Poolish Ciabatta Bread

Ciabatta pronounced "cha-BAHT-ta", literally, carpet slipper is an Italian white bread made with wheat flour and yeast. The loaf is somewhat elongated, broad and flattish and, like a slipper, should be somewhat collapsed in the middle. This kind of bread has a firm crust and dense crumb, to bread that has a crisper crust and more open texture. The more open-crumbed form, is made from a very wet dough, often requiring machine-kneading, and a biga, poolish or sourdough starter.







In the mean time I have been trying different bread recipes and I believe that baking bread is an adventure. Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" is one of the most popular for bread testing. This is a 2-day process but well worth the time and trouble. Poolish ciabatta proves a much more pliable dough. This is one dough that simply can't be kneaded by hand; it's just too wet and sticky. But it's a wet dough that results in that nice crusty hole-y bread you can find(mine has just a tiny hole- need more practise). An electric stand mixer or a food processor, will do the trick.




I added black olives and few sprigs of fresh rosemary. As I have an abundant rosemary in my garden.





Poolish Ciabatta Bread
Adapted: The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart


For the Poolish
* All Purpose Flour - 2 1/2 cups (12% protein)
* Water - 1 1/2 cups
* Active Dry Yeast - 1/4 tsp

For the Ciabatta
* Poolish - 3 1/4 cups (All of the Poolish above)
* All Purpose Flour - 3 cups (12% protein)
* Active Dry Yeast - 2 tsp
* Salt - 1 3/4 tsp
* Water - 1/2 cup (I use a couple of tablespoons more than this)
* Olive Oil - 4 tbsp




1. Prepare the Poolish - Warm the water for the Poolish. You should be able to dip your finger in the water i.e it should be lukewarm. In a larger bowl, add the yeast to the lukewarm water and keep aside for 10 minutes until it frothes. Add the flour and mix everything. Cover with a plastic wrap and keep aside at room temperature until the poolish starts bubbling and frothy on top. This takes me about 6-8 hours and I usually keep it overnight. Keep the prepared poolish in an air tight container in the fridge. Poolish keeps well for 3 days according to the book. I have never had the opportunity to find out! I use it the very next day.

2. Take the poolish out of the fridge and rest for 1 hour.

3. Warm 1/2 cup water until lukewarm. Add yeast and rest for 10 minutes until it froths. Add the flour, salt, olive oil and poolish and whisk it all together until it comes together as a dough. While forming the dough, whisk fast in one single circular direction until everything comes together. If the dough doesn’t clear the sides of the bowl or in other words is still too sticky add a couple of tablespoons of flour.

4. Flour your working counter. Transfer dough to the working counter with a flat scraper. Stretch the dough to a rectangle about quarter of an inch thick. Fold the dough over itself the way a letter is folded. Stretch into a rectangle. Repeat this stretch and fold again. Mist the top of the dough with some oil. Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes. Repeat the stretch and fold again. Mist with oil again. Cover and let it rise for 2 hours until it looks inflated but not doubled.

5. Spread a cloth on a smooth surface. At intervals, about the width of a ciabatta, raise the cloth to form divisions. Transfer dough carefully to a well floured working surface. Divide into two or three rectangles using a scraper that has been dipped in water. Using a well floured scraper carefully transfer this to the compartments that had been formed with the towel. Mist the loaves with some oil and cover with a cloth and let it rise for 1 hours until the loaves look inflated or swollen.

6. Transfer loaves to a baking sheet dusted with cornmeal/ semolina. Bake at 220 C for 30-35 minutes or until loaves turn golden and are done. I check by tapping loaves at the bottom. The original recipe recommends baking with steam - i.e, mist oven twice in 30 second intervals and bake with a bowl of water. I have done the mist and shut oven door, put a bowl of water and all of that circus in many recipes before. I have subsequently made the same recipes without the steam and frankly found no difference as long as my oven is concerned. I prefer to make my dough more hydrated to get better texture.

7. Cool completely for about 1 hour before slicing and serving.