Ciabatta Bread

Name: Ciabatta Bread
Cuisine: Nigerian
Ingredients: 2 1/4 cups flour (preferably bread flour but AP will also work good); 1 cup warm water; 1/4 teaspoon yeast; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1/2 teaspoon salt

khayrees Tasty bites @cook_14456829

#Jigawa

Ciabatta is an Italian word meaning “slipper” the Bread was named ciabatta due to its flat appearance just like a slipper. Ciabatta is a floury rustic Italian bread made with lean dough or non protein dough(flour, yeast,water and salt). The dough is mainly a sour dough ( i.e is allowed to ferment from several days with a minimum fermentation time of 24 hours) its also called high hydration dough ( dough that has high amount of water content) if you read the recipe clear fully you’ll notice that the water content of the ciabatta is more than the normal water content we use in our normal white breads and other bread rolls. Ciabatta has so many similarities with baguette in fact some people use the same dough to make the classic French baguette, since they’re all made up of sour high hydration dough. Even thou there are so many variations of ciabatta bread recipes but the classic Italian recipe uses the sour dough and has high water content on top of that, it’s appearance is strictly rustic and floury. ciabatta bread just like other rustic bread is served with soup since it has a rustic crust thus preventing it from getting soggy ( who like a soggy bread 😒) and can also be cut diagonally and served with olive oil or herbs infused oil, or use it to make crostini,bruschetta or other sandwiches. Honestly I can’t even diff between which one is better between baguette and ciabatta,and which country can bake a bread better between 🇫🇷and 🇮🇹#Bakeabread

khayrees Tasty bites @cook_14456829

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Ingredients

2 1/4 cupsflour (preferably bread flour but AP will also work good)
1 cupwarm water
1/4 teaspoonyeast
1 tablespoonsugar
1/2 teaspoonsalt

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Steps

1

In a clean bowl add 1/2 cup warm water, yeast and the sugar whisk and add the 1 cup of flour. Cover with a cling film and put it in fridge or at room temperature for 24 hours or up to 3 days
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Cover with cling film and put it in a fridge for 24 hours or at room temperature this is called the starter (poolish) in Italy
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After 24 hours remove it from the fridge and add the remaining 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup water and 1 tablespoon oil and beat with whisk or preferably with a stand mixer
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The dough will be sticky don’t worry that’s why it’s called high hydration bread
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Cover the dough and allow it to rise for an hour in a warm environment
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Beat the dough for the second time cover and allow it to rise for another one hour
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Lightly dust your working surface with flour and put the dough over it (pls be very careful not to deflate the dough) this is what will create those beautiful air bubbles space once the bread is baked
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Now gently start folding the dough slowly and carefully with the help of a scrapper and form a rectangle shape with the dough
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With the help of the scrapper take the shaped dough unto a well floured material (I use my cotton kitchen towel) and dust the surface with flour. Then form a bridge to support the bread as shown below this will help to create the ciabatta (slipper shape) just like how you make baguette,cover the bread and allow it to proof (proof means last rise before baking)
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After proofing use the scrapper to gently lift up the shaped dough and transfer it to a floured baking paper (I use normal paper) divide the dough in to two parts (optional)
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Now fill your baking tray with water and put it in a preheated oven at 170 until the water is hot (this will moisten the oven) and gives your bread that rustic and brown exterior.
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Now put the bread in the oven and bake for good 20 mins
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After 20 minutes remove the water bath and bake for another 15 minutes until the bread is browned
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This is how the bread will look, from the bottom you see those airy space? This is how exactly how your ciabatta should look
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Served your bread with your favorite dip, soup, Hot or herby infused oil.
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Well, I served mine with beef and noodles soup, and herbs infused oil
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Feed your eyes with this work of art,
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Recipe note: pls do not be tempted to add more flour,the dough is not like our day to day normal bread dough it’s called a hydration dough for a reason.
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The bench scrappers really helps to work with the bread and to avoid sticking your hands with The dough
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Pls do not skip the water bath else you’ll end up with a dry and burnt bread.
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To store your bread, cover then with plastic wrap and put them in an air tight container in a refrigerator, warm the bread before serving them again