The Fresh Loaf

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Rescuing my BBA Ciabatta dough

CoveredInFlour's picture
CoveredInFlour

Rescuing my BBA Ciabatta dough

Hi!

I've made ciabatta only once before, using the recipe from "Bread" by Eric Treuille & Ursula Ferrigno. I had no problems with that recipe (that I know of), getting a feel for how its supposed to be slack and moist instead of firm and dense.

Yesterday I decided that I was going to make another ciabatta, using the recipe from BBA. I made up the poolish as directed, leaving it out for 4 hours until it got nice and bubbly then putting it in my fridge overnight as directed. This morning I took out the poolish an hour before making the dough to "take the chill off". When it was time, I mixed in the rest of the ingredients, using the "by hand" directions.

Well, it firmed up like a giant baseball. I was mixing it into a shaggy dough and as I was doing it I was dipping my hand in water as per directions all the time thinking "this is too dense..". I'm in no position to question *anything* in BBA, but there was no way this was a loose slack dough. It was dense as a rock.

Mentally shrugging it off as a "well, let's wait and see..", I moved the dough to the flour bed as described in BBA and tried to stretch and fold. There was no stretch. There was ripping and tearing, but no stretch. I did it anyway, and folded, but it looked like puff pastry. I oiled it and let it rest 30 minutes, looking up "BBA ciabatta problems" on google. I found that some people have had issue with this recipe, but I was already in the middle of this fiasco.

After the 30 minutes, it was still dense and hard, but I stretched (ripped and tore) and folded again. Then I noticed that the oil had mixed with the flour to create hard bits all over the dough. By now I was hating Peter Reinhardt.

I let it sit for 2 hours, hoping that it would slacken. In that time I moved it to what I was hoping were warmer and warmer spots in my house. I had it on my wooden dough board so the oven was out of the question. After the 2 hours, it hadn't done a thing. I put it on a parchment covered baking sheet, turned the oven on to 200 for 30 seconds, turned it off and stuck the dough in for another 30 minutes. Didn't do anything. At all.

By this point I was ready to throw it against the wall and stamp my foot in annoyance. Instead, 'cause I'm an adult :), I put the dough back on my now defloured dough board and kneaded it heavily, spraying with water every few turns to remove the caked on flour. It's still tearing, but less.

It's now sitting in a bowl on a 2 hour re- rise. My intentions towards this dough have changed. When it's done rising (if it rises), I'm turning it over onto a baking sheet and popping it into the oven as a rustic blob (or boule if it looks nice).

I am sharing this with all of you in case I go mental and really do throw it against the wall in frustration. I *had* good intentions. :D Needless to say, I doubt I'll be using this particular recipe again. I doubt it's the recipe's fault, but I have to blame someone and I really don't want it to be me. :D

AnnaInNC's picture
AnnaInNC

familiar.

 

anna

AnnaInNC's picture
AnnaInNC

roughly 72% hydration. Weird that it became a baseball.  Hmmmm.

JustinB's picture
JustinB

Ciabatta is such a messy pain. It sounds like maybe there was too much flour added, or not enough water in either the dough or poolish.

I know when I am making ciabatta and have messed it up, it was usually in the pre-ferment (we use a biga). Just reading the recipe wrong and adding 2-3 extra # of flour can dramatically change the recipe in a large batch, so a small mis-calculation of flour/water in a small batch can go a long ways

CoveredInFlour's picture
CoveredInFlour

The poolish *looked* nice and loose and runny when I took it out of the fridge this morning. But as I haven't made it before I don't know if it looked right.

I measured out the flour carefully and added it as per the directions. I then added the 6 tbs water directly to the bowl, then dipped my hand in the water and mixed it again as per the directions. It *did* say 6 tbs to 3/4 cup, but I didn't put the 3/4 cup in the dough.

It says " If there is still some loose flour, add the additional water as needed and continue to mix." I added 2 additional TBS water in addition to dipping my hand in water to mix it together.

The sidebar commentary mentions that "as you feel more comfortable working with wet dough" you can add more water. "The wetter the better, as long as it holds together enough to make the stretch and fold maneuvers."

So maybe today my flour needed more water and I just didn't add enough.

I just took the blob out of the oven, having baked it at 475F for 15 minutes and knocking it down to 450F for the remaining 15 minutes. It's crackling away on the cooling rack, looking edible even if not very pretty. :)

Here it is:

So you're all saying it's baker error and not the recipe.... Hmm.. I just don't want to accept that, LOL! Can we make it partially my fault and partially the recipe's fault?

AnnaInNC's picture
AnnaInNC

looks tasty !

jowilchek's picture
jowilchek

After many attempts, and formulas. I made my first good ciabatta today. I took several formulas that had failed and came up with a formula that worked, at least for me today. I would like to hear some comments on the crumb...is it about right???MVC-855F.JPG

AnnaInNC's picture
AnnaInNC

crumb :)

Great job !

jowilchek's picture
jowilchek

Thanks Anna for your kind words!

Roo's picture
Roo

Did you weigh or measure your flour and water?  Did you sift or fluff the flour beforehand?  Give weighing a go at this recipe.  I think you will find a world of differnece in the outcome.

What you slavaged looks good on the outside.  Will be interested to see what the crumb looks like and your thoughts on flavor.

CoveredInFlour's picture
CoveredInFlour

It was really tasty, so tasty that I didn't get a shot of the crumb, it was gone in 4 hours!

It looked like a regular loaf, small cell sized holes. It had a ncie creamy tender tangy taste, which is why it was gone in 4 hours. I would probably make it again, doing the same thing and use a different recipe for ciabatta.

 

Gotta run, sick kid!

Jo_Jo_'s picture
Jo_Jo_

We just finished making the BBA Challenge 2011 ciabatta and found that most of us ended up with a crumb that was more sandwich like than like a real ciabatta.  Chris raised the hydration up to 79% and got a really nice loaf, but even the biga version of Reinhart's recipe was only about 74% hydration and still produced something more like a french bread than ciabatta.  Here's the link to some of our results...

http://akuindeed.com/?p=3485&cpage=1#comment-3754

I posted mine on my blog here and it shows a picture of my sourdough bread vs my bba ciabatta, which I was very disappointed with.  I think the recipe is flawed, simply by not putting enough liquid into it.

Joanne

sarafina's picture
sarafina

ugh. I am working at ciabatta too... using the cooks illustrated recipe. what a big fat flop... looks like a boring sandwich loaf, only drier...