January 9, 2010 - 2:34pm
Dealing with wet dough - ciabatta, etc
Hi!
I'd like to bake a bread out of wet dough, e.g. ciabatta, pain bale, but I'm not sure about equipment. I have two options (well, plus doing it by hand - but I'm a novice) - either use blender/stand mixer with "dough knife", or pre-historic handheld mixer, which only has one speed (if it works at all). Pictures are attached. What would be best to use? Thanks!
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If you are just doing wet, lean doughs like ciabatta, I'd suggest completely skipping the tools and using the no-knead approach.
You'll find plenty of recipes on this site and in recently published books that don't require a mixer. I'm making the pizza dough from Jim Lahey's My Bread today and, even though I own a standmixer, the only gear I used was a big metal bowl and sturdy wooden spoon.
I agree. With a dough as wet as a Ciabatta there's really no need to get deeply involved with kneading when you can autolyze and stretch/fold to achieve the same (I believe better) results.
That dough hook looks pretty pitiful and the propeller looking device (dough knife?), although very interesting and something I'd llike to learn about, is something I have no idea how to use.
Thanks for the replies!
Floydm, flournwater: I would've done it the no-knead way, but I didn't have time. Guilty - poor planning. Next time I'll do it beforehand (that is, unless this bread turns out to be fantastic with this method). I gave in and used that "dough blade" for about 10 min on low speed, until the dough began to come off the walls (at least somewhat). Then some stretching and folding, and left it to proof. I wonder what'll come out of it...
Bwana: Thanks for the tip! I'll check the book out :)