April 10, 2010 - 5:59am
Ciabatta
Hi all,
I confess that I have been lurking about around here for the past few months. I think this is a great site and been a lot of help regarding techniques and recipes. The photographs have been a great help too as we do not have any good bakeries in Ahmedabad. I had to rely on memory from trips to Europe till I joined this site.
I have attached a few photographs of a white flour Ciabatta I made a few days back. I would appreciate any comments. Thanks.
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Hi there, perhaps the problem is on my end but I don't see any photos posted.
You need to file your images on a host site (something like http://photobucket.com/) and then link them to your post. Carteful of the size. Limiting the to images to somewhere around 280x360 is a good size.
Thanks Paresh for posting the photo. Since you requested feedback I would say your ciabatta lacks the large holed, very open crumb that is a hallmark of the dough -- probably you're dough was too stiff. The ciabatta is a very wet dough.
This TFL link takes you to a recipe and photos of what I think a ciabatta should be:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2984/jasons-quick-coccodrillo-ciabatta-bread
So many good breads in India--i'm particularly fond of the Keralan Paratha, someting I hope to make someday if I can get hold of some fresh coconut oil.
Barbara
Thanks to all your responses.
For the record, The Hydration was 90%. which I think should be fine. The problem could be that we do not really have "bread flour". We get "Maida" (you could look it up in Wikipedia). Maybe I could carry home some organic flour from England when I visit my daughter who's studying there.
I would appreciate any further comments.
Paresh.
And the Keralan Parathas are really yum!!
Aha! From my (very brief) googling, it appears that Maida is very low in gluten ...more closely related to cake flour than bread flour. Since your hydration was fine, I'd guess that this is the primary reason for the difference in crumb v. what is more typical. I'd say that you've done quite well given what you were working with! Can you mail order, or otherwise find (British food store?), a flour with a higher protein content? This is all very interesting...
Brian
I would agree with bnom ...everything looks great except the crumb might not be as traditional. What recipe/formula did you use? Happen to know what the hydration was? Jason's, in the link above, is 75% I think while others run in the 72% range, usually not lower than that.
Brian
For the record, Jason's is about 95% hydration, if I'm not mistaken.
Wow! I'd forgotten that it was that high! I do love the results though. Our family prefers Jason's over any of the others that we've tried (so far).
Brian
Hi Paresh
I am from Surat and I also use maida for my breads since I did not find any bakery that really make good breads. I did make ciabatta a few couple of weeks back. Sorry no pics. But it turned out quite well with big holes. I used Jason's recipe. But I used bread machine for the dough.
Here's the link: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2984/jasons-quick-coccodrillo-ciabatta-bread#comment-106666
Hi Brian,
It's just not possible to get hold of bread flour here. Could someone tell me if I could use Gluten? And if yes, then in what percentage. This seems to me the most promising prospect.
Regards,
Paresh.
If you know(or can approximate) the protein levels of your flour and the gluten, you can use the "Mixed Mass Percentage Calculator" to blend any two flours to your desired target protein level.
http://tools.foodsim.com/
In lieu of that, (about)one tablespoon(.3 oz) of the average American vital wheat gluten(65% protein) will raise the protein level of a pound(16 oz) of flour (about)one percentage point.
You can then judge the results yourself. I use vital wheat gluten with quite satisfactory results. The key is to use the correct amount. Quite often it doesn't take very much.
Hi Paresh i quite like the look of the crumb albeit not quite what you are after in the ciabata. are you able to get australian flour there in (India ) excuse my ignorance i did look in your profile but it didnt help me, i know we export huge amounts of flour to the middle east. perhaps you can show us some of your local breads as well. kind regards Yozza