Ciabatta

13 March 2010

I'm on the roll for baking this 12 hours.  Woke up this morning, thinking about my Ciabatta dough waiting for me.  I was excited to see how it turns out.  Lovely crumbs,  soft on the inside,  crispy on the outside.  The story on how this bread was made is below.

With the left over dough from my 5 minutes freshly baked bread,  it's into my 5th day.  I posted a question on The Fresh Loaf on how long practically I can keep this,  and someone suggested at max 7 days. See link on this discussion.   Looks like this is not a very popular way of making bread as I didn't see much response.  

I saw a word on the page - Ciabatta Rolls,  and went in to take a look on what that was all about.  It was a discussion about how to shape Ciabatta Roll. Someone was lovely enough to post pictures of how to cut the dough into Ciabatta Rolls. See this link.   I simply love this community,  they are so responsive to questions.

So,  I made up my mind,  that I got to try this.  So,  I flipped my book on The Bread and Bread Machine Bible, and look for Ciabatta.  There,  I found it.  I just got to get my ingredient rights,  and mix with my old dough.  So,  I created the size that I wanted.  

Now,  I have a little book that I write down my recipe,  so that I don't forget to put into my postings.  

Mixing the ingredients together,  I used my wooden spoon to fold the dough, as it is a wet dough,  and I didn't want to get my whole hand messed up.  I folded I believe about 20 times,  I see that it was well mixed,  and there's gluten formed.  I added Olive Oil last,  and  it turned the dough really smooth.  Folded a few more times to get the olive oil all mixed.  

As it was 11 pm,  I decided to put it into my fridge and bake in the morning. 

8am,  I jumped out of bed,  and there,  my dough had risen.  It was a wet dough, the dough just spread out in my glass bowl.  Before I slowly peeled them off the bowl, my table top was thrown with flour,  more than usual,  so that the dough does not stick to the work bench.  I peeled it off,  without kneading,  I pressed it down gently,  and stretch it a little to make a rectangle.  

Used my scraper to cut 5 long stretch,  2 of them,  I cut into irregular triangular shapes.  I floured my hands so that I can handle the dough. Threw more flour on top of the dough and patted it down a little. I gently transfer them to my baking pans lined with parchment paper.  I threw more flour on the dough to ensure that the dough will not stick to the cloth.  Left it covered with a cloth for 1 hour.  It was about 9.15am.

No one is  awake yet.  I heat up the oven at 220 degree celcius,  pop the 1st batch in and bake for 30 minutes.  My son woke up now, and asking for his breakfast.  Well, I let it cool for a while and it was ready to be eaten at 10am.  This had better taste than the Baguette with a Starter.  

The 2nd batch - the long ones this time.  same timing of baking.  I'm going to make a chicken sandwich with these for lunch today.