Ciabatta

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Ciabatta

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mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 05 11:00 am Post subject: Ciabatta
OK here's another recipe request! Anyone got a recipe for ciabatta? We're having an Italian evening in the village hall on Saturday and I've got a few good Italian bread recipes but I'd like to do some of these as well.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 05 11:01 am Post subject:
I'd like that too.

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 05 11:04 am Post subject:
You're lurking again...

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 05 11:15 am Post subject:

Don't know if this is any help: https://www.shaboomskitchen.com/archives/bread/ciabatta.html

Looks messy.

Did you know that Ciabatta is a recent invention by the Italian baking industry. Inthe late 80's they were concerned at the increasing popularity of French sticks and wanted to create a 'traditional' Italian loaf. To make it on a commercial scale you need a licence as it's a patented process. All the Ciabatta in the UK is made by four or five bakeries.

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 05 2:23 pm Post subject:
Its basically a wet-ish dough, enriched with olive oil, and allowed to over-prove (at least domestically!) Making a 'biga' to begin with will help give a bit of a tang.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 05 2:25 pm Post subject:

dougal wrote:

Its basically a wet-ish dough, enriched with olive oil, and allowed to over-prove (at least domestically!) Making a 'biga' to begin with will help give a bit of a tang.

Whassat all about then? Don't tease tell us how, what's over-proved?

Northern_Lad

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 14210
Location: Somewhere

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 05 2:32 pm Post subject:
I think it means that instead of millions of very tiny bubbles, there are only lots of big ones.

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 05 3:08 pm Post subject:

A biga is just a mix of flour, water and yeast (no salt), left for a few hours, and then potentially stored up to three days in the fridge. The yeast multiplies, does its stuff, and goes quiet. Its the Italian style of "pre-ferment". Catching it at the stage when the yeast is still going strong would be called a "sponge" in english breadmaking. Letting it go over the top gives a tangy sort of sourdough flavour, but its not achieved with wild yeasts, just good old standard brewer's ("breadmaking") yeast - I use the "instant" sort.

Per 100g flour, about 0.5g of instant yeast and 66ml of water. Mixed and kneaded like an ordinary dough. Cover to prevent skinning and leave for 3 hours or so.
For a ciabatta, put about half the flour into the biga.
Mix the biga with the rest of the flour, water (80/85ml per 100g new flour), salt, oil and more yeast (more like 1.5% of the new flour weight) to make a slightly sloppy, sticky dough. Knead - or rather stretch and fold. Cover & allow to rise. Shape, stretching and folding, and then leave (covered) for at least another hour to proof. (Overproved)
Bake, ideally on a pizza stone or equivalent (I've used an upturned ovenproof ceramic bowl...)

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 05 3:11 pm Post subject:
Thanks dougal, sounds good.

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 05 7:40 am Post subject:
Looking forward to trying that. I'll let you know if it works...

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 05 7:42 am Post subject:
Stone me, Behemoth: what a fantastic site! Off to the kitchen to experiment

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 05 10:25 am Post subject:
Thank 'Google'!

Northern_Lad

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 14210
Location: Somewhere

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 05 10:31 am Post subject:

mochyn wrote:

Stone me, Behemoth:

Should that be a pizza stone?

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 05 5:43 pm Post subject:
Very big groan there, Lad. I'm hoping to restore our bread oven sometime, so I maybe I'll need a pizza stone for that... As far as the ciabatta goes, I made some using Behemoth's link and it's tremendous. Very tasty and went down well at last night's Italian evening. So, once again, thanks for all the suggestions: Brilliant as usual. I didn't even get drunk!

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