July 19, 2011 - 2:11am
Ciabatta Help Needed
I am in need of some help with my first attempts at making ciabatta. I am not getting much loft out of the bread that I am making. I am using Jason Molina's ciabatta recipe and am following the directions to the letter (weighing my ingredients, baking at 500*, and using bread flour) but again my loaves are only about 1" tall and quite wide. Any help would be appreaciated.
Jason
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Have you watched the excellent video of someone making the recipe?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v24OBsYsR-A
Notice how she says she uses 490 grams of water vs the 450 specified.It's all about dough development/consistency. Sometimes the flour/water balance has to be adjusted slightly.
Also note how she uses plenty of flour to help with "surface tension" during shaping.
Yes, I have watched the video and done everything just like she does. Her dough still looks like it is less runny than what I am seeing and mine definitely has less "oven spring" as Molina says in his recipe. His photos look more like mine than in the video but he still has taller loaves than mine. I tried his semolina recipe last night and it has a kind of off taste. Kind of hard to describe, but it was more pronounced when the loaf was hot. Any ideas what I can do to get a taller ciabatta?
Have you tried using a little less water than listed, or a little more flour to tighten it up?
What brand of bread flour are you using?
I am assuming that you've tested your yeast and know that it is viable.
IMO, her formula (with 98% hydration - 490 grams of water) is waaaaay to wet for ciabatta. The recipe she refers to that recommends a 90% hydration (450 grams of water) should be about right.
There is no way to calculate the amount of flour that she uses in preparing the loaves for the oven and that could be a factor as it ultimately affects the final hydration level for the dough.
Try using less water and make sure your yeast is viable. You could also to a S&F or two during the initial proofing period to tighten things up a bit.
Also keep in mind that her "bread flour" may not be formulated like the bread flour you're using, ambient temperature and humidity will have an influence on the outcome and if your timing the proofing periods instead of watching the dough for its development you're not likely to get good results.
I also suspect that it might be too wet, but I don't have any idea how dry I can make it for ciabatta, being a neophyte baker. What is an S&F? How important to move ahead with the "divide, proof, and bake" portion after the initial tripling raise? It may have gone to long in the initial raise. I will be more attentive on the next batch in the morning.
S&F is simply a brief form of "stretch and fold". Once the dough has a chance to relax, stretching the dough and folding it back on itself helps to strengthen the mass to some degree, depending of course on how wet it might be.
Here's a link for Peter Reinhart's demonstration on stretch and fold.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1timJlCT3PM
Because he discusses Ciabatta in this video I would expect it to help you a great deal. Just hang on his every word and watch it a few times to get it all down solid.
Hi Jason
Have a look at the way I make a ciabatta, with a semi-batter type of dough, beaten entirely in the bowl.
http://nobreadisanisland.blogspot.com/2011/07/ciabatta.html
I calculate the amount of liquid I use by adding 25% to a traditional flour to liquid ratio. By traditional I mean the ratio used by Elizabeth David in her book 'English bread and yeast cookery', which is 16:10 flour to water (1lb of flour to 10 fluid ounces of water). This is the ratio used by the baker I used to work for, and was the one I used for many years before coming across the Dan Lepard method of 'several short kneadings over a period' which enables a higher hydration.
The traditional method has a hydration of 62.5%; using the DL method I aim for a 70% hydration.
As I was saying, I add 25% to a traditional recipe to covert it into a ciabatta recipe - which gives a hydration of around 78%. But I've found you can't be prescriptive about the amounts you use - it all comes down to the feel of the dough when you're mixing it. After making this bread several times you begin to get a feel of how it should be - just as when you're kneading a dough on the bench you know just when it feels right. (Practice makes perfect, and all that!)
In short, as others have said, to get a loaf with more loft, use less water or more flour - and keep records of what changes you make!
Best wishes, Paul