Saturday, May 26, 2007

CIABATTA


So, a lot of people asked me about this bread when I told them I was starting the artisan bread section of my schooling. It has recently come back into pop culture as classic sandwich bread. I would have to agree with this craze. Not only does this bread taste delicious for sandwiches and soup accessories, but it also is so simple to make its just ridiculous. Some classmates of mine actually got paranoid at how simple it was. It was too simple, they got scared, and I got scared.

“Really? This is all you have to do? You don’t have to knead it? Really?”

Ya, for all those people who wanted me to teach them how to make this bread, you don’t need me. If you can follow a recipe successfully, you can make this bread with out issue. Of course, for those of you who can follow a recipe and still end up with a block of cement in your oven, give me a call some time and I’ll help you out.

Ciabatta

Ingredients

Sponge
Water 1 lb, 1oz
Fresh Yeast** 1 oz
Bread Flour 1 lb
Virgin Olive Oil 3 oz

Dough
Salt 1 Tbsp
Bread Flour 8 oz

Sponge: Add yeast and water and stir with a whisk until yeast is dissolved. Stir in olive oil. Stir in bread flour and mix until the sponge is relatively smooth. Cover the bowl and let it sit for 45 min. to 1 hr or until the sponge begins to bubble.

Dough: Mix flour and salt together, and then add to the sponge. Mix just until combined and no dry ingredients remain. Scoop half the dough onto an un-greased sheet pan with parchment paper. Form into a loaf shape as best you can. (*Note, this dough is going to be super sticky) Do the same thing with the other half of the dough. These won’t rise much, so you can try to fit the two on one sheet pan. Dust the loaves with bread flour until covered. Set aside in a warm, dry area until the bread begins to rise. (You will see a bunch of little cracks in the flour when it’s ready.) Once the dough it ready, put in a 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until golden brown on top and bottom.

**If you don’t have fresh yeast, dry active yeast can be substituted. The conversion is just multiply by .5. In other words, if it calls for 1 oz of fresh yeast, you use .05 oz of dry active yeast.

Recipe from: Gisslen, Wayne, Professional Baking; Fourth Addition, John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2005, pg. 99

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