CiabattAAAAH!

Last month, the Artisan's Bread Bakers Facebook page had Ciabatta as the "Bread of the Month". We are all encouraged to try the recipe and post the results. Ciabatta is Italian for slipper, probably named because of the long, wide, flat shape of the bread. These are high hydration loaves, this recipe has a 78% hydration.

The poolish after 14 hours

This recipe calls for an overnight poolish. Poolish is a slow ferment that adds flavor and complexity to the loaf. The recipe called for a 50/50 by weight mix of flour and water and a pinch of yeast. 14 hours later the poolish had a vigorous lot of fine bubbles breaking the surface and a pleasant, slightly sour odor. The rest of the flour, water, salt and yeast was added to the poolish and mixed with the dough hook. The final result was a very slack dough transferred to the proofing bin.

Thirty minutes rest followed by a stretch and fold saw the dough starting to develop. Three more rests and stretch and folds gave the gluten a good chance to develop and some large bubbles could be seen at the top of the dough. 

After a final 30 minute rest the dough is tipped out onto the bench. This is where things get interesting! When I made this two weeks ago for the first time I just made two large loaves. Big mistake! The loaves were too long for the baking stone and dripped over onto the racks. So this time I made two smaller loaves (about 12inches) two other 8 inch loaves and five buns. Much easier to handle and bake.

The final result

  CHALLAH DOGS

It's Labor Day weekend - time for cook outs, right? Well not this Saturday. Tropical Storm Hermine visited us last night and dumped five inches of rain and most of Saturday has been spoiled with showers. Already had the hot dogs in the refrigerator so time to experiment with a recipe I have eyed for some time. Hot dogs wrapped with challah bread dough.

Made a batch of my stand by challah dough, separated into 10 strands and spiral wrapped each hot dog. Finished with an egg wash and sesame seeds on half and poppy seeds on the rest.

25 minutes in a 350^oF oven and out they came. Some went for supper, the rest in the freezer for later.

Challah Dogs

NO MORE UNLEAVEN BREAD

Passover officially finished at sunset on Saturday so the matzah was put away and the levain came out of hiding.

First up into the oven were two loaves of Steel-cut Oat Bread. Used the recipe and instructions posted by pjkobulnicky at thefreshloaf.com. You can find the recipe using the link above.

I confess to cheating a little bit as I refreshed the starter on Friday night and made the dough on Saturday. But did not bake until after sundown.

Here is the finished result before cutting into the loaf:

Steel-cut Oat Bread

Got a surprise when I cut for the crumb shot. Although the loaves sounded hollow when they came out of the oven, the interior was still wet!

I can only think the steel cut oats I used (Bob's Red Mill) absorbed more water. When I went to drain and reserve the water from steeping the oats, very little water drained out.

When I shaped the loaves, they were easy to handle. The initial hydration was 70%. Did not measure how much of the strained water came out from the oats, but the initial mix was 600g boiling water and 300g oats. So there could have been upwards of another 400g of water bound in the oats when they were added to the dough. Baking was 30 minutes in a closed Dutch Oven followed by 30 minutes with the lid off at 475^oF. Sunday morning I dropped them back in the oven at 475^oF for 30 minutes. Still a little doughy after that so gave them another 15 minutes.

Here is the crumb shot after the second bake:

Steel Cut Oats - Crumb

 
Tried a slice after the loaf had cooled. Great crunch to the crust, soft, sweet crumb. Will just have to play around with the bake time in future.

Bake # 2 was Overnight Country Brown from Ken Forkish's Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast. Abject failure! Over-proofed and finished up with two pancake loaves that will make great croutons, but not much else. I'm embarrassed to post a picture!

And finally a batch of Ciabatta. Used the formula from Linda West Eckhardt and Dianna Collingsworth's Rustic European Breads for your Bread Machine and the last cup of levain. Mixed by hand and then three stretch and folds during the fermentation. Turned the dough out onto a floured surface, cut in two and roughly shaped to 4x10 inches. 30 minutes more proof, then stretched out to 6x12 inches. Final proof then baked 30 minutes in oven with steam at 475^oF.

Ciabatta