Ciabatta
  1. Stir the yeast into the milk in a mixer bowl; let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Add the water, oil, and biga and mix with the paddle until blended. Mix the flour and salt, add to the bowl, and mix for 2 to 3 minutes.
  2. Knead briefly on a well-floured surface, adding as little flour as possible, until the dough is velvety, supple, springy, and moist.
  3. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/4 hours. The dough should be full of air bubbles, very supple, elastic, and sticky.
  4. Cut the dough into 2 equal pieces on a well-floured surface. Roll each piece into a cylinder, then stretch each cylinder into a rectangle, pulling with your fingers to get each piece long and wide enough. It should be approximately 10 by 4 inches.
  5. Generously flour 2 pieces of parchment paper placed on peels or upside-down baking sheets. Place each loaf, seam side up, on a piece of parchment. Dimple the loaves vigorously with your fingertips or knuckles so that they won’t rise too much. The dough will look heavily pockmarked, but it is very resilient, so don’t be concerned. Cover the loaves loosely with damp towels and let rise until puffy but not doubled, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. The loaves will look flat and definitely unpromising, but don’t give up; they will rise more in the oven.
  6. Approximately 30 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 220ºC and slide your baking stones on the center rack to heat.
  7. Just before baking the ciabatta, sprinkle the stones with cornmeal. Carefully invert each loaf onto a stone. If the dough sticks a bit to the parchment, just gently work it free from the paper. If you need to, you can leave the paper and remove it 10 minutes later. Bake for a total of 20 to 25 minutes, spraying the oven three times with water in the first 10 minutes. Transfer the ciabatta loaves to wire racks to cool.
Utensils
Ingredient Quantity Measure Comments
yeast granules 0.5 tsp 5ml
milk 2.5 Tbs 15ml warm
water (filtered) (mls) 1 1/2 cup 125ml with an extra 3 tbs
olive oil 0.5 Tbs 15ml
250 g biga
flour - white (organic) 250 g
salt 0.5 Tbs 15ml