Simple Sourdough Ciabatta Bread

Last month, while posting a photo of this brioche loaf on Instagram, I posed a question: If 2020 was the year of banana bread and focaccia, what will be THE bread of 2021?

Which bread, I asked, did everyone want to learn how to make most?

Of all the responses, which included everything from fougasse to hoagie rolls, a crusty baguette was the most frequently cited, ciabatta following closely behind. 

I’m excited to say today, after a few weeks of experiments, I have a wonderful sourdough ciabatta recipe to share. It has a thin, but crisp crust, a beautiful honeycomb crumb, and a lovely lightness and chew. It’s perfect for sandwiches. 

And best of all: it’s truly simple. Made with four ingredients, this recipe requires neither an autolyse nor preferment, neither a preheated Dutch oven nor baking stone. If you have a sheet pan, you’re good to go.

What’s more, there’s no shaping or scoring, no balling up dough or creating tension. Truly, after the bulk fermentation, which includes some fridge time, you turn the dough out onto a floured work surface, pat it into a rectangle, and divide it into 8 roughly equal pieces. You then transfer those pieces, irregularly shaped and all, to a sheet pan, and bake them one hour later.

But can I tell you the most exciting part? This dough makes a decent — a more than decent — baguette! It’s not super crusty, but it’s a nice baguette nonetheless, flour-dusted and unscored, with a crumb and flavor better than any other I’ve attempted previously.

Friends, I hope you love this recipe. It’s on par with this sourdough focaccia recipe in terms of simplicity and effort, but it’s a totally different animal. I can’t wait for you to give it a try. 

PS: If sourdough isn’t your thing, please try this yeast-leavened ciabatta bread recipe.

This post is organized as follows:

• 3 Tips for Sourdough Success
• What is Ciabatta?
• Sourdough Ciabatta, Step by Step
• Ciabatta Sandwich
• Sourdough Ciabatta “Baguettes” 🥖🥖🥖

3 Tips for Sourdough Success

Before you get started with this recipe, here are my three tips for sourdough bread baking.

1. It starts with your starter.
   • This will sound obvious, but: it starts with your starter. Before you mix a loaf of sourdough bread, you must ensure your starter is bubbly and active. I like to feed my starter at night before bed, let it rise and fall overnight; then feed it again in the morning. By midday, it’s ready.
2. Use a digital scale.
   • I say this all the time, but using a scale to measure the ingredients for a loaf of sourdough bread makes all the difference. So much of sourdough bread baking is simply a matter of using the precise amount of water given your environment and given the flour you are using. If you use cups to measure you are simply not being precise, and as a result, you will not be able to make meaningful adjustments should the recipe as written not work out perfectly.
3. Use a straight-sided vessel for the bulk fermentation.
   • With sourdough bread baking, one frequent problem bakers run into is over-fermentation. If you let the first rise go too long, the dough will over-ferment and become a sticky, unsalvageable mess. A straight-sided vessel allows you to see when your dough has truly increased in volume by 50%, 75%, 100% or whatever volume increase you are after.
   • The vessel I use in this recipe, similar to this one, is 8 cups. Most grocery stores carry storage vessels similarly sized.

What is Ciabatta?

• Originating from the Lake Como region of northern Italy, ciabatta means “slipper” in Italian. Traditional ciabatta is characterized by this slipper shape as well as an extremely porous and chewy texture.
• Traditionally, ciabatta dough is very wet, calls for very little yeast, and requires a long, slow rise.
• Traditional recipes, too, often call for making a biga (a preferment), which helps produce that light, porous texture.

Sourdough Ciabatta, Step by Step:

Gather your ingredients: bread flour, water, salt, and a sourdough starter. I am a proponent of buying a starter (see recipe box for sources), but if you are up for it, you can build a starter from scratch in just about 1 week.

For this recipe, you’ll need: 100 grams sourdough starter, 360 grams water, 450 grams flour, and 12 grams salt. It’s 80% hydration.

Mix together the water, sourdough starter, and salt.

Add the flour and mix to form a sticky dough ball.

Cover the bowl and let rest for 30 minutes. Then perform a set of stretches and folds. See the video above or in the recipe box for guidance. This is what the dough will look like after one set of stretches and folds.

This is what the dough will look like after 4 sets of stretches and folds.

Transfer dough to a straight-sided vessel (this one is 8 cups, but anything similarly sized will do) for the bulk fermentation (the first rise):

Mark the height of the dough on the vessel, cover the vessel, and let the dough rise until it increases in volume by roughly 75%.

When the dough has increased by 75% (roughly), place a lid on the vessel, and transfer it to the fridge for 12-24 hours.

When ready to bake, remove the vessel from the fridge.

Dust the top of the dough liberally with flour. Dust a work surface liberally with flour, too.

Turn the dough out onto the prepared work surface.

Pat the dough into a rectangle.

Cut the rectangle into 8 roughly equal portions.

Transfer the portions to a parchment-lined sheet pan. Let rest for 1 hour. Then transfer to a 475ºF oven for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to 450ºF and bake for 10 minutes more.

Transfer the rolls immediately to a cooling rack, and let cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting.

How pretty is that crumb?

Ciabatta Sandwich

I have written about this favorite sandwich before, so forgive me if you know the story. It comes from Gabrielle Hamilton’s Blood, Bones, and Butter, a favorite book, and it’s something Gabrielle’s ex-husband, Michele, made for her during their courtship. If you have the book, the story is on page 163.

In short, the success of the sandwich relies on a delicate balance: “the perfection of three fats together — butter, olive oil, and the white fat from prosciutto or lardo.” To make it, spread good bread with “cool waxy butter,” top with prosciutto (more than you think), and arugula. Drizzle it all with good olive oil.

Sourdough Ciabatta “Baguettes” 🥖🥖🥖

To make baguettes, follow the same process, but instead of dividing the rectangle of dough into 8 portions, divide it into two. I find an extra-large sheet pan to be necessary to bake both baguettes at the same time. If you don’t have an extra-large sheet pan, I would bake one baguette at a time, and orient it at a diagonal angle from one corner to another.

Bake the baguettes at the same temperature and for the same amount of time as the rolls.

Not bad for the effort, right?

These ciabatta “baguettes” would be great vessels for giant sandwiches. I’ve been craving Bahn mi since

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