Your site can be so helpful...Thanks Steve

Sylvia

Hello Steve,

Thanks for the information.  I would really like to try it because it looks so good.  However, I am living in Singapore now, a tropical place where temperature is hardly ever below 80, even at night.  I don't know how I am going to find a place where temperature is 70, even with air conditioning on.  Yet the fridge is much lower than that.  Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Shuang

Shuang, one thing you might try is to use water that is chilled so that your pre-ferment or dough after mixing has a temperature slightly below where you want it to be.  Then place the dough or starter in a small insulated chest (perhaps with some cold packs) for the time it needs to ferment.  Try to monitor the temperature closely.

SteveB

http://www.breadcetera.com

I made ciabatta recently for the first time using Steve's recipe, and got a lot of accolades on the result.  I appreciated that it was very easy to execute (and I'm a newbie) and it produced a very airy crumb with lots of large air pockets.  I brushed some olive oil on the crust right after baking to soften it a bit.

Steve's recipes are very well-written so a new baker can easily follow them and get good results.  I have been using his site to build up my bread-baking repertoire.

Thanks, cake diva.  I'm glad that, as a newbie, you are finding the recipes to be accessible.  It's always nice to get feedback.  And positive feedback is even nicer!  :)

SteveB

http://www.breadcetera.com

I agree with cake diva, the recipe was well written and very easy to follow. Steve, I felt I followed the execution very closely and was on my way to a great ciabatta, however, i ended up with a delicious "italian" loaf instead. The end result was ciabatta from the outside but no air with "sandwich" type crumb. What did i fail to do correctly?