Classic Ciabatta
- Total Time
- 12 hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- ¼teaspoon active dry yeast
- ¼cup warm water
- ¾cup tepid water
- 2½cups unbleached flour
- 1teaspoon active dry yeast
- 5tablespoons warm water
- 1tablespoon olive oil
- 1cup plus 3 tablespoons tepid water
- 3¾cups unbleached flour, plus flour for dusting work surfaces
- 1tablespoon salt
- Cornmeal
For the Starter
For the Dough
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
756 calories; 5 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 152 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams dietary fiber; 1 gram sugars; 21 grams protein; 817 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
To make the starter, stir the yeast into the warm water and let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
- Step 2
Stir in the tepid water. Then add the flour, a cup at a time.
- Step 3
Beat by hand, in an electric mixer or in a food processor, to form a sticky dough. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a cool place to rise until tripled in volume, 6 to 24 hours. Starter can be made in advance and refrigerated until ready to use.
- Step 4
To make the dough, mix yeast with warm water in the bowl of an electric mixer. Set aside 10 minutes.
- Step 5
Add oil and the prepared starter and a little of the tepid water. Start mixing at very slow speed, adding the rest of the tepid water gradually until these ingredients are well blended. Mix flour with salt, add them, and mix for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Step 6
Attach a dough hook to the mixer and mix for 2 minutes at slow speed, then 2 minutes at medium speed. Scoop the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead briefly. The dough should be very moist and elastic.
- Step 7
Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until doubled, 1½ to 2 hours. The dough should still be sticky but full of air bubbles.
- Step 8
Place dough on a well-floured work surface and cut into four equal portions. Roll each into a cylinder, then stretch the cylinders into rectangles about 4 by 10 inches.
- Step 9
If you can bake the bread on stones, generously flour four pieces of parchment paper and place each shaped loaf on a sheet of the paper, seam side up. Otherwise, oil a baking sheet, dust it with flour and cornmeal and place the loaves on the baking sheet. Cover loosely with damp tea towels and allow to rise about 2 hours, until doubled.
- Step 10
Preheat oven to 425 degrees with a baking stone in it if you have one. Dust the stone with cornmeal. Gently roll the breads from the parchment onto the stone so the seam is down and the floured side is up. Otherwise, simply place the baking sheet with the breads in the oven. Bake until the breads are golden brown, about 30 minutes, spraying them with water a few times during the first 10 minutes. Cool on racks.
Private Notes
Comments
Personally, I like the King Arthur recipe for ciabatta better than either of the NYT recipes... easier, and there's a nice video, too...
The dishtowel stuck to the bread, it needed another 5 min baking, and only two loaves fit on baking stone at a time.
This bread ended up being more dense and chewy than I anticipated. The recipe is pretty easy to follow except it doesn't include information that would be helpful, a perennial FF issue (used table salt, not kosher; warm water was from the sink and I did two parts cold for one part boiling for tepid). Don't put your baking stone on the bottom of the oven! We did one loaf that way and it burned. The rest of the loaves tasted great, but as the other reviewer said, lacked those special air pockets.