Background
A couple of years ago, we were in Italy for a wedding and were once again enthralled with the wonderful breads. I came home challenged to explore the secrets of these wonderful breads especially the genzano and rosetta styles. To date, I have conquered neither but have come upon a very satisfactory ciabatta. In fact, this recipe seems so robust even an amateur baker can make rather gross mistakes and come up with a very satisfactory and even pleasing result. The purpose of this little article is to share this recipe and encourage even more experimentation to perfect it in both simplicity and result.I started with a recipe posted by "Jason" on the website www.thefreshloaf.com. The recipe is a straight forward combination of water, flour, salt and yeast but, calls for extremely high water content compared to "normal" bread. This water content or ratio of water to flour is called the hydration of the dough. Typical breads have a hydration of 55 to 75%. That is, for each gram of flour, there is from 0.55 grams to 0.75 grams of water. Jason´s recipe calls for a 95% hydration level. This higher hydration level makes the dough handle like so much mud, contributes to large attractive interior holes in the finished crumb structure and, I think, makes the bread very forgiving in how it is processed. Also, the recipe calls for an an unusually large amount of yeast.
Jason´s original procedure calls for kneading the dough rather vigorously for up to twenty minutes. The result is very strong gluten development and an excellent texture after a relatively short rise time. I have used his process very successfully. However, I wanted a bread I could make while camping or my friends could make who have limited access to good mixing equipment. So, I turned to the no knead technique explored in the book "Kneadlessly Simple" by Nancy Baggett. I have been successful with other no knead recipes so was confident Jason´s could be adapted. In fact, Nancy Baggett´s book includes some ideas on how to convert any recipe to a no knead process.
The idea behind the no knead process is to dramatically slow the rise time of the dough to let gluten develop without the typical extended mixing or kneading. In this recipe we will use ice water to cool the dough to slow yeast activity and retard the initial dough rise. The process here calls for dough rise time of 8 to 12 hours or more. In fact, the dough can be slowed even more by storage in a refrigerator, I suspect the dough can be kept for up to 4 days before baking. These very long rise times will begin to yield a rather pleasant sourdough like taste.
There are three other unusual aspects to this procedure. First, because there is no long mixing time involved, it is important that the dry ingredients (flour, salt, and yeast) are mixed thoroughly before water is added. Second, the initial rise of the dough should be to at least three times original volume. Finally, I use a wet process of folding and shaping of the dough after the initial rise rather than on a floured surface as Jason recommends. I find it works and is a lot less messy.
-- The Recipe (How´s this for simple?) --
Flour - I like King Arthur Bread Flour - 500 grams
Yeast - I use Active Dry Yeast and add it dry. - 2 teaspoons
Salt - good sea salt without iodine - 12 to 15 grams
Water - cold is good, the ice cubes just melted slowly - 475 grams ( 2 cups)
-- The Process --
- Mix all dry ingredients. BTW, I always weigh flour as it is the only reliable way to get an accurate measure. A kitchen scale is a cheap way to ensure success.
- Add ice cold water and mix until all the dry stuff is incorporated and there are no lumps left. (see Photo 1)
- Cover and let stand in room temperature (or cooler) place
- Wait for the dough to rise at least three times. (see Photo 2) I find an overnight rise is very convenient. After a few hours the temperature cam be adjusted to fine tune the rise time to fit your schedule
- After the initial rise, turn the dough out on a wetted counter.
- Using wet hands, fold the dough once or twice. (see Photo 4)
- Divide and shape the dough. (see Photo 5) More folding can help in the shaping. I even pick the dough up and let it slip through my wet hands to help in shaping. The dough may look like a sort of mud pie. For a ciabatta, the dough should be shaped sort of long and narrow like an old man’s slipper. Don’t worry if the loaf is not very elegant at this stage.
- Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. I like to use a pizza stone in the oven but it is not required
- Let the dough rise while the oven is heating up. The dough will need at lest a forty minute rise this time and will roughly double in size.
- Place the dough on parchment paper (and then on a cookie sheet if a pizza stone is not used) and then into the oven. (see Photo 6) The loaves can be done one at a time if the oven is small.
- Bake for 15 to 30 minutes or until the loaves are well browned. There is a lot of oven spring in this dough so it is sort of fun to watch the loaves rise - looking through the window in the oven door of course. (If you have an instant read thermometer, the interior of the finished loaf should be 210 degrees F. or so.)
- Cool the loaves before slicing.
-- Variations and Other Fun Stuff --
- Other flours can be fun but I like the high gluten development of bread flour. I have used half fresh ground whole wheat flour with excellent results - great taste.
- The dough works well for pizza. Just cleave off as much dough as you need and spread/shape it into a flat found. (stretch, rest, stretch, etc works well) Add toppings and bake. They will be done in 12 to 15 minutes at 500 degrees.
- Bake the loaf in a clouch or dutch oven. Cover for half the bake. I use parchment paper under the loaf here as well.
- Incorporate nuts and or dried fruit or olives or pepperoni or peanut butter or chocolate or whatever you like during the loaf folding and shaping.
- Lightly brush the loaves with olive oil and a sprinkle of coarse salt before baking.
- Spread very thin slices of shallots or lemons over the outside of the loaf before baking.
- Mist the loaves during baking or otherwise increase oven humidity to make the crust more crusty.
- Make small loaves or "dinner rolls." (adjust the bake time to suit)
- Make a double batch and keep it in the fridge. Just cut off what you need for the "evening meal"
- These loaves make excellent sandwiches when prepared submarine style
So, there you are. I think you should try this yourself. All you really need is a spatula and mixing container to get started. Add a little parchment paper and a baking surface and you are ready to become an expert.. Most folks already have this equipment so your only investment will be a bit of flour, some yeast, a little salt and water. Let us know how you do....
