Ciabatta is a delicious bread from Northern Italy, made with olive oil. If you fancy making your own, try this recipe which uses a traditional biga - or starter dough.
This recipe for ciabatta comes from Maxine Clark’s cookery book Italian Breads (© Ryland Peters and Small, £9.99) and appears here with permission. In it she suggests that you should use an Italian ciabatta flour to get the best results, as it is granular and quite coarse in texture. This helps create a lively dough producing large air bubbles which you need to get the characteristic flavour.
Ciabatta Rolls – Recipe
Ingredients – Makes 12 rolls
- 300ml hand-hot water
- 15g fresh yeast * (see note below)
- 500g ciabatta flour or unbleached strong white bread flour
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
For the biga (aged-dough starter)
- 250g unbleached strong white bread flour
- 5g fresh yeast *
- 150ml hand hot water
Equipment – 2 baking trays, heavily floured
Method
To make the biga:
- Put the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Crumble the yeast into the well, then pour in the hand-hot water. Mix the yeast with the water, then gradually work in the flour to make a firm dough. (* If using fast-action dried yeast instead of fresh, mix one third of a 7g sachet with the flour to make the biga, then work in the water. Finish the biga as in the main recipe. )
- Turn out onto a lightly-floured work surface and knead for 2 minutes, then return the dough to the bowl and cover. Leave at room temperature for 8-12 hours – it will rise enormously, then fall back.
To make the ciabatta dough:
- The next day, to make the ciabatta dough, put the hand-hot water in a bowl and crumble the yeast over the top. Stir well until dispersed.
- Add to the biga and work into the dough by stirring and squeezing with your fingers to make a thick, smooth batter. (* If using fast-action dried yeast, add the water to the biga and work in to make a batter. Then mix half the flour with one 7g sachet of fast-action dried yeast, add to the batter, and finish as in the main recipe.)
- Work in half the flour to make a very sticky, batter-like dough, then beat with your hand for 5 minutes until the dough has been thoroughly stretched and become very elastic. Cover the bowl and leave to rise in a warm place until about 2½ times its original size, about 2 hours.
- Add the salt and olive oil to the dough, then gradually work in the rest of the flour to make a rather soft, sticky dough. When the dough feels smooth and very elastic, cover the bowl and leave to rise in a warm place as before, this time until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 230°C (450°F) Gas 8. Put the baking trays in the oven to heat up.
- Gently tip the dough onto a well-floured work surface. Using a floured bread scraper, divide the dough into 12 pieces and transfer to the trays, spacing well apart. Shape into rough looking rolls with well-floured fingers. Dust heavily with flour, then slip the trays into large plastic bags, slightly inflated.
- Leave to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes until almost doubled in size – don’t worry if the dough also spreads out.
- Uncover the rolls, then bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Eat warm from the oven or within 1 day.
The copyright of the article How to Make Ciabatta in Italian Baking is owned by Rebecca Ford. Permission to republish How to Make Ciabatta in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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