January 16, 2015 - 9:10am
Just Made My 1st
Yesterday. Ciabatta bread. It tastes great but not quite the look I was expecting. The crust was great, the crumb was not airy at all & not as chewy as I wanted. The recipe called for only 5/8 tsp yeast total. I think this is not enough. Made the sponge the night before & the bread in the a.m. Found another recipe that calls for significantly more yeast. I'll try it next time.
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What recipe did you use? What kind of flour and how long did you knead the dough? What was the hydration of the dough?
-Dave
and make a 100% hydration poolish when making non SD ciabatta. It's not th=e amount of yeast but how long it is fermented before adding to the dough . If it isn't at least 80% hydration for the final dough then it isn't really ciabatta. I like 90% but I have 20% whole grains in there too and have done 100% hydration with 40% whole grain .
The recipe I used came from FOOD.com by Lisa Pizza. Found it when I googled ciabatta. Followed it best I could. I guess it wasn't too bad, my mother-in-law took one loaf home with her. And she's been baking for a looong time. I don't understand the hydration ratios mentioned above so I can't address that.
....your dough needs to be quite wet for ciabatta. You pretty much have to pour it onto the baking sheet and push it together with wet hands. I grease plastic wrap before putting it on top of the loaves to rise which they won't do much, then just before baking and with wet hands again, sort of push the sides in a bit. Good luck!