Ciabatta - A James Peterson Recipe

"Ciabatta is a slipper, flat and full of holes.  To get the holes, the dough has to be very wet and must rise very slowly.  Because it is so wet, it will run off the sides of a sheet pan, so it is best to bake ciabatta in a square or round cake pan or similar pan.  You start this recipe by making a very wet sponge that triples in volume.  The dough is too wet to knead in a food processor and is hard to knead by hand because it is sticky, so a stand mixer is the ideal tool"

• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup plus 6 tablespoons barely warm water
• 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast, softened in 1 teaspoon barely warm water
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Method If you purchase this book, review the steps for bread making before beginning. To make the sponge, put 3/4 cup of the flour, 1/2 cup of the warm water, and the yeast mixture in a bowl and whisk until the consistency of a thick batter.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for about 4 hours, or until doubled or even tripled in volume. To mix and knead the dough, combine the sponge, the remaining 21/4 cups flour, and the oil, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook and mix on low speed for 2 minutes to moisten the flour.  Cover the bowl with a damp towel or with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes. Sprinkle the salt over the dough and mix for 3 minutes on low speed, or until well combined.  Increase the speed to medium (or to the minimum speed required to get the dough to slap against the inside of the bowl) and knead for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth. For the first rise, cover the dough and let rise for about 1 1/2 hours at warm room temperature for the fastest rise or overnight in the refrigerator for the slowest rise, or until doubled in volume. Because it is so wet, this dough is difficult to shape.  Transfer the dough gently -don't punch it down- into a baking pan about 10 inches square.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until about doubled in volume. Preheat the oven to 450°F.  Place a sheet pan on the floor or the bottom rack of the oven and heat for 5 minutes.  Slide the loaf into the oven, and pour in enough hot water to just cover the sheet pan.  Immediately spray the oven walls with water, and quickly close the door.  Wait for 30 seconds, spray again, and again quickly close the oven door.  Turn the oven down to 425°F and bake for about 35 minutes, or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped or an instant-read thermometer inserted into the loaf registers 205°F.  Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. . Research indicates that ciabatta may have originated in the Lombardy region of Italy. No resource is definitive and today every region of Italy produces their own form of ciabatta. Reprinted with permission from ©Cooking by James Peterson, published by Ten Speed Press. click for book review of this excellent book more bread recipes     chef and cookbook recipes top of page