Ciabatta Non Grata (Just kidding, this stuff’s welcome anywhere!)

This week, Alexandra and I made Ciabatta in Kitchen Chemistry.  It took a long time, but in the end, we made some pretty tasty bread.  How did we make it?  Well…

The first step in making our ciabatta was making the biga (sponge).  To do this, we combined flour, yeast, and water in a bowl and stirred it until it became a uniform mass.  We initially thought we needed to add more water, but it turned out we just needed to mix it more.  We then covered the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let it stand overnight, so the yeast could ferment and generate the flavor for the bread.

When we came in the next day, the biga had fermented.  The bubbles were made by the yeast releasing CO2.

The dough was ready for kneading!  We placed the biga, along with more flour, water, and yeast, plus salt and milk, in the bowl of a stand mixer.  After letting it mix with the paddle attachment for a few minutes, we swapped out the paddle for the dough hook and let it knead for about 10 minutes.

The dough initially failed the windowpane test, but after letting it knead for a little longer, it passed with flying colors!

We then let the dough stand for 1 hour in a large bowl covered tightly with plastic wrap at room temperature so it could rise some more.

When it was done rising, the time came to shape the dough.  We shaped the dough by spraying a rubber spatula with non-stick cooking spray, and then folding the dough over itself 8 times.  We then let it stand for 30 minutes (lots of waiting in this one).

After it finished rising, we split the dough into two loaves (which were more like lumps at this point) and put them each into a baking sheets which we had lined with parchment paper coated in non-stick spray and flour.  Then, it was time for the oven!

When baking the loaves, we put a baking sheet filled with ice cubes under them, so there would be steam in the oven, allowing the bread to expand more before a crust formed.  Our oven was having some trouble with being the right temperature, so we had to keep our loaves in for a little longer so they could be the right temperature.

So how did it taste?  Well…