For a while now, I’ve been using sourdough and so, besides making Saturday night pizza, today I made bread ciabattas.
It had been a long time since I last made bread at home, since I let my sourdough die :-(, a starter I lovingly cared for over 4 years and regularly used in my preparations.
Sourdough is great for those who have yeast intolerance, and I also prefer it in my baking, but we know that sourdough needs to be constantly tended to at least once a week through feeding, to ensure it has the strength and vigor for the product.
Of course, those who use it know that rising times are longer; in fact, I kneaded my bread ciabattas the night before and left the dough in the turned-off oven all night.
I’m not very good at baking, but for a first try, my bread ciabattas have a crunchy exterior and a soft interior, importantly, they were gone quickly, which means they didn’t turn out so bad after all! 😀
- Portions: 6
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1.25 cups water
- 8.8 oz sourdough starter
- 0.5 cup water for the sourdough starter
- 0.5 oz salt
- 1 tsp honey
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
Steps
I dissolved the refreshed sourdough starter with 0.5 cup of water.
In a bowl, I poured the flour, salt, and a teaspoon of honey. I poured in the sourdough and began mixing with a spatula.
We pour in the water and continue mixing. You will get a sticky dough. Pour it into another bowl with a lid if you have one, with a bit of extra virgin olive oil at the bottom. Let rise for at least 12 hours.
After the rising hours, take the dough and make folds, first from top to bottom, then from bottom to top.
Continue from right to left and left to right.
Roll the dough into a ball with the seam down, cover the dough, and let it rest for 30 minutes. Repeat the folding process 3 times.
After the folding work, divide the dough into 6 pieces, and on each portion, perform the folding work, forming 6 small loaves. Let rise for 30 minutes
Flatten the loaf giving it an oval and elongated shape, roll the dough onto itself.
Place the ciabattas on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 428°F with a pot of water inside, on the lower part of the oven. When it’s well heated, bake the ciabattas and cook for 10 minutes with the pot inside, then remove it, position the bread a bit higher, and let it bake for another 20 minutes at 392°F.
Fill the bread ciabattas to your taste for a nice picnic in the open air.
