Ciabatta...fresh from the oven

This bread is so much easier than I could have imagined!

It's not that I'm a bread fanatic or anything...I just find it a nice challenge to try to make the kind of bread that I love.  This one finally turned out as good or better than bakery bread.  I used no processed yeast.  Recipe below.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup sourdough starter
• 1/2 Cup and 1/2 tablespoon water
• 2 1/8 Cups of unbleached flour

You want to mix this until the thick starter holds together and is well mixed. You want a dough that is smooth and elastic. Put the thick starter in a clean bowl and cover it. I like using my KitchenAid's mixing bowl because it has nice straight tall sides. Let te thick starter rise in a warm place for 12-15 hours until the thick starter rises sky-high and then collapses back onto itself. If your house is warm, this could happen faster, maybe even 8-10 hours. But in general, slower is better here.

• 1 2/3 Cup Lukewarm water
• 1/4 Cup Lukewarm milk
• 5 Cups unbleached flour
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 Teaspoons salt

Mix together the thick starter, water, milk, the olive oil, the salt and about 1/3 of the flour. You can mix this with a wooden spoon, your hands, or your mixer on a medium speed. This will break up the thick starter, and the mix will be like soup. I mixed with my hands...it's the easiest as long as the phone doesn't ring.  However you are mixing this dough, add the rest of the flour gradually while continuing to mix the dough.

Cover the dough in the mixer bowl and let rise for 1-1/2 to 2 hours, or until at least double in bulk. I let it go longer because I had to go to a hockey game...oh well.

Get two baking sheets and sprinkle them with flour. Take a spatula and carefully spoon out half of the still very sticky dough onto each. Try not to deflate the dough too much, although it will deflate some, you can't really help it.  Since ciabatta means slipper in Italian, try to make each loaf the length of a man's shoe. If you spoon the dough out to one edge, and sort of use your spatula to guide it in a ribbon down the baking sheet you can preserve the light strands or striations in the dough, which will look nice when it's proofed and baked. The loaves will probably be about an inch thick. If you want to give them a nicer shape, flour your hands lightly and neaten up the edges into an oblong. Think shoe, not loaf! Think rustic - don't make the loaves over-neat and perfect, you want a rustic look. Flour your hands again and very gently pat the tops of the loaves to flour them, or sprinkle them with flour if you're afraid of smushing them.

Let them rise (proof) for 30-40 minutes, or until a little less than double.  I usually let it rise in the oven with the light on for 30 and then take them out and preheat the ovens for the last few minutes.  At this point I put a shallow pan of water in each oven to make it humid...usually fill it about a half inch deep.

Preheat the oven to a solid 425 degrees. Bake for 25-30 minutes until very light golden brown.  Try not to overbake the bread.

Cool on a rack
Another Ciabatta recipe that looks good and uses yeast (if you don't have sourdough starter)