BBA #7 - Ciabatta

I love ciabatta. Love, love, love, love, love.

That said, this bread was a bit intimidating from the get-go. Wet dough, me mixing only by hand... and I've read the accounts of those BBAers who have gone before me. Bubbles? Said most of them. What bubbles?

Actually, it was probably a good thing that I'd read the other blogs, so that I wasn't super depressed with my own mini-bubbles. But I am getting ahead of myself.

I started last night with a poolish, which I had used previously for BBA #2. Unfortunately, I'd been making bread earlier that day as well so all of my bowls were dirty. I loaded up the dishwasher, scavenged a bowl out of the camping supplies, and got my poolish bubbling happily before popping it into its chilly refrigerated home. Fast-forward to this morning.

I wandered into the kitchen, put on my apron, got out my flour and other ingredients, opened the dishwasher to take out some freshly washed bowls...

Oh. Apparently I forgot the all-important step of actually turning on the dishwasher last night.

Ooops.

So there I was, scrubbing dried bread-dough-bits out of a bowl. Not the way I wanted to start my day!

After that little mishap though, things proceeded smoothly. The recipe given called for 6 tablespoons of water, plus whatever was needed to make the dough the right consistancy. The option was also given to replace the water with olive oil. I definitely needed a lot more liquid than the 6 tablespoons of water, so as I added more I alternated between water and oil. I'm really not sure how much I ended up adding!

Then it was time to stir.

And stir.

And stir some more.

My arm felt like it was about to fall off, but all the ingredients were incorporated! Hurray! I was afraid of stirring too little, as not kneading long enough is one of my weaknessess, but in retrospect I think I went a little long this time.

Ciabatta is a very delicate dough and must be handled gently. Shaping is accomplished with careful folding - under no circumstances do you want to degass this dough! So I was most cautious as I folded, rested, and folded it again. I thought it looked a little funny, but after it rose for a while it looked more like what I expected.

While it was rising, I was improvising. Because the dough is so soft, the final rise after shaping calls for using a couche. A couche is basically a little nest for the dough so that it will keep its shape as it rises. I do not have a couche, so I floured a dishtowel and balled up some other towels to make the sides of my "nests" a little stiffer. It seemed to work well!

The baking went quickly - two minutes occupied with the steaming process, then another 20 or so (with a turn of the tray in the middle, of course). And boy did my house smell good! I waited the bare minimum before cutting into my bread, eager to see if it looked as good on the inside as it did on the outside.Well, the holes weren't anywhere near as big as in the picture, but they are there, little tiny ones in the middle-top! And really, it tastes so good no one will notice if you don't tell them!


The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread