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: 944 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
1 hour 1 min.	2 hours	20 min.	3 hours 21 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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