This week, I was really interested in making a tasty bread with something special about it. It turns out this ciabatta recipe was relatively easy and used a number of new techniques that I am actually using again right at this very moment. I was a little scared, because this involved some pretty quick action in the oven at its hottest temperature, but it was pretty fun.
There were several variations offered in the book to this recipe. I chose the onion and herb version over mushroom or cheese for no particular reason, but I'd like to try it again with each of the other versions. Also, I had a few ratio problems, so the ciabatta, which was supposed to puff and be filled with holes, was more compact like regular sandwich bread. By the way, ciabatta, Italian for 'slipper,' is named such due to the traditional shape of the bread.
And, with no further ado, on to the bread!
Phase one, the poolish. This is a simple pre-ferment made of flour, water and yeast. This sits until it begins to bubble, then takes a nap in the fridge overnight.
The next day, the poolish is taken out to dechill, and the onions are caramelized with a little sugar and some herbs. I used parsley and basil, and they were amazingly delicious.
At this point, a portion of the poolish was mixed with some flour, salt, yeast and milk (instead of water to create a softer bread) to make a somewhat sticky dough. Unfortunately, I used WAY too much poolish, so it was a firmer dough. At this point, I misunderstood the directions and split the dough into the two loaves, which was supposed to happen much later. The dough was then stretched out and the onion mixture was spread across it. The loaves were folded up letter-style and left to sit for 30 minutes before the process was repeated again.
They didn't swell too much at first...
But by the end of the rise, they were HUGE! Unfortunately, the shape of the bottom one was pretty awful. I tried a few times to get it more "slipper-shaped" like the top loaf. The exciting part was the baking. For this, the oven was heated up to 500, and the loaves were slid onto the pizza stone. I should have gotten a peel, but the baking sheet worked alright to slide the loaves into the oven. A cast-iron skillet was placed under the stone, into which I poured a cup of water to instantly steam. At thirty second intervals, I would open the oven and spray water onto the walls to produce more steam. This steam is supposed to cause the bread to puff out, but since I used so much more poolish than I was supposed to, the loaves were about twice as large as they should have been, and it just made a normal, more dense bread.
And, voila! The bottom loaf turned into an absolute monster, but it was amazing. The onions created a sort of swirl through the bread, due to the way it was folded into the bread, and they managed to stay cool and juicy. The bread had a little poof right under the crust, but nowhere else. It was also an incredibly simple bread, perfectly designed for a dip in some olive oil or stuffed with onions and herbs. Basically, yum!
Since I've finally gotten my sourdough starter working, I'm about to have a long run of sourdough breads. I hope you're excited!
Ciabatta? Check.
Next up? Basic sourdough bread.
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