Ciabatta (Bread without Kneading) at Home

Ciabatta is a delicious, aromatic Italian bread. This type of bread does not require kneading, so the recipe for ciabatta at home is simple, albeit lengthy, and does not require special kitchen devices. The result is a very tasty ciabatta with a soft crumb, characteristic large pores, and a crisp outside.

Cook: 5 hours

Ingredients

• Wheat flour – 425 g + for working with dough
• Dry yeast – 3 g (1 teaspoon)
• Vegetable oil (olive) – 42 ml (+ for lubricating the mold)
• Salt – 8 g (1 teaspoon with a slide)
• Water (room temperature) – 325 ml

It is highly advisable to take “strong” flour for the ciabatta. This is flour, which contains 13 g of protein per 100 g or more. But I have regular premium flour, it has a protein content of 10 g. This suggests that the bubbles will not be as large as when using strong flour.

Directions

1. Pour yeast into the water and leave for 1 minute to disperse. Mix, add salt and oil.
2. Sift flour there in parts, kneading a fairly liquid, sticky dough. Grease the form (or bowl) with butter, spread the dough, cover tightly with a film or lid. Better to use a square shape if available. Let the dough rise for 30 minutes at room temperature (23-24 degrees).

   

3. The ciabatta dough is not crumpled, it is carefully folded. To do this, we moisten our hands with water, lift the edge of the dough with our hands, and put it up. We do this from 4 sides, only four times.
4. After folding, cover the container with the dough with foil and leave to rise for another 30 minutes. Then – the second folding, in the same way. Cover again with plastic wrap and leave for 30 minutes for the dough to come up. Then the third folding. The dough changes become more firm and elastic. Cover again and leave for 30 minutes.
5. Fourth, the last folding. We do everything in the same way as in the previous three times, but then raise the dough in the middle and fold it in half. We do this 4 times.
   Cover the dough again with cling film and leave to rise for 2 hours.
6. Here is the dough turned out in 2 hours. You need to work with the dough carefully, it is “alive”, there are many air bubbles in it, they must be preserved as much as possible.
7. Transfer the dough to a generously floured surface. Sprinkle the hands with flour as well. We take the dough by the edges on one side and cover the other with it (fold the dough in half).

   

8. The dough must be divided lengthwise into 2 parts. Sprinkle additional flour where there will be a cut. Cut the dough in half.
9. We put the dough on a towel, generously sprinkled it with flour, and form a “cradle” for it. The dough for ciabatta is liquid – so that it does not spread, it must be limited to the sides. For this, you can put, for example, bottles or egg containers. Cover the dough with a towel on top.
10. You can also use a rectangular shape. Put a towel in it, then cover the dough with a towel on top. Leave the dough to rise for 20 minutes.
11. Preheat the oven and 2 baking sheets to 220 degrees. One tray is for baking the ciabatta, the other is for creating steam inside the oven. It is advisable that the second baking sheet is also large. We carefully transfer the ciabatta onto parchment (while on the table), sprinkled with flour, up with the side that was lying on the towel – thanks to the ciabatta towel, it will get its characteristic pattern.
12. Put the dough on parchment on the main baking sheet. Pour boiling water (100 ml) into the second hot baking sheet. We bake the ciabatta in the oven for 10 minutes with steam. If the water has not completely evaporated during this time, then remove the baking sheet with water from the oven. Then we bake the ciabatta for another 15-20 minutes, focusing on our oven and the degree of ruddy of the ciabatta. By the crust we can determine the readiness of the ciabatta: knock on it – there should be a dull sound.
13. Let the finished ciabatta cool for 15-20 minutes. From my point of view, the ciabatta is the tastiest while fresh.