The other day I stopped into a Whole Foods store in the hope that I could find some white rye. I couldn't, in fact the person I spoke to had no idea what white rye was. But there on the shelf were bags of King Arthur Italian Flour. Wow! No shipping. But what to make? I decided on Ciabatta. Specifically Hamelman's Ciabatta with Poolish (p. 107 of Bread). Only after I had mixed everything up did I remember that the Italian Flour bag had a note recommending less water for this flour than others - and I had even accidentally put in around an extra ounce of water. So it was wet. I just decided to go with it instead of adding more flour. It was too wet to take out of the bowl to stretch and fold, so I used the in the bowl method. Then I decided it was too wet to move it around too much so after the first rise, I poured it (yes poured) into a dutch oven and let it do the second rise there. Then baked with the top on for 30 minutes, and the top off for 25. What did I get? Well it looks a bit like a three pound muffin.
with an extremely blistery top:
and the lightest feathery texture I've ever managed to produce.
