Ciabatta

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 15 Ciabattas, you will need:

• 1 200 ml milk
• 2 150 ml water
• 3 9 g salt
• 4 15 g caster sugar
• 5 50 ml olive oil
• 6 500 g flour
• 7 20 g yeast
• 8 a little Milk
• Total weight: 945 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
1 hour 1 min.	2 hours	20 min.	3 hours 25 min.

Step by step recipe

• 1: Pour 200 ml milk, 150 ml water, 9 g salt, 15 g caster sugar and 50 ml olive oil into a pan, and warm over gentle heat.
  You can also melt all these ingredients in a bowl in the microwave for 1 minute.
• 2: Tip 500 g flour and 20 g yeast into the bowl of a food processor, then add the warmed liquid.
• 3: Knead on minimum speed for 5 to 8 minutes, until the dough is evenly mixed and elastic.
  Note: For the best way to knead, see: A few tips for effective kneading at home.
• 4: Tip out onto the worktop without flour, and stretch...
• 5: ... then fold back on itself a number of times.
  You can see how to do this in the recipe for leavened bread which has videos showing the movement.
• 6: Next place the dough in a bowl, cover with a plastic sheet, and leave in a warm place until doubled in volume, which will take 2-3 hours.
• 7: After this time, tip the dough out onto the worktop, press to expell the CO₂ gas that has formed, and shape into a ball.
• 8: Cut the ball of dough into smaller pieces of about 50 g.
• 9: Then roll each piece under your hand to make a nice ball and place on a baking sheet, as shown in this short video.
  You will see that you should try to keep both thumb and little finger straight (these roll the ball), and the other 3 fingers curved over the top.
• 10: The dough is very sticky, which is quite normal, but means that they risk sticking to the plastic sheet when covered again.
  This little trick will help to avoid this: place a glass in the middle of each sheet between the rolls...
• 11: And lay the plastic sheet over the glasses, so that the dough does not stick to it.
• 12: Leave the rolls to rise and double in volume for 1 or 2 hours in a warm place.
  Preheat oven to 180°C (360°F).
  Just before baking, brush the rolls with a little milk to help them brown.
• 13: Cook for about 20 minutes until golden brown, then leave to cool on a wire rack.

Remarks

Ciabattas are great on their own, but you can use them to make delicious sandwiches, or for hamburgers.

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