Ciabatta Bread Recipe
Taken from the Italian word “ciabatta” which means slipper, Ciabatta bread is enjoyed for its softness and slipper shape. Ideal for breakfast, this bread is eaten by tearing it apart and dipping it into olive oil or any flavorful dressing. Its tastiness is intriguing, shapeliness is enthralling and crispiness is satisfying. As the whole world sees ciabatta to be ideal for Italian sandwiches, some of those who just discovered it are eager to know about ciabatta bread recipe.
Veteran cooks and bakers would say the quality of ciabatta would depend on the thickness of your dough before baking them. Ciabatta bread recipe is supposed to produce a crispy and tender crust. It is best enjoyed when mixed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and basil to come up with very tempting Italian sandwiches.
Mud-like and extremely wet dough are possible if you have a very good ciabatta bread recipe. Very sticky dough will certainly produce a perfect ciabatta. Your recipe ingredients for three loaves include one cup of sourdough starter, 7/16 cup of water, 2 1/8 cups of white unbleached all-purpose flour for your sponge. Then, you must have additional 5 cups of all-purpose flour plus 1 2/3 cups of lukewarm water, ¼ cup of lukewarm milk, three table spoons of extra virgin olive oil, two table spoons of salt and one cup of sundried tomatoes for your bread.
Starting your bread a night before baking is smart. First step to do with your ciabatta bread recipe is to make your sponge or thick sourdough starter. Have your regular starter as base and let it work overnight to gain power and tastiness. If you’re not doing it overnight, you can still stir them all together and leave it for 5 minutes until you notice its creaminess. Thicker yeast mixture or sourdough is better of course. You can move to another clean bowl and stir it for four minutes. Use a plastic wrap to cover your bowl and let it stand a cool temperature for at least 12 hours.
Once you’re done with your thick starter, it’s time that you make the dough itself. Here, you will blend the thick starter together with more water, olive oil, flour and salt. Use a spoon or your bare hands to mix the ingredients. In ciabatta bread recipe, you can your tomatoes and salt after mixing all your ingredients. Rub your dough into oiled bowl and mask it with plastic wrap until it starts to double size and becomes very sticky after 1 and ½ hours.
This time, you can secure two pieces of parchment paper where your dough can be placed and molded into slipper forms. Make sure to flour your dough well on baking sheets. Push your fingers in flour and dimpled loaves. Spread the top areas of your dough with flour. After this last step, voila, you can place it in the oven and wait for 45 minutes to one hour before you can enjoy your ciabatta bread recipe.