F/250°C. Cut 4 pieces of parchment paper to fit the size of the dough and place on a metal plate, a pizza peel, or a flat piece of wood, like a board. Place the plate with the parchment paper just beside one rectangle of dough and flip it over to the plate by dragging up the towel. Let the dough slide into the oven with the parchment paper.
• Bake for 30 minutes. Let the ciabattas cool on wire rack.

Keyword sourdough bread

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