Ciabatta Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What makes ciabatta bread different? ›

Ciabatta is baked with a much higher hydration level, making the holes within the dough much bigger than a baguette. Ciabatta is also baked with a much stronger flour, which has a more delicate and sweet taste. Baguettes also tend to be baked more golden brown.

Traditional Ciabatta: An Overview

Ciabatta dough is wet and sticky with hydration levels often 80% or higher.

The amount of water you add to your dough directly affects how the crumb in your baked loaf. A more open crumb results in bigger holes and a softer texture, whereas a closed crumb results in a more robust textured bread. Simply put, the more water in your dough, the more open the crumb will be.

Lubricate With Oil. One of the easiest ways our bakers follow to make bread soft and fluffy is by using 1-2 tablespoons of lubricant/fats such as vegetable oil to wet the ingredients. This will prevent the formation of excess gluten, as excess gluten makes bread chewy.

Sourdough bread is healthier than traditional ciabatta bread. Ciabatta bread is a popular type of Italian bread, and therefore, is less nutritious than sourdough bread due to the leavening agent used. However, if you are searching for a healthier ciabatta bread, you can choose one made with sourdough or whole grains.

“Ciabatta bread is relatively high in carbohydrates and has nearly zero grams of fiber,” Richards cautioned. Mowrer added some other red flags, which include “higher carbs, calories and sodium per slice compared to other bread.”

A “tight crumb” aka small holes in the interior of your bread can be the result of different factors: under-fermenting, over-fermenting, and a lack of gluten development.

Once you have finished the stretch and fold process, cover the bowl either with a lid or plastic wrap, and place into the fridge overnight, or for up to 24 hours. When you are ready to bake the ciabatta, line a baking pan with baking paper and lightly flour the paper.

Try less water with your flour. Uneven heat in your oven can be the culprit – if you loaf is nicely golden on the outside but gummy or moist in the inside, it's baking too quickly on the outside. Trying reducing the temperature you're baking at and bake for a bit longer.

Does Rising Bread Affect Its Texture? For a fluffy bread texture, the key is to let the bread rise long enough.

Why does ciabatta bread taste so good? ›

It is comprised of just flour, yeast, and water. This fermented sponge is what gives the ciabatta its amazing, slightly tangy flavor.

It's made with a very wet dough, and it's pretty much a no-knead recipe. This results in an extremely airy interior, and a crisp, brown, chewy crust.

Ever wondered, "How do bakeries make bread so soft?" The answer lies in their techniques and special ingredients: Consistency: Bakeries often use machines to ensure consistent kneading and proofing times. This consistency is key to producing the same soft texture batch after batch.

You want to rise the dough so that the yeast still has enough energy in it to work in the oven to give you a nice, light, fluffy loaf of white bread. Lightly cover the loaf pans with plastic wrap - do not make it too tight as you don't want the dough to rise up and get trapped in the plastic wrap.

Baking soda changes the texture of baked goods by causing a batter or dough to spread, while baking powder produces light, fluffy texture. Some recipes may call for baking soda or baking powder on their own, while others may require both ingredients to create the ideal balance for great texture.

Ciabatta bread was first produced in 1982, by Arnaldo Cavallari, who called the bread ciabatta polesana after Polesine, the area he lived in. The recipe was subsequently licensed by Cavallari's company, Molini Adriesi, to bakers in 11 countries by 1999.

Ciabatta isn't different from bread, it is bread. It's made with a lean (no added fat or dairy) high hydration dough (80%) similar to the dough of baguettes. The high percentage of water in the dough creates a very open crumb with large air pockets. There are plenty of high hydration breads out there.

There are striking similarities between the baguette and ciabatta, but the biggest difference is in the level of moisture in the dough. The wet dough used in ciabatta creates alveolar holes in the bread during the baking process, which changes the texture of the bread.