Sourdough Ciabatta: Working with a Wet Dough

This time, a recipe for ciabatta, which comes from Italy. Ciabatta apparently means slipper in Italian, and the flat shape is where the name comes from. Compared with a baguette it carries much more water, which gives it a crisp crust and a properly chewy interior. It is very good split and filled with vegetables or ham. No commercial yeast here, of course — this is ciabatta raised with sourdough.

Step 1 — Making the dough

The Wikipedia entry for ciabatta lists bread flour, water, salt and olive oil. I baked it with bread flour alone, but filled as a sandwich it felt a little thin, so I blended in some rye and whole wheat. Looking at various recipes, the hydration is far higher than ordinary bread — some people go as far as equal weights of flour and water. Here I settled on water at 85% of the flour.

Ingredients:

• Starter60g
• Bread flour (Kitanokaori)180g
• Rye flour50g
• Whole wheat flour (Kitanokaori)20g
• Water (around 20°C)212cc
• Salt4g

Mixing the dough

1. Put the measured water, the starter and the salt in a bowl and stir until fully dissolved.

2. Combine the bread flour, rye and whole wheat, and add them to the bowl. Using the scraper, turn the flour up from the bottom of the bowl to bring it together. There is so much water that you can do almost all of it with the scraper alone, without using your hands, until it forms a rough mass.

3. Cover the bowl and leave it for about 30 minutes. At this hydration it will be very sticky at first, closer to a batter. Time is what draws the gluten out. After a while the dough begins to come together.

Stretch and fold

4. The first stretch and fold, exactly as with an ordinary sourdough loaf. Work around the dough, stretching and folding roughly four to six times.

5. Cover the bowl and leave it at room temperature for about an hour.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5, for three stretch-and-fold sessions in total.

Over roughly three hours of fermentation, the stickiness settles down a great deal and the surface turns smooth.

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Step 2 — Shaping

7. When the bulk ferment is done, turn the dough out onto a floured surface, divide it into four, and round each piece lightly.

8. Flatten each piece a little and lay them out on floured baking paper. For the shape, think of a slipper — ciabatta.

9. At this time of year, leave them three to five hours at room temperature, or about twelve hours in the fridge, for the second proof.

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Step 3 — Baking

10. Preheat the oven to 250°C. Once it is up to temperature, slide them in on the baking paper.

11. Bake at 220°C for 20 minutes, then at 230°C for a further 20 minutes.

Split one horizontally and fill it with vegetables, ham or cheese. Very good indeed.