Wild Ciabatta in Cyprus!
I was getting antsy because I hadn't used my sourdough starter for 2 weeks! That's a long time for me. I needed use it. Well, I used it for ciabatta as you can see here and for Poliane's Miche. The sourdough ciabatta that I baked the night before was enough to make my Sunday... Almost 80% hydration, following BBA's poolish version and replacing the poolish with my lively sourdough starter. I had fun making this one and I am beginning to believe that I get better results when I use the sourdough starter compared to commercial yeast. This ciabatta turned out pretty good. Very light as I hoped... the crumb was just lovely. Creamy and light flavor (not too yeasty or sour). It was very much liked by the family members and one loaf was gone during breakfast, as you can see with a simple fennel-mint salad. I gotta try making this ciabatta in our wood-fired oven and see how that turns out. Hope you like the photos. I tried to use natural light as much as I can...
Happy Bakes!
Hazim
David
WOW....your ciabattas are perfect! I love the photos...they are wonderful! I also love the fact that you have a wood fired oven! I do to and Im looking forward to your regular and especially your wood fired bakes and recipes! Please keep posted on your great bakes! We have a forum for wood fired ovens...it would be so nice if you would post a photo of your WFO. Welcome to TFL.
Sylvia
Just perfect ciabatta. Great job.
Would love the fennel salad recipe.
weavershouse
Your loves look fantastic, Hazim! --Pamela
Hazim, wonderful breads.
This is going to be my next project. Which formula did you use?
Gosia
Those are some of the best looking ciabattas I've ever seen!
Patricia
You should post the recipe for the salad; it looks delish. --Pamela
Thanks all for the nice comments... I had a hunch that I would get great results using my sourdough starter. I had tried this before using just instant yeast poolish and it just didn't come together like this. I may have also gotten better handling wet doughs as well. It makes me happy to see big holes like this finally :)
Anyway- I used BBA's poolish ciabatta formula and I replaced the poolish with an equal volume of my sourdough starter (replenished using 4:3 flour-to-water ratio). I also added a tbsp olive oil and replaced half of the water with whole milk.
And for the salad... very simple & quick. Just toss some very fresh, very thinly sliced (I use a cheap mandolin for that) fennel with some fresh mint leaves (torn into pieces) and a nice touch of good extra virgin olive oil, lemon, s&p... that's about it.
Hazim