Ciabatta – how to cook Italian bread at home in the oven

The content of the article

• What is ciabatta
• How to bake ciabatta at home
• Dough for ciabatta
• Ciabatta Recipe
• Oven recipe
• Ciabatta with cheese
• Cooking secrets

Italian bread with a porous elastic crumb and a brittle dry crust carries the beautiful name Ciabatta. This type of baking is widespread not only in a sunny country, but also far beyond its borders. You can cook this type of bread at home. For the recipe you will need the simplest products, time, patience and good mood. To make the baking perfect, do not rush, avoid the hustle and bustle, keep proportions and time frames. With the help of proven recipes, you can please yourself and your family with aromatic and delicious Italian bread.

What is ciabatta

Wheat flour and yeast in sunny Italy bake special ciabatta bread. A feature of this baking is a crisp and soft elastic inner part with uneven porosity. This type of baking can be completely different: have a hard crust and dense pulp or be light and soft. You can learn Italian Ciabatta by the characteristic light aroma of rye malt, a delicate, slightly salty taste.

The standard form of Italian rolls is elongated, flat. The width is done with the palm of your hand, and the length is about 20-250 cm. The weight of the finished product is 350 grams. To make a sandwich, such a bun is cut in half, 2 large portions are obtained. Such baked goods are often used for making bruschetta, croutons, crackers, served with various sauces and gravy.

How to bake ciabatta at home

According to the classic recipe, ciabatta is baked in a furnace on stones. This heat treatment method promotes uniform heat distribution. The crust becomes golden on all sides. At home, it’s difficult to implement an authentic way of making ciabatta, but the treat will be no worse in the oven. First, they stand the dough for 12 hours, then knead the dough of the desired consistency.

The kneaded dough should increase in volume twice, after which they begin to form a loaf of ciabatta. Parchment paper is abundantly sprinkled with flour, spread the dough, pulling it in the shape of a rectangle. Using coasters (glasses), the dough is covered with a damp towel so that the fabric does not touch the batch. In this position, the dough is 2 hours. After the formed mass on the baking sheet is sent to the oven.

Dough for ciabatta

Traditional white Italian pastry with large “holes” inside and a crispy crust on the outside is obtained thanks to a special technology for making dough. The mass should be soft, watery, similar to dough for fritters, and the period of detachment of at least 12 hours. The composition of ciabatta products differs little from the bread varieties familiar to Russians: flour, salt, water, yeast (sourdough). Additional components can be milk or cream, olive oil, cheese, spices, herbs, olives.

Ciabatta Recipe

There are several options for ciabatta, which are prepared on the basis of the classic dough with the addition of herbs, mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, olives. The cooking process, although it takes a lot of time, is not difficult to implement. The dough is used liquid, it does not need to be kneading for a long and tiring. Even a novice who knows the basics of culinary art can cope with a detailed recipe without a photo with pastries of Italian Ciabatta. Follow the instructions exactly, observe the proportions, cook with pleasure to get delicious and fragrant Italian bread.

Oven recipe

• Time: 15-16 hours.
• Servings Per Container: 5-6 Persons.
• Calorie content: 262 kcal / 100 g.
• Purpose: Baking.
• Cuisine: Italian.
• Difficulty: Easy.

Soft, porous with crispy hot ciabatta will be an ideal base for sandwiches with sausage, ham, fish. Various types of sandwiches are made from it and simply served with first courses and salads. The homemade ciabatta recipe is based on the simplest foods. If you want to achieve authentic porosity and airiness, use special high-protein flour. Due to the large number of proteins, not only the desired structure appears, but also the calorie content of the product decreases.

Ingredients:

• wheat flour – 0.5 kg;
• dry active yeast – 0.5 tsp;
• sugar – 0.5 tsp;
• salt – 1 tsp;
• warm water – 350 ml;
• olive oil – 30 ml.

Cooking method:

1. Mix flour with yeast, add salt and pepper.
2. Add oil and water to the dry components with a thin stream, stir with vigorous rapid movements until smooth..
3. Cover the bowl with the workpiece with a towel, leave the dough at room temperature for fermentation for a long time, better – about 12 hours.
4. Pound a sheet of parchment paper with flour. Lay out a thick dough and gently stretch it, giving the shape of an elongated rectangle.
5. The dough should be turned upside down with the edges: first top and bottom, then left and right.
6. Turn the dough upside down and cover with a towel. Let rise in warmth for about 2 hours.
7. The mass should grow in volume twice. Divide it with a knife into 2 or 3 parts, sprinkle the sides with flour.
8. At the bottom of the preheated oven, put a cast-iron frying pan with water, bake ciabatta at 230 degrees 25-30 minutes.

Ciabatta with cheese

• Time: 4 hours.
• Servings Per Container: 5-6 Persons.
• Calorie content: 278 kcal / 100 g.
• Purpose: Baking.
• Cuisine: Italian.
• Difficulty: Easy.

Ciabatta bread recipe does not require special cooking skills. The main thing is to have patience and endurance, because the dough for baking should rise several times. Experienced housewives recommend working with yeast dough only in a good mood. Then you will get a dry, brittle crust and crumb with different-sized pores. Cheese added by prescription makes the dough heavier, so experts do not recommend baking too large rolls to maintain the necessary porosity.

Ingredients:

• flour – 270 g;
• hard cheese – 50 g;
• water – 200 ml;
• dry yeast – 7 g;
• salt – 7 g;
• fresh thyme – 2 branches.

Cooking method:

1. Pour yeast with warm water, stir.
2. Add salt to the flour, slowly pour the dry ingredients into the liquid.
3. Stir the liquid dough thoroughly.
4. Grate cheese on a fine grater, chop thyme. Add these ingredients to previously cooked mass..
5. Cover the container with the dough with cling film, put in a warm place for an hour. So that the mass can breathe, make a few punctures with a toothpick.
6. Gently lift the dough up and to the center with a spatula. Normally, it will blur back.
7. Cover the container again using a film, keep warm for another 2 hours.
8. Sprinkle the table with a thick layer of flour and lay on top of the dough.
9. Make a square or rectangle out of the mass, lifting the edges and folding them in the center. Chop the top with flour.
10. Divide the resulting workpiece into 3 equal parts.
11. Next, you need to carefully lay the blanks on a baking sheet with parchment. Separate the rolls with a layer of baking paper. In the baking process, they should round up and increase in size..
12. Leave the bread apart for another 20 minutes. If the dough spreads, it must be propped up with a towel.
13. Set the oven to 200 degrees. Bake the dough for 15-20 minutes.
14. To check the readiness of baking, tap on the surface of the crust. There should be a dull ring.
15. Before serving, cool the bread.

Cooking secrets

Even with all the rules of the recipe, baking can come out non-porous, not have a beautiful, golden crust. To get flawless ciabatta, such as served in Italian cafes, use a few recommendations from professional chefs:

1. To form a tender crust, put a cast-iron pan with water on the bottom of the oven. Wide dishes will create the effect of a steam bath.
2. A little olive oil added at the end of the batch will make the dough softer and reveal new shades of taste.
3. It is better to bake Italian bread in the oven on a special stone. It will evenly distribute heat, on it the dish cooks faster.
4. Yeast dough does not tolerate drafts. Avoid any air movement throughout the cooking process..
5. The ideal air temperature for the test in question is +24 degrees.
6. When forming rolls, be careful not to press down the mass to maintain porosity.
7. Do not use convection in the oven when baking, it will significantly reduce the splendor of bread.
8. For the baking in question, it is better to purchase a special high-protein flour.
9. It is important to observe the proportions of the recipe. If there is a surplus of yeast or a flour-water balance is not observed, the top of the bread will fall when baking.
10. Do not open the oven door until the end of the ciabatta baking time indicated in the recipe so that the dough does not fall.