Ciabatta Bread

Week 11

This week's host was Emily she choose Ciabatta Bread. Recipe on page 125-126 of our book.

I totally procrastinated on baking this week. No real reason. The recipe looked good and best of all it required a standing mixer which I just happened to have purchased a week ago. Guess I was just lazy. When I finally got to baking it was Tuesday. The recipe said you needed two days to bake this bread. After reading through the recipe I decided to do it in one day. There was a shorty version but I decided to use the full one. Below is the result of my first loaf, finished at 11:00pm.

Yes, I know, it looks awful! The only thing I did differently from what the recipe said was I didn't use a baking stone. (Don't have one.) Should of followed my gut and keep the bread out after the first 20 minutes. Iit was already really brown. Stupid of me!

 When the bread cooled I decided to cut into it. The crust was hard as a rock! Surprisingly the middle was moist and spongy. Tasted good, but only in the middle. I guess we could pick the middle out and eat it. (LOL) Don't really know what to do with it. Breadcrumbs? 

Lesson learned from baking Ciabatta bread: If it looks done on the outside, IT'S DONE!

Good thing I decided to bake my loaf separately, since they both didn't fit on the bottom rack of the oven.  I baked the second loaf for 10 minutes. Then flipped it over and backed for 6 minutes more. As you can see it's already starting to get burnt. In this recipe it indicates that you bake for 20 minutes and then flip the loaf over and bake for about 15-20 minutes more so that both top and bottom have a nice crispy crust. I did it but really didn't see a need for it. My bottom was just as crusty as the top when I pulled out the bread the first time.

My second loaf turned out way better as you can see, good inside and out. This is more then likely a user error but the shape didn't turn out that pretty in my opinion.

I am beginning to wonder if the baking times in this book are ever exact? I am really glad we tried to bake this bread. I learned a lot about how to make breads different textures. I do hope that my talent for baking specialty breads increases because I have feeling it's not so good right now.

A Tip & A Question:

1. Always check your bread while in the oven, if it's your first time. A recipes' baking time is never the same in every household's oven. Better to be under baked then over.
2. What happens to bread when it rises? Why do certain breads need to raise numerous times?