Hello bakers, I was wondering if There are any tricks to getting a deep brown color without burning the bottom or over cooking my breads. I have a double oven and find the larger bottom oven browns slightly better, but still no great shakes. Thanks,  any help you can offer is always appreciated.

I'm relatively new to breadmaking and I've been lurking here quite a bit. I think it's about time I made my first post, but since I want to show off my bread, why not make it a blog post?

^ Whole wheat sourdough ready for their overnight retard. Obama lurks in the background, waiting. Some 14 hours later, the boule pops out of the oven.

Lately I've been increasingly obsessed with baking (well, eating) the best damn whole wheat sourdough. WGB got me off to a good start, as did Laurel's but, ehh... something was missing. WGB was an amazing read, but its hearth bread made with sourdough... it was dense, chewy, and not at all what I wanted. The flavor was maybe not the right kind of nutty. So what it came down to was me searching this site inside out. There's quite a bit of valuable information around these parts! This last link also saved my sanity once or twice. :p

There were plenty of flat loafs in between, but I think I've got it.

^Bam.

I used 100% hydration sourdough starter that's ~3 months old. The final hydration was 82%.

I'm happy with how the loaf turned out. The oven spring was far better than I expected. I think the final tweak that made everything "click" was to not flip the dough onto a flat board for scoring, but into a shallow, parchment-lined bowl. The curvature of the bowl angled the dough in such a way that I got a flat surface to score. It made the dough look somewhat deflated and scoring actually harder without the surface tension, but somehow the "liveliness" of the dough was preserved better in the end. I scored the dough, then lifted it out by the parchment and dumped the whole affair into a covered 3.6 quart wide-lipped casserole. The casserole was also another great discovery. I dug it out of a thrift store intending to use the flat lid as a base, but found that using it right-side up gave the loaf juuust the right amount of structural support while still being largely free standing. I baked the loaf at 450 degrees for 30 minutes, and that was that.

^ The crumb.

I also whipped up some 115% hydration dough/batter for a shot at ciabatta.

^ The ciabatta posing with the boule in the back.

Like the round, I made an overnight soaker containing half the final flour and all of the salt and water. The ciabatta soaker was so hydrated that the water and flour gave up and separated into their own sedimentary layers. Not pretty. The next day I added the starter and remaining flour and stretch-and-folded it in the container with one hour rests in between. After the 3rd set of folding, the batter started peel easily from the container and I decided to divide dough into two and placed 'em in the fridge.

I wasn't expecting much of the ciabatta. It was just a side experiment, and the open vent on my aging oven makes steaming futile. I've gotten around on the boule with the glass casserole, but for the ciabatta, I just cranked my oven up to as high as it'll go and chucked in the ciabatta on the tiles for 10-15 minutes. There still managed to be pretty good oven spring.

So, how'd it do?

^ Damn. Either it was under-kneaded or flour simply wasn't meant to be this hydrated.

I ended up getting a cavern, and over-floured it while trying to shape it. Oh well; that didn't stop the bread from being some of the most deliciously airy and fluffy bread I've tasted with just the right tang. Once the excess flour was vigorously patted off, anyways.

So, there you go. If anyone would like the full recipe for the ciabatta, I'd be happy to post it. I'm still tweaking the hydration and so forth.

^ One last shot of the crust. Btw, apologies if the pictures seem washed out, poorly composed, or whatever. I'm not a photographer by any means.

Whole Wheat Sourdough

1. On the day before:
   • Refresh the starter and thoroughly mix the soaker ingredients.
   • Cover the soaker and let it sit for 12 to 24 hours at room temperature for an overnight autolyse.
2. Mixing and first rise:
   • Mix all final ingredients. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes, then stretch-and-fold in the bowl to ensure hydration is even. Cover the bowl, and let it sit at room temperature for 45 minutes.
   • I pre-heated an insulated proofing box (a cooler) with a heat pad set to "low". The ambient temperature should be around 90 degrees.
   • Stretch-and-fold the dough 3 times, with one hour rests following each iteration in the proofing box.
3. Shaping and final proof:
   • Pre-shape, rest 15 minutes, then shape. Place the dough in cloth-lined proofing basket and cover snuggly with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
   • Place the basket immediately in the refrigerator for a 12-24 hour overnight rise.
4. Baking:
   • Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it rest for 90 minutes.
   • Meanwhile, preheat oven to 475 F with a baking stone and a covered 3.6 qt glass casserole.
   • Flip the dough into a shallow, parchment-lined bowl. Score the dough.
   • Place the dough in the casserole, cover it, and bake for 30-35 minutes at 450 F degrees.

Using the “no-knead” method, popularized by Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery, I went for a ciabatta this weekend.  There were a few adjustments I made to the recipe:

1. I used 2/3 bread flour and 1/3 whole wheat flour, instead of 100% bread Flour.
2. To develop the strength of the dough a bit, I used the “stretch-and-fold” technique several times throughout the 19-hour fermentation period.

Overall, I was pleased with the results.  The crumb had a nice open structure, with uneven holes throughout.  The crust was a bit thinner than I expected, and was hoping for a bit more oven spring. :)

Has anyone tried making some of Farine's fermented fruit ciabatta?  I tried a batch last week and hade a great time making some fermented apple juice, but it still didn't impart very much apple flavor to the ciabatta.  I'm wondering if anyone has experience making a stronger fruit ferment.  Here's how my apple hooch looks now:

I let it go for around 5 days, used most of the liquid, then refreshed it with more water and sugar.  After another three days, it has gotten so bubbly that I have to open the bottles slowly.  I put it in the fridge to slow down co2 production.  But I never added yeast to it, just sugar and water.  Here are my adventures with making it, and there is more here on my blog on the ciabatta itself (just scroll down for pics and description).

Thanks to Farine for the great idea.  Now I have ideas bubbling up in my head for more fruit breads.

-Peter

So, I must confess, I never meant for this loaf to become a ciabatta...in fact this was meant to be a boule, but things got a little too 'hydrated' and I had to leave the house for school. But in the end, I guess things turned out alright!

It all started with wanting to hop on the Susan's Simple Sourdough bandwagon last night. I thought it would be a great attempt to work on my sourdough skills, since I am becoming pretty decent at Whole Grain Breads with a biga and soaker, but I always seem to have a hard time with my attempts at any of Hamelman's recipes. So I thought this looks simple enough (hence the title right?), why not try it? The thing was, I do not have a firm starter, I actually have a liquid levain starter (from Bread), and I started the seed culture from Whole Grain Bread the other day, so I seemed a bit out of luck, until I thought, "Why not just use a tablespoon of my liquid starter with Susan's formula for her starter?". I ended up taking one part liquid levain starter, 1 part water and 3 parts flour. I mixed this muck up into a really sticky, yet firmer starter than what I previously had, let it sit overnight and then got back to it this morning.

When I awoke the starter was filled with nice bubbles and looked ready, so I went ahead and followed Susan's formula the best I could (no scale at the moment so I converted everything to cups and tablespoons the best I could) and ended up with something so sticky even after a thirty minute rest and a stretch and fold. I attempted a S&F again and tossed it back in the bowl this gooeyness came from. I referred back to the recipe and saw it called for two more stretch and folds at an hour each. I didn't have the time, and it really looked like it could use some for S&F love, so after another thirty minutes, I gently patted the dough down, S&F and then repeated thirty minutes later.

I left the dough covered while I went to class and had a quick lunch, I came back two hours later and low and behold, the dough hardly risen and really looked like it could use a S&F session, but I held off, instead I got a little frustrated and thought, "Maybe I am not meant for sourdough...should just stick to WGB"...but then I took another look at the dough, folded and covered in flour on the counter and said, "Damn, that looks like ciabatta!". So I shuffled through my bread books, read on how to shape ciabatta, bake it and then realized I should give it a shot, why not?

After shaping very gently, I let it rise (if you can call it that) for 40 minutes and placed it on my preheated stone at 450 for 40 minutes with steaming and rotating once half way through. End results? A ciabatta loaf!

What was shocking was the dough was maybe a bit under half and inch in height before it hit the stone. So the oven spring was great!

I guess the lesson I learned here was, you can always learn (or make) something useful out of a mistake, just be persistant!

And I will post crumb shots soon enough when I cut it tomorrow for lunch!

I love Ciabatta bread. One of my goals has always been to be able to bake it myself and have it turn out as good or better than the stuff from my local bakery.

I found "Jason's Quick Ciabatta" recipe and decided to give it a go.

Attempt #1 was delicious! It had the right crust and crumb and while I have some experience when it comes to slack dough I was not prepared for just how wet this recipe was. The forming left A LOT of room for improvement.

Attempt#2 I decided that the answer was to knead the crap out of it and add flour to help give it some structure. This helped with the form but took away from the chewiness of the crust.

Attempt#3 I stayed up late last night and watched several videos on youtube of ciabatta makers at work.

Several lights went off in my brain. After my initial mix and knead I portioned the dough out into separate bowls. Covered with plastic wrap and let them to rise. When they were ready I poured them onto a heavily floured table and quickly rough formed them. Not working the flour into the bread but using it to keep everything lubricated. Then let them rest for 20 min. and then transferred them onto plastic wrap that had been floured and dusted with cornmeal. Once on the plastic I could move them around and shape them with ease. I then used the plastic to flip them onto my peel and into my oven.

Thats what I am talking about!!!

This makes me smile...

Hi Everyone! I'm new to the forum.  I began a quest a few months ago to become a master artisan baker.  I'm not too far into it.  I started with "Artisan in 5" and realized I wasn't getting quite the quality I needed (though there is a place for that technique I think).  30 hours ago I embarked on my second true Ciabatta.  This time I used the recipe in Maggie Glezer's "Artisan Baking" book.  I'd love some comments/coaching.  Here's some of my observations:

1.  I'm in Denver at 6,000 feet, and followed the recipe as written

2.  The result was the best tasting loaf I've ever made.  I had large holes right at the upper crust, but not much in the way of holes below that (see pic).

3.  My biga was very firm, and after 24 hours didn't really show signs of life, but I used it anyway.  I forgot to knead the biga, so it was just thoroughly mixed and left to ferment for 24 hours.

4.  The ultimate dough seemed a little stiff for a Ciabatta.  I'm wondering if that inhibited the hole development?  I did a turn every 20 minutes 4x into the proofing, and handled the dough very gently during shaping. 

5.  I forgot to dimple it before putting it in the oven. 

6.  As instructed, I baked the bread on the 2nd from top rack (instead of 3rd as I usually do)...but I had overbrowning on top, as you can see.  I did not use any steam. 

Here's a pic of my result...would love feedback/coaching.  Thank you!!  Sue.

After many tries for the right recipe, I just found this recipe on TFL search and baked it this morning-- it is the best ciabatta recipe I could hope for!  The directions were clear and the result was completely as advertised...Thanks, you made my day!  

Yesterday I tried the ciabatta pizza that trailrunner posted about a week ago. I was very impressed with the results.

The pizza formula has a lot of yeast in it and went through bulk fermentation like a rocket (I had to put it in the fridge to slow it down.) When it had tripled (after about 3 hours in fridge--probably faster but I just let it sit there until I was ready), I heavily floured my counter, literally poured the glutenous dough onto the flour, and then sprinkled more flour on the top. I patted the blob into a circle about 1/2 an inch thick. Then the trick was how to get the blob onto the pan-sprayed parchment. I did the best I could but had to reshape it a bit after it landed. Didn't seem to hurt it any. I topped it with tomatoes and basil (topping basil was an obvious mistake at this point because it dried out in the oven--next time I'll put it on as a garnish; sometimes in the heat of the moment I do stupid things).

I baked it on a preheated stone on the bottom rack for 8 minutes. (Trailrunner had warned me that I needed to bake the moisture out of the tomatoes and that was good advice.) After taking it out of the oven with my peel, I removed the parchment paper, topped it with some of TJ's marinated rope-type mozzarella, and slid it back in the oven for another 8 minutes. It rose up real nice in the oven and produced a delicate, soft, thickish pizza crust. The pizza as a whole didn't have as much flavor as I was hoping for but my tomatoes weren't home grown (I used an heirloom supermarket variety), so I'm not surprised as the topping was so plain. Next time I think I'll reduce the yeast to 3 g (I used 7 g by mistake) so it will take longer to go through bulk fermentation and perhaps develop a little more flavor. But all and all I was pretty happy with the results. Thanks trailrunner for posting this great pizza!

Topped with tomatoes and ready to go into the oven.

After 8 minutes

After 15 minutes (TJ's cheese had some oil in it so that's why it browned; regular mozzarella probably wouldn't brown.)

Crumb (or is it slice?)

250 g AP flour

227 g water (I might reduce to 210 g next time)

3 g yeast (I misread the recipe and used 7 g by accident)

7 g salt

tomatoes, thinly sliced or halved cherries, or a combination of both

mozzarella cheese, grated or thinly sliced

fresh basil leaves, for garnish

olive oil

kosher salt

Put the flour, water, salt, and yeast in mixer bowl and mix with paddle to incorporate. Let dough rest for 5 minutes to hydrate. Knead with dough hook on speed 2 for 10 minutes. (My dough never formed a ball like trailrunner's so next time I'm going to use a little less water).

Put dough into a container and let triple.

Place dough onto a heavily floured countertop, sprinkle top of dough with flour, and pat into a round about 1/2 inch thick. Transfer dough to pan-sprayed parchment paper, top with thinly sliced tomatoes, and bake on a stone in a preheated 500º oven for 8 minutes to drive off the moisture from the tomatoes and set the dough. Remove pizza and parchment from oven, discard parchment and top with mozzarella cheese. Return pizza to oven and bake until done, about another 7 to 8 minutes.

Garnish with fresh basil leaves, and a light sprinkling of kosher salt and olive oil.

Makes one pizza (serves two people).

The original post is from LilDice.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/3621/quick-rustic-ciabatta-pizza-recipe-full-howto-pics

http://hollosyt.googlepages.com/quickrusticciabattapizza

I also found another link to this pizza with pictures and discussion. NB: the reduced amount of IDY.

http://www.prurgent.com/2009-04-15/pressrelease36039.htm

--Pamela

I made the Team USA ciabatta from the BBA and was amazed at the results.  I started with BBA's 178% hydration poolish, which hardly had any activity compared to be usual 100% poolish.  The next day when I made the dough, I folded 3x over 3 hours and the dough seemed barely alive, and hydration levels were like pancake batter.  When I went to place it on my parchment, it poured from my hands like silk--by far the most slack dough/batter I've ever worked with.  I decided to retard the dough in the fridge overnight and bake it this morning before work.  The dough had hardly changed and was about 1" thick and flabby, like a deflated toad.  I had zero faith it would turn out.  However, the ciabatta sprung to life in the oven, more than doubling during the oven spring and turning into something incredible.  The smell was heavenly--creamy, salty, and rich.  I won't be able to cut into it until tonight, but I think my faith has been restored.

Has anyone else made this recipe?  It was a complete morale killer right up to the first 15 minutes of baking when it transformed.  I'm thinking the overnight stay in the fridge may have improved flavor, but I don't have any comparison.  Thoughts?