Ciabatta - Ecumenist

I came across this website today and thought about you and your quest to make a great Ciabatta, so I wanted to post this for you.

Ciabatta isn't so much about the recipe as it is about the technique - basically it's a water, flour, yeast, salt dough (some recipes add a little olive oil), but the key to it is that it is a VERY wet dough (sometimes referred to as a "high hydration" dough) and that makes it hard to work with. It's the wetness of the dough that allows the big holes to open up, and the challange is to develop a strong-enough gluten structure to support the dough as it rises.

Using wet hands or a wet spatula makes the dough a bit easier to work with.

A recipe that utilizes a biga (a firm starter made with a tiny amount of yeast and allowed to develop slowly) will have more flavor and texture than one made with no starter or a loose sponge-type starter.

Here the baker documented his ciabatta-making process step by step. It should give you some ideas of how the dough looks at varous stages. There are a lot of small pictures here and you can double-click on them to see enlarged in the picture-window.
http://www.kyleskitchen.net/ciabatta-bing!.htm

I will have to practice my ciabatta technique as I haven't been getting crumb and texture I've been looking for. I am forever grateful:hi:
Thank you, thank you oh Thank you!!!

I am definitely putting this on my 'to try list'.

Thank you for sharing!

:hi:

I'm not much of a baker, but it might be worth trying it, since I love Ciabatta.