Recipe: Ciabatta Bread (2 recipes)

itle:
Recipe(tried): CIABATTA BREAD
Posted By:
Olga Drozd Ont.Can.
Date:
November 17th 2000
Board:
A Board for Bakers - Baking and Breadmaking Ciabatta

Try this flat Italian bread with any hearty soup or stew.
Also good with a simple green salad.

1 package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1. In cup, combine yeast, sugar, and 1/4 cup warm
water (105 to 115 degrees F). Let stand until yeast
mixture foams, about 5 minutes.

2. Into bowl of heavy-duty mixer, measure flour and
salt. With wooden spoon, stir in milk, olive oil, yeast
mixture, and 2 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees
F.) until blended. With dough hook, mix on medium
speed 15 minutes or until dough becomes elastic. (Or,
if you prefer to mix by hand, in very large bowl,
combine ingredients as above and stir with wooden
spoon 15 minutes or until dough becomes elastic.)
This is a very sticky and moist dough; resist the urge
to add more flour, and do not knead or stir for less than
the suggested time.

3. Scrape dough into greased large bowl; with greased
hand, pat top of dough to coat. Cover bowl with plastic
wrap, and let dough rise in warm place (80 to 85
degrees F) until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

4. Flour large cookie sheet. With floured hand, punch
down dough and divide it in half. Turn pieces of dough
onto cookie sheet, about 3 inches apart; cover and let
rest 15 minutes for easier shaping. With hands, pull 1
piece of dough into 14" by 4" oval. Repeat with
remaining piece of dough, still keeping loaves 3 inches
apart. With floured fingers, make deep indentations all
over each loaf, making sure to press all the way down
to cookie sheet. Sprinkle loaves lightly with flour. Cover
and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 30
minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place 12 ice cubes
in 13" by 9" metal baking pan. Place pan in bottom of
oven. Bake loaves on middle rack 25 to 30 minutes
until golden, using spray bottle to spritz loaves with
water 3 times during first 10 minutes of baking. Cool
loaves on wire rack.

Each serving: About 105 calories, 3 g protein, 20 g
carbohydrate, 1 g total fat (0 g saturated), 0 mg
cholesterol, 270 mg sodium.

Yields: 2 loaves, 12 servings per loaf
Work Time: 30 minutes plus rising and cooling
Total Time: 1 hour plus rising and cooling____________________________________ Recipe(tried): Ciabatta
Posted By:
G
Date:
August 6th 1999
In Reply to:
ISO: Italian Bread Recipe
Board:
A Board For Bakers Hi bread lover. BB's recipe looks delicious, but it
sounds like what you want is basic, chewy, crusty
Italian bread. First let me tell you, it's almost
impossible to make that at home. The ovens these
bakeries use are usually very old, coal burning ovens
which are hard to duplicate. Below however, is a recipe
I found on the internet, then modified a little. It's pretty
darn close to what you're looking for. I use ceramic
baking stones to help duplicate a bakery oven but if
you don't have one, a cookie sheet is fine. Just be
careful in the final stages, it's easy to defate the loaves
and end up with a focaccia!
Spraying the inside of the oven with water helps to
produce the crunchy crust.
Good luck!

Ciabatta
Slipper Shaped Bread

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/4 cups + 2 tablspoons water
3 3/4 cups white, all purpose flour
1 teaspoons salt
Optional: teaspoon malt

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup water and
allow it to stand for approximately 5-10 minutes.
Add the 1 1/4 cups water to the dissolved yeast.
Add the flour, malt and salt to this mixture and
continue to mix until the dough begins to hold together.
Knead the dough to a soft consistency and continue to
knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. It will be
sticky.

Place the dough in a lightly floured bowl, cover it with a
clean towel, and allow it to rise in a warm place until
doubled, about 11/2 hours.

Punch down the dough and turn it onto a flour dusted
work surface. Divide it into two portions and pat each
portion into a 4 by 6-inch rectangle. Dust each portion
with flour.

Dust a piece of canvas (untreated, 100% cotton) or a
proofing board with flour. Transfer the dough to the
floured canvas or proofing board, and cover it with a
cotton towel. Cover the dough with a clean towel and
allow it to rise at room temperature until more than
doubled, about 2 hours.

Set your oven temperature to 500 F. Place a baking
stone in the oven and allow the oven to heat for 30
minutes.

Turn each portion of dough onto a lightly floured sheet
of wax paper and let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
Slide a baker's peel beneath the parchment paper.
Lower the oven temperature to 425 F. Slide the
parchment paper from the peel onto the baking stone.
Using a plastic spray bottle, quickly spray the oven
walls with water.

Spray again in 5-minute intervals within the first 15 minutes.

Allow the dough to bake until it is a deep golden color
(approximately 10 more minutes).

Remove the loaves from the oven and allow to cool on
a wire rack.
Total baking time 20-25 minutes.

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