My sourdough ciabatta.....

the recipe is the same recipe for "Ciabatta with Biga" in the "Bread Baker's Apprentice". I didn't use the biga, but substituted 16 oz. of 75% hydration sourdough starter.  I added a squirt of honey, and a dob of olive oil....I started with the maximum amount of water given in the recipe, and my original dough was the slurpiest mess you've ever seen.  I just kept mixing the dough on the counter with a sort of "slam, stretch, and fold" technique, but there wasn't much stretching because the dough was so wet....when the dough started to come together a little, then I started to use a littler bench flour to help give the dough a little form.....after a while, I gave it a bed of flour and gave it the first of three stretch and folds.  When it was time to form the loaves, I just spread the dough in as much of a square as possible, and cut it in 8 pieces....put them on parchment covered pizza slide for about 30 minutes while the oven pre-heated.....then baked according to directions.  Tonight I'll try the yeasted "biga" version....because 16 oz. is a lot of starter to use for this recipe....We'll see.....I'm going to add mushrooms, garlic, serrano pepper, and cheese to tonight's dough....cross my fingers.....

When I first cut the loaves, they were just kind of flat rectangles.....for some lucky reason (knock on wood), when I use my sourdough starter, my loaves puff up, and not out.   I wish I knew the why and how, but I don't....I've only been using sourdough for about two months????