My first try at making Ciabatta bread…here goes nothing!!

cute card a friend gave me, sums me up!!

I’ve been meaning to make bread for awhile now, but seeing as I’m really carb conscience and don’t eat a lot of it out of choice I’ve been shying away from doing it.  But as I mentioned yesterday, I had a friend coming over for Friday night early drinks tonight with the kids and I didn’t want to venture to the supermarket, I was determined to use what I had to make something delicious. 

I remembered some ciabatta bread I had seen on Silvia Colloca’s blog Silvia’s Cucina. She is an Italian born self-professed foodie/Actress living in Sydney.  I'd been following her on facebook ever since reading an article on her in a sunday magazine, she makes beautiful traditional Italian food.  If you want to check her blog out its Sivlia's cucina. 

So back to the bread. It sounded easy, too easy actually, but I had all the ingredients  so I set about to make my first loaf of ciabatta bread, I was so excited.  Could this be the beginning of a beautiful love affair or a brick nightmare?

Silvia’s Ciabatta bread

2 x 7g sachets of dried yeast

450g floor I used 00 flour

1 tbspn evoo

1 ¼ cup of room temp water, I needed a few tablespoons more

2 tspns salt

HOW TO    taken directly from her blog but using my photos, with kind permission from Silvia.

1. In a large bowl, mix together flour, water oil and yeast. When the yeast is well incorporated, add the salt.

2. Mix with you hands for a few minutes or until the dough is amalgamated and slightly elastic. It will be sticky and wet. Put in an oiled bowl to prove for 30 minutes, then stretch it with wet hands and fold it onto itself and leave to rest. At this stage you have two options: place the covered bowl in the fridge to slow prove overnight , or for a minimum of 10 hours, or prove at room temperature, in a warm spot, for a further 1 1/2-2 hours or until doubled in size. Slow proving will add flavour and will ensure you a moist soft crumb, but you will still have a worthy ciabatta if you skip that stage. Up to you and your own time management, really! Once the dough has proven, you will notice that lovely air bubbles will have formed. Don’t burst them, they hold the secret to the formation of those coveted holes.

This was how it looked last night

This was how it looked this morning

3. Place a metal bowl or a small skillet in the oven and bring the oven temperature to to 200 C (395 F)

4. Gently and with caution, tip the risen, bubbly dough onto an oven tray lined with baking paper. Roughly give it an oval shape and dust it with a little flour. Insert the tray into the hot oven, pour a glass of cold water into the skillet to create steam, close the oven door and bake for 30-35 minutes or until risen, golden and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. You may need to flip the bread upside down to ensure even baking according to your oven.  Cool at room temperature over a wire rack for at least 1 hour before slicing away to reveal that holey, moist crumb.

So how did it go? Are you ready? 

Ta Da!!!!

Let me tell you it was torturous waiting for that hour to pass before I cut it but it is pretty good for a first attempt! Not as holy as I'd hoped for but the crust is to die for, crunchy and chewy. Practice should make it perfect I think!  Hopefully my friend enjoys it too.

Ciao, Jan