Gottahaveit Ciabatta

This is an overnight bread dough, similar in that way to sourdough, but doesn't take quite as long. It is amazing, so few ingredients and tools, comes out gorgeous every time. Since I am a whole grain girl, I will be doing original recipe and my whole wheat grain version.

You will need:

For the ww / wg biga:
1 c whole wheat whole grain flour
1/8 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 c room temp (warm-ish) water


For the white biga:
1 c all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 c room temp (warm-ish still) water


For the ww / wg dough:
2 c whole grain flour
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c warmish water
1/4 c warmish milk
3/4 tsp lemon juice

For the white dough:
2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c warmish water
1/4 c warmish milk

Ginormous flour bin optional

Equipment: Baking Stones and parchment paper that is rated for up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit

Begin at the biga, of course! With a spatula, mix the ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl until relatively together. This is not runny as a sourdough starter; a biga is one of the Italian methods of pre-fermentation and it is quite solid. Anyway, when you have a regular looking lump, done! Cover tightly with plastic wrap and set aside for 12-24 hours.

Island in the stream

When your biga is looking somewhat bigger; get out the mixer! Scrape the dough into the bowl of a stand mixer, it will fight you. Be prepared. It is sticky and recalcitrant, show it who's boss.

Spray the dirty bowl with oil spray, set aside. Attach the paddle; dump in all the dough ingredients and mix on low for one minute, until a ball forms.

Turn up to medium, mix for 4 to 6 minutes or until it looks smooth. I just set the timer. Switch out the paddle for a dough hook, mix away for 10 more minutes.

You will need to show it who's boss again

Put back in the now-oiled bowl, cover tightly again with plastic wrap, set aside for an hour.

After an hour, take a giant oiled spatula (size by personal preference) and start folding the dough over on itself. Turn the bowl, fold it again, working in a circular fashion. Do that about 8 times, re-cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

Do that again one to two more times, 30 minutes apart each time. Do two if you have time, once more is fine.

20 minutes after the third rise, start pre-heating your oven and stones to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and flour a square of parchment paper. All of my parchment paper proper wasn't rated for that temperature, so I used the permanent washable stuff that I got for Christmas. It.is.awesome. and goes up to over 500 degrees.

Here's an important thing: you must preheat the stones IN THE OVEN. The whole point of baking stones is that they absorb heat and provide a marvelous and incredibly even and hot baking surface, but only if you PREHEAT THEM. You want to do that for at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, you can lay out the dough on the parchment paper, cover it with the plastic wrap until the oven and stones are good and hot.

If you have a misting bottle, be prepared to spray the loaf a couple of times within the first 5 minutes. If you do not have a misting bottle, I just sprinkle water on top of the dough before I put it in.

When everything is preheated and wetted; pick up the dough by the parchment paper, sling on top of the baking stone.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, keep an eye on them. I found they started to look brown as early as around 16 minutes. Take 'em out if they start to look really brown.

Let cool a bit on a wire rack, as long as you can stand it anyway! So freaking amazing. I've had this with tuna sandwiches, make some incredible garlic toast and tomorrow I am going to make tapenade for a muffeleta sandwich. Tune in tomorrow for that! Until then: bread porn: