Italian boule/ ciabatta alchemy

I'm sort of over new bread recipes, I'm into playing now, playing with the recipes I have and working them different ways.  Same ingredients, different method.  This was quite the shocker! 

There aren't instruction pictures here, it's a conversation about method and then the final product shots. 

I wanted a hard crust, a soft yet chewy and very airy interior and I wanted to make one giant loaf instead of messing with smaller ones.  I wanted to grab the whole loaf, cut it down the middle into slices or rip off hunks  and eat it with cheese and meat and butter.  

I make ciabatta every other day.  I make it for friends, family and for functions.  It's my constant party piece. This is what my kitchen generally looks like.  A friend had taken me out to lunch and  I made her a few "thank you" loaves because she, and her boys, love this stuff.

I have to add, this stuff freezes beautifully!  Do an assembly line of batches and you can be the bread delivery fairy like I am.  It's fun.  I only transport this bread in paper because it steams and gets funky in plastic.  Wrap it in foil if you're leaving it on your counter as you use it.  IF you put bread in the fridge, don't tell me because I'll never make this for you if you do.  Fridges dry out bread, even in plastic, just don't do it.  

I can bang out ciabatta without even thinking anymore.  It's a gooey slimy mess but I can work it easily these days.  I wondered what would happen if I made the same dough and changed the method of it...  this is what happened.  

The alchemy loaf is one gigantic boule.  It's got a hard, crisp crust that's salty (I sprinkled salt on it) and a thick but light interior that's stretchy and chewy and flavorful and FULL of beautiful holes. 

  

   

 This is what I did. 

I made the ciabatta dough as usual but did NOT grease the proofing box/bowl/vessel. I let it triple. For comparison, it takes about 50 minutes for mine to go from the 1 litre mark on my box to the 4 litre mark and start to blow the top off the box...  it will take longer in your house.  *I do realize that I have to redo a proper blog post about the ciabatta.  There's no action shots, I'll do a play by play and new post the next time I make it, I promise*
http://www.tracycooksinaustin.com/2010/06/oh-yes-you-can-live-on-bread-and-water.html
http://www.tracycooksinaustin.com/2012/12/ciabatta-my-new-version.html

Here's where I ventured off the beaten path. I put WATER on the island and with VERY wet hands (which I continually ran under the tap to keep them wet) I pulled the dough from the proofing box and put it on the wet island. 

I folded it over itself, spun and turned it, like you're making puff pastry, 3 times, flipped it upside down and put a VERY large metal bowl over it and left it 40 minutes.  

After 40 minutes, I did the same thing, with VERY WET HANDS.  I did have to put a little water on the board again.  Fold, tap tap tap with fingertips to flatten it ever so slightly, spin, fold, tap tap tap with fingertips, spin, fold, spin and again covered it and left if 30 minutes. 

After the second folding rise, this stuff felt like soap bubbles and every time I handled it, I could feel the bubbles inside it pop so I was VERY careful.  I gently transferred it to a heavily olive oiled parchment paper lined baking sheet.  I carefully flipped it over so that both sides were lightly oiled.  I lightly salted the top (in hindsight, I would salt it less!). 

I preheated my oven to 450 degree (F) and the dough sat on the counter while I waited. 

I baked for 20 minutes, spun the loaf and baked for another 20. 

It was dark and sizzling (from the oil) and the top crust was shatteringly crisp. 

I waited the excruciating 45 minutes to slice into it and you've seen what greeted me. 

Try it with water instead of flour.  It's remarkable the difference in the texture of the crust, the crumb and the flavor is different too.  

It's worth trying!  

IF you want to try a smaller loaf, use this half recipe: 

TRACYS CIABATTA (single loaf) 

In the bowl of a kitchenaid mixer put: 

250 grams a/p flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp yeast
1 cup (240 ml) water

Beat on HIGH with the paddle attachment until the dough climbs the blade.  Do NOT add more flour, it should look like cake batter, don't fret, it'll work, I promise.

With a WET hand, remove dough from paddle and put the dough hook on the machine.  

Turn it to HIGH and let it go until the dough completely clears the side of the bowl and isn't sticking (much) at the bottom,  It will be smooth and shiny! 

Transfer the soggy, slimy, wet, blob of dough to some vessel for rising (oiled if you're making ciabatta, not if you're making my new boule above)  Cover and let rise it TRIPLE in volume. 

Transfer to a floured or wet surface by pouring it out.  With wet or floured hands, fold the dough and cut into 2 for ciabatta or leave whole and follow instructions for boule above.

Preheat oven to 450

for ciabatta; bake for 17 minutes, spinning half way through in a steamed oven (put ice cubes in oven with bread) 

I want to see pictures of what you make, 

Instagram them and tag me #tracyinaustin
or on Twitter:  @AustinTracyW 

/enjoy

Ciabatta , my new version

I have a version of this on the blog already with pictures,
http://www.tracycooksinaustin.com/2010/06/oh-yes-you-can-live-on-bread-and-water.html
this is the new way I do what I do, no pics at the moment...

Ciabatta (my new version)

500 grams a/p flour
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar (if you want)
squirt of olive oil (if you want it soft)
2 cups water

Dump it all in the bowl of the kitchenaid, with the paddle beater and high speed, let her rip until it starts to climb the paddle... you'll be able to see it climb even at high speed.  When it starts to climb the top portion stop the mixer and with a very wet hand, slide the goo off the paddle and switch to the dough hook.

On HIGH let it go until it completely clears the side of the bowl and isn't stuck at the bottom at all.  just let it go!  Do NOT add additional flour, give it up to 15 minutes...  seriously, it'll work.

Dump/pour the slimy, shiny, slick, STICKY, crazy, 'this is not going to be bread' dough mixture, you'll see what i mean, it's shiny and you can NOT touch it, into a vessel to rise.  I use a 6qt plastic container.  You HAVE to let this TRIPLE in volume.  It takes about 75 minutes for me.

I put the container in the oven with the light on.  It can take up to 2 hours.  I make a lot of bread and everyone thinks there's yeast in my air.

Anyway, when it's tripled, it'll be a gigantic jiggly breathing mass of goo... that's perfect!

Pour it onto a VERY well floured surface and with your fingertips stretch it to about 24 inches square and fold it in thirds like a letter.. I cut it at this point with a bench scraper into however many loaves I want.

Flip once and flour the tops of whatever you make.  cover with a towel and leave to relax about 45 minutes.

CRANK the oven to 475 and preheat a stone if you got it.

When the dough looks slightly risen and more wobbly than it was (there's not a lot of rise at this point) Transfer the dough in one quick motion (one loaf at a time) onto a peel with cornmeal or onto the back of a cookie sheet or onto some other transportation method and slide it into the oven.  Throw 4 ice cubes on the bottom of the oven and close the door.

Bake for EXACTLY 15 minutes, feel free to open and spin the loaf at 10 minutes.

Remove from oven onto rack.  Repeat with rest of loaves.

EAT!  Take to parties!  EAT!  ENJOY!!!

This stuff is killer good.
Here's some I made today

  

/enjoy

White Bread, single loaf

I'm back firmly (and widely) in the saddle, culinarily speaking. I have most definitely been inspired by the "cooler" temperatures, dry weather and early morning freedom that comes when husband heads off to work.

I don't do well standing around waiting for him to leave - don't people have offices? - and I am incapable of getting into anything while he is still here. That being said, I went on the ciabatta AND single white loaf kick. Both were done by noon and, frankly, delicious.

I tried a new morph for the single white loaf. Recently the loaves I do are too heavy and stodgy. I don't like heavy and stodgy. Son liked them and said they were "ok" but I wasn't happy. I've been playing with the single loaf for a while and, ta da!, I mastered it. I make this when we need sandwich bread. Son used to buy lunch, then take it and now he wants "good" cheese and home made bread, um, really? you're eleven for pete's sake - his wife's going to be annoyed with me.

I wrote the recipe and procedure out on my http://factoidz.com/white-bread/ spot but here's some pics in a better size and format:

*each rise was about an hour in an oven with the light on.

I also played with my standard ciabatta recipe today but I left the loaves to rise much longer, I was futzing between ovens (yes I have two) so there was a longer delay and it turned out to be a good thing. I will definitely be adopting this the next time I make ciabatta!

*that first rise in the bowl took 30 minutes! the yeast was insane an apparently loves the weather as much as me!

Make bread. You'll be happy

/enjoy

Oh yes, You CAN live on bread and water

I love bread, I love smelling it, making it and best of all, I like to make it for other people. My son's best friend is a sweetie and I call him "other-son".

He has a wide, easy smile, twinkly eyes and is a joy to cook for. He is one of my biggest fans. I think everything I've ever cooked for him has been "the best I've ever had". Hopefully it doesn't annoy his mother, I think he's just being gracious. I've never had less than a licked-clean plate come back so he must enjoy it on some level. I have a rather extensive repertoire but he always for one of the same three things.

He is here for the weekend before he moves out of state so I told him I could deny him nothing, culinarily speaking and the smile crept across his face.

"Can you make me some of your bread?" The same smile crept across my own face, "Absolutely".

Bread it is, other-son. The "your bread" to which he refers is a ridiculously easy ciabatta type loaf that is, as far as yeast breads go, pretty quick and incredibly tasty. The ease of mixing, rising and baking makes it a standard here. I quickly mixed the mixed the highly hydrated dough and left it to rise while we ran some errands. We came back and his eyes lit up at the sight of the giant bowl of giggly, bubbling ooze that greeted us.

I flipped it quickly out onto heavily floured parchment, sliced it into two gelatinous masses and stretched each to loosely form a ciabatta "the slipper" loaf. The oven was cranked to 500 and when it registered as preheated, we waited 15 minutes more.

I slid one loaf at a time into the oven, onto a heated cookie sheet and hit the timer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, I flipped it off the cookie sheet onto the racks and hit the timer for 5 mins. After 5 mins, I flipped the loaf upside down and hit the timer for another 5.

DING! straight onto a cooling rack so the crust stayed crispy all around and we tried really really really hard not to rip it into pieces right then and there. We lasted about 3 minutes.

In the name of decorum, I sliced it up, we slathered it in cold butter and, um, he ate it. I baked the second loaf the same way, there's still some of that left but then again, they did go outside for a few minutes, I have no faith it'll survive.

Here's the details:

In the bowl of 'big red' dump 500 grams of A/P flour (the ONLY thing I measure by weight is this flour, it matters and it changes?! so measure it), 2 tsp yeast, 2 tsp salt and a small sprinkle of sugar. Stir quickly and pour in 2 cups of water all at once. Mix quickly and leave for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, turn the mixer on high and leave it there. It'll start out looking like pancake batter then the weirdest thing happens to it and becomes stretchy and thin and sticky and smooth all at the same time. The dough clears the side of the bowl and then it starts to climb! It climbs up the paddle and toward the mixer housing and all the internal workings...it's ready then.

Don't even try to touch this dough. It's sticky and awful and you can't get it off you. I am absolutely sure some woman made this back in the day, the husband saw her and wrote The Blob in it's honor.

Scrape the dough into an oiled bowl with room for it to TRIPLE, doubling doesn't work here, it's got to triple. Cover the bowl with sprayed parchment and leave it. Go run some errands. It'll depend on the day how long it takes, it's risen for me in as short a time as an hour and has also taken upwards of 2 1/2 - weather, temperature, flour, humidity, your mood, really it all matters. Make this when you have no serious time constraints.

When it's tripled, tip it out onto a well floured parchment lined board, slice it in half quickly and with well floured hands, flip each half over and stretch it slightly elongated and leave it. Turn the oven to 500 and go have a glass of wine. I wait about 30 minutes before I put the dough in the oven. I cut the paper around each wobbly loaf and slide it onto a pizza peel then slip it (on the parchment) onto the stone I keep in my oven. Alternatively, you can slide it onto a cookie sheet and bake it OR you can slide it onto a cookie sheet that you've preheated. It's pretty forgiving.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove it from the oven and take it off the parchment, put it back in the oven for 5 minutes, flip it over and bake for an additional 5. Cool it for a couple of minutes on a cooling rack. Slice, rip apart - eat.

This makes amazing pizza dough too! If you cut the recipe in half and form it into a loose circle when you tip it out of the rising bowl; drizzle it with garlic infused olive oil and whatever you have in your fridge that you'd like on pizza. Slice your additions thin though as this bakes quickly. Or you can simply press your finger tips into the dough and drizzle with oil and loads of salt and pepper before it goes into the oven like a mock foccacia.

This is a fun dough to play with and mess about with. Do it and let me know what you did.

/tracy