Team USA ciabatta - thick enough for a sandwich?
I love the Team USA ciabatta from PR's Crust and Crumb, and have yet to find a ciabatta recipe that gives such good open structure. When I make it, the dough is really batter that I pour into puddles on a floured board, flop/fold twice, and pour onto my parchment. It bakes up great, crispy with a nutty flavor, but the final product is about 1 1/2 - 2" thick, which is perfect for slicing and dipping in olive oil but is really thin if you wanted to slice it horizontally to make sandwiches. Has anyone modifed this recipe or found a ciabatta with open holey structure that is actually sandwich thickness, like around 2-3" high? With this high hydration dough, there's just no way for me to keep the batter any higher!
http://psoutowood.wordpress.com
Try Jason or is it John's Coccodrillo Ciabatta, its another fantastic recipe, about 95% hydration!
Have you tried Jason's Quick Ciabatta?
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2984/jasons-quick-coccodrillo-ciabatta-bread
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v24OBsYsR-A&playnext_from=TL&videos=mBpn-KXaDEc
I'll have to give it a try. I strayed once from the Team USA ciabatta to do Hamelman's ciabatta and came crawling back weeping to Team USA, vowing never again to leave it. But maybe just this once...
My other thought on ciabatta is baking it in a pan (on a stone) to hold it in place. Though I do like the freeform look, that might get me the height I want.
-Peter
http://psoutowood.wordpress.com
http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2009/01/no-knead-ciabatta-bread-you-can-believe.html and a video that shows his tricks...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX_6l2bmvQI&feature=fvw
This recipe works a treat and if you play with your dough a little you can make the loaf a little less wide and get good height to the loaf suitable for a sandwich
like my sandwich breads thin, to not overwhelm the fillings, and besides I have never liked bread thick enough to stop a bullet to paraphrase an oatmeal commercial. I like to have thin bread, and Texas Toast is not my slice of bread, nothing against Texas, have relatives there probably.
The bread just needs to be thick enough to carry the fillings without falling apart when you bite it. I must have been a real pain to my mother when I was a kid, as I insisted on slices of bread no more than 1/4 inch thick, and forget fluffy buns, the insides of those got dumped on someone else, while I ate the crusty part. Same with biscuits, I just couldn't eat the stuff, thin brown ones yes, thick puffy whiteish ones no!
Hi Eva,
I get your point and agree somewhat. I don't like a mouthful of pillowy bread whenI'm trying to eat a sandwich but I do like some bread to help soak up juices, provide a stable base for spreads and toppings, and act as structure for the often floppy insides, like a skeleton for a body. I love my Team USA ciabatta but if I cut it in half I'd half just two pieces of crust holding together my sandwich, like meat and cheese between two crackers. Maybe it's semantics but dipping bread and sandwich bread should, well, act differently. Good thing there are thousands of types of bread to choose from! Happy baking,
-Peter