How to Incorporate Water into Biga (Step 2)? - KAF Rustic Italian Ciabatta
I have made a few ciabatta loaves lately, relying on King Arthur Flour's "Rustic Italian Ciabatta Bread" recipe. If you have not looked at it in a while, be aware that it has undergone many changes at the King Arthur Flour website over the years. I am using the current version of the recipe as of April 2022. You can find it here:
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/rustic-italian-ciabatta-recipe
The first sentence in Step 2 says: "Add the water to the biga, mixing to incorporate the two. ..."
-> Question: How do you do that?
Explanation:
The biga and the lukewarm water do not want to mix. I can run the mixer with the paddle at any speed, but they do not blend. The biga sits there like a giant dumpling in the water. I can break it into smaller dumplings by cutting up the biga with a rubber spatula, but they don't mix well. If I run the mixer at faster speeds, it splashes a lot and some mixing happens, but it does not blend into a uniform "incorporation". Instead, I get a bunch of little wet dumplings floating in white hazy water.
-> How do you do the "mix warm water into biga" step? How do you know you're done? Do you work at it until it is a uniform blend? If so, how?
Currently, I give up at the "little floating dumplings" stage and move on to adding the flour/salt/yeast mixture, switching to the dough hook, and kneading it in the mixer.
You can cut up the biga into small pieces, then with your hands keep squeezing the biga into the water until it incorporates.
You can also use a stick blender to incorporate.
Even though the process of incorporation is a little more difficult the results are worth the effort.
HTH,
Danny
It is a pain. Since there is a substantial amount of flour added to the final dough. I would add both the water and flour together, then they will mix with the biga much easier. Added flour and water will make a dough with the same hydration as the biga (in this recipe) and will blend quickly with the biga.
Chop it or slice it thinly and moisten it very lightly at first when you begin kneading water into it. Slowly add more water, one tbsp at a time, as you knead your biga and the edges of its pieces soften, incorporating water little by little.
Either bread machine or food processor is the best for such work, not the regular mixer. It takes seconds in a food processor or a couple of minutes in a bread machine.
If you added too much water at once, drain it, and knead wet pieces of biga together into a ball, then proceed as described above. You are done when it windowpanes, of course, atretches into thin transparent film, and the film is uniform, no graininess. That is how you know that you are done.
Here is the video for that recipe.
https://youtu.be/xEWGKFe21t4
Thanks to everyone above for their helpful comments.
I have a stick (immersion) blender, but did not seem to need it. Once I learned that it is okay to break up the biga and blend it, I ran the mixer-with-paddle a little longer and a little faster until the water/biga mixture looked like small curd cottage cheese. There is a mixer speed that works well, just below the "splash out" point.
The video was also very helpful. (You can see them start on mixing the water and biga, but then it jumps to the next step.) The first thing I learned from it is that I don't need to use a mixer. Martin and Arlo (the demonstrators) also do a few things that are not mentioned in the recipe. One example is when they invert the dough just before baking.
The video was also reassuring that I am doing most steps right, but found a few things to try that would improve my current methods. If people have questions about making this bread, I would recommend watching the video.
Get a gallon,sturdy ziploc bag. Flatten the biga or pull it into smaller pieces. Add to the bag along with some of the water. Push the air out and zip it shut. Now squish and knead the water into the biga.Keep adding the water until it is all incorporated. It takes a few minutes but usually works.
If you like to try different ciabatta recipes, here one I have used that works well. It uses an overnight biga plus an autolysed dough. Woks best with a mixer but not totally necessary.
https://youtu.be/jA95tUK2RZU