First Ciabatta Bake

Good morning all,

Yesterday I tried my hand at making this,

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2984/jasons-quick-coccodrillo-ciabatta-bread#comment-139806

Following the directions to the letter, weighed all my ingredients, and ended up with these nice loaves on the second try.

I am totally enthralled with this recipe.  Its very nice to not need a set of stainless steel teeth to eat the crust. And the crumb is soft, moist and tastes very good.  This will be a wonderful dipping and sandwich bread for my wife and I.  I said earlier that this was my second batch of the day, well, after the initial mix, and 10 minute rest, I put in the dough hook and at speed 4 began mixing the dough.  About 4 minutes into the mix, I remembered that I had forgotten the salt.  So, stopped the mix, and added the salt.  This is where it all went bad on me.  Something about adding the salt at this point changed the properties of the dough.  It went from starting to become a nice smooth ball into a gloppy, pancake batter consistency.  I beat this at speed 4 for 40 minutes and it never balled up and came off the bowl sides.

So, into the garbage it went.  I was determined to make this recipe.  Cleaned everything up, and started over.  Again, weighting all my ingredients, and following the recipe to the letter.  Mix, 10 minute rest, add salt, mix again this time at #6 speed on my KA.  Miracle of Miracles!!  At about 3 minutes, I had a wonderful ball of dough on the hook, all off the bowl sides, and starting to lift off the bottom of the bowl.  At about the 6 minute mark, all of the dough was on the hook, with none on the bowl sides or the bottom of the bowl.  At 8 minutes I stopped the mix, and put it into my proofing container.  1 1/2 hour proof, divide into 4 pcs and rough shape in baugettes.  Another 45 minutes to rise, and into a hot, hot oven on baking stones.

Wonderful oven spring as you can see in the pictures.  My only complaint was that the crust got darker than I would have liked.  Next batch I may try a lower oven temp, say around 450, At this temp though, I dont know how long to bake them.  Any advise on time would be most appreciated.

The wife and I made one loaf disappear at dinner in a matter of minutes.  Very nice bread, with a minimum of work involved.

Thanks for looking.

Roger