August 14, 2013 - 5:24pm
First time Ciabatta
I got my Assistent back from the repair center and tried Ciabatta for the first time, using the levain recipe from Fundamentals of Classic Bread Baking.
The dough was very wet and I put the loaves in bread pans instead of just letting them spread out.
I think I might have been too impatient in the final proof because the crumb is not open. There were two ferments of 1 hour and a 30-minute proof (as well as 16-hour pre-ferment)
Any suggestions on how to achieve that beautiful open crumb? Should I not have used the bread pans (aluminum foil pans) and baked them directly on the stone? Too impatient and should have let proof longer?
There are no complaints about the taste because two loaves are already GONE and did not even cool down.
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My inexpert thoughts are to handle the dough gently, use stretch and folds to develop the gluten, use a couche for the final rise and transfer the dough very gently to the stone. Absolutely no need to use a tin.
I hope that this helps a little.
My ciabatta is left in the refrigerator overnight after the initial mixing. Next I let it rise at room temp for maybe 3 hours or until it has tripled from original volume. Then stretch and fold a couple of times with 5 to 10 minute rests between. Finally i shape the loaves and let it final proof for another 45 minutes while the oven comes to temperature. I put a steam pan on the bottom of the oven and bake at 500 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes with a rotation in the middle. I bake on the baguette trays. Get my whole story here: http://www.brickner.com/activities/vittles/bread/bread.html.