Ingredients

  • Biga
  • ½ tablespoon yeast
  • ½ cup water
  • 1 cup flour, all-purpose
  • Bread
  • 1 tablespoon yeast
  • ⅜ cup water
  • ⅜ cup milk
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 cups flour, all-purpose
  • ½ tablespoon salt

Directions

1. Biga-In small bowl combine yeast and warm water (body temperature). Let stand until yeast dissolved. Add flour and stir. Cover bowl loosely with cling film. Let stand at room temperature for 12 to 48 hours.
2. Bread-Combine milk, water and yeast. Let stand until yeast dissolved. Sift flour and salt. Add oil, biga and milk mixture to flour. Beat dough until elastic. Cover loosely with cling film. Let dough rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk and spider web appearance. Dough will be sticky and full of air bubbles.
3. Line baking sheet with parchment paper*. Flour. Turn dough out onto a well floured work surface and cut in half. Transfer each half to parchment paper and form an irregular oval. Dimple loaves with floured fingers and dust tops with flour. Cover loaves with plastic wrap. (You can make one larger loaf.) Let rise until doubled in bulk.
4. Preheat oven to 425*F. Bake ciabatta loaves 20 minutes or until pale golden and hollow sounding on bottom. (Bake the one larger loaf for 25 minutes.) Transfer to rack to cool. Makes 2 small loaves.
5. *Parchment paper is best (found in baking section of grocery store). Oiled aluminum foil will work in a pinch.

Notes
Serving Ideas:Original serves 5.


Categories
Bread
Keywords
Bread
MacGourmet downloadCiabatta (American). To import, drag image to your MacGourmet recipe box.