Ciabatta bread is one of the most delicious and classic breads that I think of when thinking about Italy. It is a great bread for cutting into strips for crostini or cutting in half to make a sandwich.
I love using this homemade ciabatta for crostini to serve along soup or to make bruschetta! It also makes a great bread to make and freeze and is very quick to thaw.
This homemade ciabatta recipe is from Carol Field, the author of the Italian Baker. It is very easy to follow and makes 4 loaves which I like because it is a bit time consuming but at least I can freeze some of it and have bread for a while thanks to the fruits of my labor!
I really like Carol’s book because it is easy for novice bakers to follow and the recipes are well thought out. I added a couple tips that I found helpful during the baking process that I think other bakers will find helpful.
This is a great bread to make on the weekend when you have a little more time on your hands. It actually has very little hands on time but does require a step or so every 1-2 hours for a couple hours.
I am always about keeping things simple and I do not like complicated recipes. There are however times when we all need to get our hands in some dough and bake fresh bread.
I promise you that this recipe will not be as complicated as many bread recipes that are out there. The rustic nature of this bread makes it ideal for beginners.
What do I need to do?
The first thing you will need to do in this recipe is make what is called a biga, or Italian starter sponge. This step needs to be done the day before since biga needs to be aged. This should be done exactly 12 hours before for this particular recipe.
Now, before you make the biga, I suggest that you plan it all out on paper. Plan when everything is going to be made. If you write a plan down with times then you will be able to follow a schedule and make sure your dough is not sitting for too long.
For me, I like to start the biga on a Friday evening and have it ready to start baking with in the morning on a Saturday. Making the biga is so easy that it does not interfere with any Friday plans I have since it is just mix and set aside.
This on paper would look like: start the biga at 8:00 p.m. on Friday. Let the biga age for 12 hours so on Saturday at 8:00 a.m. I start the assembling of my ciabatta.
After the assembling of the main ciabatta dough, you will want to plan on your cooking time and the extra step of adding moisture into the oven by adding a few ice cubes in there when the bread first starts to bake.
The ice cube trick is important in developing that nice crust. Plus it is really neat to watch how fast the ice turns to steam when you throw it into a really hot oven!
This ciabatta bread recipe gives me enough for dinner on Saturday, lunch on Sunday and some leftover to freeze for later in the week for soups like my farro and kale minestrone or a nice Beef Bourguignon.
The recipe for Italian biga is very simple and will only take a few minutes to assemble! If you have your own biga recipe you can use that as well. Just make sure it is aged for only 12 hours.
I hope you give this a try and see how amazing homemade ciabatta bread can be!
Easy Homemade Ciabatta
Equipment
- stand mixer, pizza stones or cast iron pans turned upside down for baking
Ingredients
- 1 tsp active dry yeast
- 5 tbsp warm milk
- 1 cup plus 1 tbsp water at room temperature
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cups 500 grams of Italian biga aged for 12 hours (see link above for recipe) it's best to weigh out your biga
- 3 1/4 cup 500 grams unbleached all purpose flour try to weigh this out too
- 1 tbsp salt
- cornmeal for dusting bread before baking
Instructions
Making the ciabatta dough
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, add your milk and yeast and let sit until creamy (about 10 minutes)
- Next add your water, oil and biga and with a fork, mix it well until the biga is incorporated into the liquid
- Next, add your flour and salt and mix with the mixer for 2-3 minutes using the paddle attachment
- Now switch your attachment to the dough hook and mix on low speed for for 2 minutes then medium speed for another 2 minutes,
- Remove from the mixer bowl on to a very lightly floured surface
- Knead until the dough is velvety and smooth (about 2 minutes)
First Rise
- Now place your needed dough into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap and let rest for about 1 1/2 hours. It should double in size during this time and turn bubbly and sticky.
Second Rise
- Remove the dough from your bowl and place on a lightly floured surface
- cut your dough into 4 quarters. I like to use a bench scraper for this but you can use a large knife.
- Working with one quarter of your dough at a time, roll your dough into a rectangle shape about 10 inches by 4 inches. You may need to use your hands to stretch it out to this length and make sure you are working with a ruler to measure. I keep one of my kids old school rulers in a kitchen drawer for this.
- Now get out 4 pieces of parchment paper, pizza peels or baking sheets and add a generous amount of flour on them.
- Add your first shaped dough on to one of them (if there is a seem from the kneading step then make sure you place your dough seem side down) and proceed to shape the other 3 quarters the same way.
- Once you have shaped all of your dough, using your finger tips or knuckles, start making dimples in your dough by pressing your knuckles or fingers all around the top of the dough. This helps make sure it will not rise too much as it rests again.
- Cover all of your dough with dampened towels. I like to take a kitchen towel and lightly spray the towel completely down with a mist of water. If I see any dry spots on my towel I mist it again.
- Let the dough rest for another 1 1/2- 2 hours or until it rises a little bit but not doubled. This dough will not do much rising here but do not be worried, it is not supposed to!
Baking
- Add your pizza stone, or if using cast iron pans (turned upside down) into your oven. If you are short on cast iron pans for 4 loaves of bread or your pizza stone is not large enough, just bake your bread in batches.
- Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees F for 30 minutes with your pizza stones or cast iron pans in the oven. Make sure it is pre-heating for this length of time so the surface that the bread is going to bake on is nice and hot
- When your oven has pre-heated for 30 minutes, add a sprinkle of cornmeal onto your stone or pans and then take your ciabatta loaf and flip it on to your stone. This means the top of your ciabatta dough is now the bottom when baking in the oven. Also, if your your dough is too long for your pan or pizza stone then gently push in the sides (like an accordion) after placing it in the oven. If you used parchment paper and it won't come off your dough, leave it on the dough to bake for a few minutes and then it should release.
- Set a timer for your loaves to bake for 20-25 minutes
- At this point, grab 3 small ice cubes and throw that on to the bottom of your oven to create steam and close the oven door
- Wait 3 minutes and throw 3 more ice cubes on to the floor of your oven
- Wait another 3 minutes and do this one more time
- In total you should have added 3 batches of ice cubes for steam in the first 10 minutes
- After your loaves have baked for 20-25 minutes and they are nice and golden on the outside, remove them from the oven carefully (they will be hot) and let cool on a cooling rack.
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