Small Batch Ciabatta
This is a recipe which works for me, and by that I mean it always bakes up with large air pockets. It's very chewy and perfect for serving with olive oil for dipping.
Servings 6 servings
Cost 5
Ingredients
- ¾ teaspoon salt (Morton kosher)
- 200 grams warm water (110 degrees F)
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast or quick rise yeast
- 225 grams bread flour, King Arthur or Bob's Red Mill artisan
Instructions
- Keep the salt nearby so that you won't forget it. I put it in a teaspoon, set the teaspoon on a plate and put it somewhere on the counter where I'll see it later.
- In a medium size bowl or plastic tub, mix together the warm water and yeast. Add the flour and stir until flour is completely moistened. Cover the bowl and let stand for 60 minutes.
- During this 60 minute standing time, you are going to do a series of stretch and folds every 20 minutes. Using a heavy duty scraper, scrape the dough away from the sides of the tub. Put a little water on your fingers and pull the corners of the dough up and over as far as you can attempting to shape into a ball. Do this with all four corners, four times, using the scraper to scrape dough away from the sides.
- After an hour of letting it sit and doing occasional stretch and folds, cover and refrigerate. If making with active dry yeast, refrigerate for 8 hours. If using quick rising yeast, plan on 4 to 5 hours.
- About halfway through the rising time, remove the bowl from the refrigerator and sprinkle salt over the cold dough. Do as many stretch and folds as you need to to work the salt into it. Cover and continue to refrigerate until ready to bake.
- Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. If you have a pizza stone, preheat with the stone. If you don't have a stone you can use a cast iron skillet or an inverted sheet pan.
- Remove dough from the refrigerator. Lay a large piece of parchment paper on a rimless baking sheet or something the parchment can slide off of (pizza peel would be ideal). Dust lightly with flour.
- Loosen though dough from the sides of the tub. Tip the container and scrape the cold, bouncy, risen dough onto the floured parchment. It will naturally deflate a bit as you pour it out of the tub. Dust the top of the dough lightly with flour and with a chef's knife, slice down in one motion to cut it in half and make two oblongs.
- Let the cold dough stand for only about 10 minutes to relax.
- Slide the parchment and loaves onto the hot stone. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.