4 hr Ciabatta Recipe

[brokencookie]

I ran across this somewhere and tried it out today. Being impatient and not wanting to wait for a traditional 2 day bread I thought it would be worth a try. It actuall came out quite nice but was very sloppy to handle with the insane hydration %.


500 gm bread four
475 gm water
7 gm yeast
4 gms salt ( original called for 15 gms?)

1. Mix all of the ingredients and let rest for 10 minutes
2. Using a mixer, mix the heck out of it for 10 to thirty minutes. It starts out looking like pancake batter. After a while it will start to pull away from the sides and act like a sticky dough
3. Place in a well oiled container and let it triple ( this is very important). It will take about 2 to 2.5 hrs.
4. Empty out onto a floured counter. Scrape if needed. Roughly shape( about 10 inch oblongs), sprinkle flour and spray with a little oil.
5. Let rest for 45 minutes
6. Gently create final shape, flip the loaves upsidedown onto parchment or a floured pan.
7 Bake @ 500 degrees ( conventional oven) until the loaves are @ 205 internal. Between 15 and 20 minutes

[gjbingham]

It will probably work. The idea of the two days- biga or pate fermente, is that the yeast have more time to breakdown the flour, resulting in a better taste, crust/crumb. Your recipe is what the supermarkets do to speed up the entire affair and increase profits. It works, but it is not superior bread.