Ciabatta
This recipe is adapted from The Il Fornario Baking Book, in which it is a variant of pagnotta. It also requires a biga and an infinite amount of time between all the kneading and rising. Unlike no-knead ciabattas, it’s actually slower to make than the peasant bread/pagnotta version.
Makes: 1 large loaf.
Ingredients
- ⅜ c. biga (defrosted if frozen)
- ¼ c. warm water
- 1 tsp. yeast
- 3 ½ c. all-purpose flour
- 1 T. vital wheat gluten (adjust for the protein content of your flour)
- ½ T. salt
- 1 ⅜ c. cool water
- cornmeal (optional)
Equipment
- baking stone
- broiler pan (or spray bottle)
Directions
- Let the biga warm up some (if it was refrigerated).
- Mix the yeast into the warm water in a small bowl and let sit 15 minutes.
- Mix the gluten, flour, and salt in a large bowl. Don’t forget the gluten.
- Add all remaining ingredients (except cornmeal) to the flour and mix with a spoon until incorporated.
- Knead by hand in the bowl for 5 minutes.
- Knead on a floured surface for about 15 minutes.
- Transfer to an oiled bowl (flipping to coat with oil) and cover.
- Let rise 1 ½ hour or until doubled.
- Press into a 6x6 or 8x4 oiled baking pan.
- Let rise 1 ½ hour.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board. Fold one third over.
- Place loaf onto a heavily floured board and cover.
- Preheat oven (with stone and broiler pan) to 425°.
- Let loaf rise about 45 minutes, until it springs back from your touch.
- Dust some parchment paper (on/or a cutting board or other peel-like surface) with cornmeal, semolina, or flour.
- Gently flip the loaf onto the parchment paper, revealing the floury side of the loaf.
- Let rise 15 more minutes.
- Slide the loaf (with paper) onto the stone.
- Carefully pour 1 cup hot water into the broiler pan (or mist the oven with water).
- Bake about one hour, removing the parchment paper partway through.
- Cool on a rack.
Variants
If you came here looking for no-knead ciabatta, it’s pretty simple: With wet hands, slather a lump of no-knead dough into a flat rectangle on parchment paper. Let it rise while the oven is preheating to 450° (with a bread stone and water pan), dust it with flour, add water to the pan, and bake for 20 minutes.
