How To Bake Artisan Ciabatta Bread, authentically!
John teaches businesses and talented individuals the secrets of making high-quality ciabatta bread. Learning authentic ciabatta baking will instantly boost the standard of your food or hospitality business.
Ciabatta Bread Recipe
... authentic artisanal - enjoy the process.
You'll discover the secrets of this trendy artisan bread taking the world by storm - but why now?
Since lockdown started we've been glued to our screens - search, social media, chat. Most things are being automated - and a more conscious way of life is being forced on the many. A fresh interest is developing for the artisanal crafts, like baking, and the skill that becomes craft and art a lifestyle.
Quality is eroded when it's mechanized and in the pursuit of profits the quality of the input and the labor is challenged by optimization.
As automation of the world accelerates, we as humans are losing our finer motor skills, the ability to create material things by hand. Machines are doing most of the skilled labor nowadays and it's only a matter of time and the knowledge would be absorbed by mechanized business, and the knowledge and skills forgotten as we humans through.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
The magic of baking artisan ciabatta bread
Ciabatta Bread is a rustic Italian bread made with sticky, moist dough which gives it a unique porous texture and structure. Ciabatta bread is further enhanced with a fermentation made hours before which gives it longevity and an unmistakable flavor.
Ciabatta bread is reasonably simple to make; no kneading is required, since the dough is hydrated and very sloppy and sticky when mixed. No special equipment is required to make this ciabatta bread - only the skill of stretching and folding the dough over a short period of time.
Although the ciabatta dough is very sticky, it's the secret of a beautiful light and airy crumb unmistakably ciabatta. Once you have the dough mixed, scrape it into a large oiled bowl so there is room to double and triple in volume. The dough when allowed to stand for about 30-45 min between folds.
Sticky dough is handled by wetting your fingers and working with the wet dough to make sheet like folds, first one way, then the other. This weaves the gluten strands in a mesh like structure to add strength to the bread.
Once the folding process has been completed, usually 3-4 folds with rest time in between, the dough is turned upside down and removed from the bowl, and left to settle on a well-floured work surface dusted generously to prevent sticking. I use a stainless steel table which is easy to work on and clean. When the dough has settled, cut your dough in two equal parts to form 2 loaves.
Use a counter scraper to push some dry flour underneath the base of the dough to make it workable and loose from the surface. Shape and form each piece to resemble an elongated slipper (ciabatta) shape on the counter surface. Use a pizza peel or paddle to place and lift the soft ciabatta dough to the baking surface.
My loaves are usually baked for 20-25 minutes in a hot oven of around 300 degree Celsius. More on the ingredients and methods of folding and shaping ciabatta below.
Ciabatta Bread Recipe
The yeast that makes our ciabatta unique comes from a culture selected for flavour and longevity.
INGREDIENTS
Traditionally authentic ciabatta bread is simple!
Enough for 2 Loaves
FLOUR
1kg of Stone Ground Flour
White stone ground unbleached
300 grams for the fermentation (poolish)
700 Grams for main Dough mix
WATER
700g of Water
Natural spring or rain water
300 grams for the Poolish
400 grams for Dough mix
YEAST
Instant Yeast
1/4 teaspoon (tsp) Yeast for the Poolish
1.5 teaspoons (tsp) Yeast for Dough mix
SALT
1 tbsp SALT
Natural desert or sea salt 1 tablespoons (tbsp) Salt
These are the only ingredients you need to make 2 medium sized loaves of ciabatta bread. The only adjustment you might need to make depending on where you live in the world would be water, and flour in very rare situations. We'll go through the texture of how the ciabatta dough needs to feel.
PREPARATION
2 Stages - for Day 1 and Day 2
Day 1
POOLISH (Dough Fermentation)
300g of Stone Ground Flour
300g of Water
1/4 teaspoon (tsp) Instant Yeast
Poolish is a runny mix of 50% Flour, 50% Water and a pinch of Yeast.
Poolish Mixture (Pre-fermentation 12-18 hours before Dough mixing)
300 g Flour
300 g Water
1/4 teaspoon Yeast
Combine 300 grams Flour and 300 grams Water and mix together with Yeast. Leave the mixture covered to prevent drying out for 12-18 hours before mixing main dough batch. The poolish should display bubbles on top and within the mix that looks like the foam of an old fashioned milkshake.
Day 2
BREAD MIX
700g of Stone Ground Flour
400g of Water
1 Tablespoon (tbsp) of Salt
7g of Quick or Instant Yeast
or 1.5 teaspoon (tsp)
Combine the Poolish with the Dough ingredients and mix together.
METHOD
2 Stages - for Day 1 and Day 2
Ciabatta Folding Method
How to get even and reliable holes
After mixing – Roughly 900 revolutions per batch
Let stand for 45 min.
Empty dough in oiled container for folding
1 – Stretch and Fold
(Wait 45 minutes)
2 – Stretch and Fold
(Wait 45 minutes)
3 – Stretch and Fold
Check oven heat at MAX (250-300℃ is ideal)
Cut loaves, shape and rest 15 min before placing on the bake surface
Secrets
Some Helpful Tips
When loading your bread loaves into the oven you may want to inject steam to keep the outer shell moist for best oven rise. I inject water for steam when inserting the loaves the first time and after 10 min of baking.
Bake bread on average 25-35 minutes until crusty brown to your liking or until cooked to 98℃ by testing with a spike thermometer.
100% Authentic Quality
I'll teach you how to bake authentic & tasty CIABATTA artisan bread.
