Best Sourdough Ciabatta Recipes

SOURDOUGH CIABATTA

Steps:

• Sourdough Starter
• Build a 100% hydration (or higher) sourdough starter over a couple of days until it is more than 550g in weight, about 4 1/2 cups volume, active and floating.
• There are numerous, equally effective ways to get this amount of active starter. I fed my starter and refrigerated it at about 2 cups in volume. On baking day, I put 220g of starter in a large bowl, fed it 150g of all-purpose flour and 180g of water. In volume, this is approximately 1 cup starter, 1 cup flour and 3/4 cup water. Several hours later, it was over four cups in volume and it floated.
• Hand Mixing Instructions
• Mix together in a large bowl all of the ingredients (flour, active starter, water, olive oil, salt) except the additional 75g of water. I used a danish dough whisk until the ingredients were incorporated. Mark the time here if you like to track fermentation this way.
• Develop the gluten in the dough by hand for 8-10 minutes or until the dough passes the windowpane test. Use one hand to turn the bowl and the other hand to scrape, scoop and pull the dough around the bowl in the opposite direction. Feel free to take breaks and do not worry about pausing the clock. Here is a video of this mixing technique.
• Add the additional 75g of water and gently fold and squeeze it into the dough.
• Stand Mixer Instructions
• If you prefer to use a stand mixer, you can put all of the ingredients including the extra 75g of water into the mixer bowl at once and use the paddle attachment on med speed for 5 minutes and then the dough hook attachment on med speed for 2 minutes or until dough passes the windowpane test.
• After Mixing
• Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
• For the first stretch and fold, lift the dough with a dough scraper from one side and flop it over to the opposite side. Do four sides, twice around.
• Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
• For the second stretch and fold, lightly oil a new bowl, scrape the dough into the new bowl and stretch and fold using the dough scraper from all four sides once around.
• Cover and let rest 60 minutes.
• For the third stretch and fold, wet your fingertips and gently pull the sides of the dough off the bowl and toward the center of the dough. After you have done this around the entire bowl, scoop the dough up with both hands coming from the sides and downward (so that the dough is like a droopy cat with your hands in the middle). Do not pull hard and rip the dough if it does not come off the bowl easily. Lay it back down and scoop again but from the other sides. Repeat both directions a second time.
• Cover and let ferment until puffy and roughly doubled.
• My bulk fermentation from the initial mixing of the dough was 4 hours at a room temperature of 79F.
• Heavily flour your countertop, then scrape/pour the dough onto it. Flour your hands repeatedly and gently slide your fingers under the dough from all sides to pull it outward into a rectangular shape about 1/2 an inch thick.
• This technique does not de-gas the dough, and seems to encourage big irregular holes in the crumb. I also made a batch where I pressed the dough into a rectangle, de-gassing it, and I got more regular holes in the crumb. Both techniques work well in my opinion.
• Flip the bottom half of the dough onto the top half (fold along the long side of the rectangle.) You will now have a narrower rectangle with a floured top (and bottom).
• Gently cut the dough into 3 square-ish pieces. See photo gallery.
• Prepare a linen couche with a lot of flour. Create channels, as in this photo and the photo in the gallery below, wide enough to lay the dough slipper in. You can also use tea towels or parchment paper.
• Using a bench scraper, transfer the three slippers to the couche. In the transfer, you can gently stretch the slippers to be a little longer.
• Loosely cover and let proof for about 1 hour (longer at temps under 75F).
• If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven. You can also cook the slippers on a metal cookie sheet or upside down cast iron pan. (Do not use a dark non-stick surface because of the high oven temperature).
• Prepare to create steam early in the baking process. You can put a cast iron pan on the shelf under the baking stone. Or you can create a drip system by putting an aluminum pan with a pinhole in the oven under the stone, and a metal cookie sheet on the base of the oven. When making the pinhole, test over your sink that water drips through it about 1-2 drops a second. This system was devised by Breadtopia community member @peevee.
• My heating element is exposed on the bottom of my oven, so the aluminum pan drips onto the bottom of the oven rather than a cookie sheet, which works fine too.
• Preheat your oven to 500 F for 30 minutes before the dough finishes proofing. If you are baking on a cookie sheet, a 15 minute preheat should be enough.
• When proofing is complete, flip your slippers over onto three narrow sheets of parchment paper, place them on a pizza peel (an upside-down cookie sheet can be a peel too), and slide the slippers onto your preheated stone or cookie sheet.
• I fit three ciabatta slippers on my stone with a little careful adjustment, but you can do two batches if needed.
• Pour a cup of water onto the aluminum tray or cast iron pan that is under your stone or cookie sheet, and quickly close the oven door to trap the steam.
• Bake at 500 F for 10 minutes. Then remove the parchment paper and rotate the slippers 180 degrees if your oven seems to brown unevenly.
• Bake an additional 8-10 minutes at 450 F.
• Important After baking, turn off the oven, crack open the door a couple of inches, and leave the slippers in the oven for another 5 minutes. This will make the crust crunchier.
• If you make rolls or larger slippers, adjust your cooking time accordingly. Internal temperature should be about 205 F.
• Let cool on a rack for at least 1 hour before slicing.
• For most purposes (olive oil and tomatoes, butter and blue cheese, BBQ pulled meat), I like to slice a slipper horizontally and then into roll-size pieces 3-4 inches wide.

SOURDOUGH CIABATTA BREAD

Steps:

• Place water, milk, olive oil, sourdough starter, sugar, salt, flour, and vital wheat gluten in a bread machine in the order listed. Sprinkle yeast over flour. Start Dough cycle. Remove dough from the machine after the cycle is done, about 90 minutes.
• Turn dough out onto a well floured surface and let rest for 15 minutes.
• Flour hands and a bench knife well before handling the dough, but try not to add too much extra flour to the dough itself. Divide dough into 3 equal sections and form into round loaves. Place loaves on pieces of generously floured parchment paper and cover with large bowls, not touching the loaves themselves. Let rise in a warm place for about 60 minutes.
• Place a Dutch oven on the lowest rack of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
• Carefully lift 1 piece of parchment paper by the ends and transfer to the hot Dutch oven. Place lid back on the Dutch oven.
• Bake in the preheated oven until loaf is golden, about 20 minutes. Uncover and continue baking until top is golden brown, 2 to 5 minutes more. Lift up loaf with with parchment paper and place on a towel to cool. Bake remaining 2 loaves in the same way.

SPROUTED WHEAT SOURDOUGH CIABATTA

Steps:

• MIXING AND BULK FERMENTATION
• Combine all the ingredients in a stand mixer with dough hook attachment. Mix on low speed about a minute until combined and then scrape down the sides. Then mix on medium-low speed for about 5 minutes and then transfer the dough to a clean bowl. Alternately or additionally, mix in a bowl with a stiff spatula and then with the Rubaud Method for 2-10 minutes (the longer time is if you take breaks). After mixing, note the time and room temperature if you like to track fermentation this way.
• Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
• Do three gentle stretch and folds, spaced 25-45 minutes apart. Use damp fingertips or a dough scraper to pull the dough from the sides of the bowl and fold it over (four sides, twice around). Cover after each stretch and fold.
• Let ferment until bubbly and roughly doubled. This was a little over 4 hours from mixing in summer house temps (75-78F).
• SHAPING
• Flour your countertop, then scrape the dough out of the bowl.
• Flour your hands and gently slide your fingers under the dough from all sides to pull it outward into a square shape about 1/2 an inch thick. Do not flour the surface of the dough as this will be the interior of your slippers.
• Using a bench scraper, fold the rectangle of dough in half on itself. Then cut the dough in pieces. I went with five small slippers, almost like large rolls. Of note I did not do a bench rest and reshape. It was about 10 minutes from bowl to couche.
• Using a bench scraper and your free hand, transfer the slippers to the channels of a heavily floured couche or tea towel. The slippers will scrunch up a bit as you gather them, but you can adjust and stretch them out again as you lay them in the couche.
• Loosely cover the slippers with the couche itself or with another tea towel.
• PROOFING AND OVEN PREP
• Let the slippers proof for about 30 minutes at warm room temperatures, longer in cool temps.
• If you have a baking stone or steel, put it in the oven. You can also cook the slippers on a metal cookie sheet. (Do not use a dark non-stick surface because of the high oven temperature.)
• Prepare to create steam early in the baking process. You can put a cast iron pan on the shelf under the baking stone. Or you can create a drip system by putting an aluminum pan with a pinhole in the oven under the stone, and a metal cookie sheet on the base of the oven. When making the pinhole, test over your sink that water drips through it about 1-2 drops a second. My heating element is exposed on the bottom of my oven, so the aluminum pan drips onto the bottom of the oven rather than a cookie sheet, which works fine too. (See gallery for photo of setup.)
• Preheat your oven and stone to 500 F for 30 minutes as the dough proofs. If you are baking on a cookie sheet, a 15 minute preheat should be enough.
• BAKING
• When proofing is complete, flip the slippers onto pieces of parchment paper, and slide the slippers onto your preheated stone. You can use a pizza peel or a cold upside down cookie sheet to transfer the slippers.
• Immediately pour a cup of water onto the aluminum tray or cast iron pan that is under your stone, and quickly close the oven door to trap the steam.
• Bake at 500 F for 10 minutes. Then remove the parchment paper and rotate the slippers 180 degrees if your oven seems to brown unevenly.
• Bake an additional 5-10 minutes at 450 F.
• After baking, turn off the oven, crack open the door a couple of inches, and leave the slippers in the oven for another 5 minutes. This will make the crust crunchier.
• Internal temperature should be about 205 F.
• Let cool on a rack for about one hour before slicing.

SOURDOUGH CIABATTA

Steps:

• In a large bowl mix together the water, milk, olive oil, and starter.
• Mix the yeast and salt into the flour.
• Stir 6 cups of flour into the liquid mixture, a cup at a time, until you have a dough the consistency of drop-cookie batter.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead, adding more flour as necessary, until the dough is smooth and satiny.
• The dough should be on the slack side, but not oozy; it needs to be able to hold its shape in the oven.
• Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel.
• Place the bowl in a warm spot and let the dough rise, undisturbed, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until doubled in size.
• Punch the dough down and turn it onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead the dough gently and divide it into three pieces.
• Form the loaves into torpedo shapes, and place the loaves on parchment-lined baking sheets.
• With a serrated knife or lamé, make three slashes in the tops of the loaves, each 1/2-inch deep.
• Cover with a damp towel.
• Let the loaves rise until they look puffy.
• This should take approximately 30 minutes. While the loaves are rising, preheat the oven to 425°F.
• Brush or spray the loaves with water; a plant mister is good for this job.
• Bake for 10 minutes, spraying the loaves with water two more times.
• Lower the oven to 375°F and bake for an additional 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

WHOLE GRAIN SPELT SOURDOUGH CIABATTA

Steps:

• Note: This recipe is for one large slipper. The photo gallery below shows two versions of the recipe being made at once, hence two slippers. If you want two (or three smaller) slippers, double the recipe ingredients.
• Sourdough Starter
• Build a 100% or higher hydration sourdough starter over a couple of days until it is more than 275g in weight, about 2 1/4 cups volume, active and floating.
• There are numerous, equally effective ways to get this amount of active starter. I fed my starter and refrigerated it at about 1 cup in volume. On baking day, I put 110g of starter in a large bowl, fed it 75g of all-purpose flour and 90g of water. In volume, this is approximately 1/2 cup starter, 1/2 cup flour and 3/8 cup of water. Several hours later, it was over 2 cups in volume and it floated.
• Autolyse
• At about the same time you do the last feeding of your starter, combine the whole grain spelt flour and water in a large bowl and cover. This will help build the gluten structure and enhance the flavor. If the dough seems too dry to incorporate all the flour, pause for a few minutes, mix again. Add 10g more water if there is still any dry flour.
• Mixing
• When the starter is ready (for me this is about 4 hours after feeding), add it, the olive oil, and the salt to the autloysed dough. Mix by hand until incorporated and continue to develop the gluten for about 2 minutes or until the dough passes the windowpane test. Use one hand to turn the bowl and the other hand to scrape, scoop, and pull the dough around the bowl. Because of the autolyse, this mixing takes less time than what I recommend in the white flour ciabatta recipe.
• Here is a video of mixing the dough with the all purpose starter from beginning to end in under 2 minutes, and here is a video of the last 30 seconds of mixing the dough with the whole grain spelt starter. Both videos show the windowpane test.
• After mixing, mark the time and room temperature if you like to track fermentation this way.
• Bulk Fermentation / Stretching and Folding
• Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
• Do three gentle stretch and folds, spaced 25-30 minutes apart. Use damp fingertips to pull the dough from the sides of the bowl and fold it over (four sides, twice around). Cover after each stretch and fold.
• Let ferment until puffy and roughly doubled. This was about 3 hours from mixing at 74F for me.
• Shaping and Proofing
• Heavily flour your countertop, then scrape or pull the dough out of the bowl onto it.
• Flour your hands repeatedly and gently slide your fingers under the dough from all sides to pull it outward into a square shape about 1/2 an inch thick. Both versions of this dough are more delicate than white flour ciabatta dough, so work slowly until you get a feel for it.
• Using a bench scraper, fold the dough in half. Brush off the extra flour on the top, then fold it in thirds (see gallery below). Let the dough rest about 20 minutes.
• Prepare a piece of parchment paper, on a floured couche or tea towel, on a small flipped over cookie sheet. The couche/towel should be floured in case it touches the top of the slipper when you cover the slipper. The cookie sheet is under the towel to be a flat surface if you want to proof in the refrigerator.
• Fold the preshaped dough in half as it will have spread while resting. Consider a second fold for the all whole grain dough which spreads more.
• Using a bench scraper, transfer the slipper to the parchment paper.
• Dust the top of the slipper with more flour, and loosely cover it with the tea towel or couche.
• Let it proof for 30 minutes to 1 hour at room temperature, or 1+ hour in the refrigerator.
• Oven Prep and Baking
• If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven. You can also cook the slippers on a metal cookie sheet or upside down cast iron pan. (Do not use a dark non-stick surface because of the high oven temperature.)
• Prepare to create steam early in the baking process. You can put a cast iron pan on the shelf under the baking stone. Or you can create a drip system by putting an aluminum pan with a pinhole in the oven under the stone, and a metal cookie sheet on the base of the oven. When making the pinhole, test over your sink that water drips through it about 1-2 drops a second. This system was devised by Breadtopia community member @peevee. My heating element is exposed on the bottom of my oven, so the aluminum pan drips onto the bottom of the oven rather than a cookie sheet, which works fine too. (See gallery for photo of setup.)
• Preheat your oven and stone to 500 F for 30 minutes before the dough finishes proofing. If you are baking on a cookie sheet, a 15 minute preheat should be enough.
• When proofing is complete, remove the tea towel from under the parchment paper and slipper, and slide the parchment paper and slipper onto your preheated stone. You can use a pizza peel or the same upside down cookie sheet to transfer the paper and slipper.
• Immediately pour a cup of water onto the aluminum tray or cast iron pan that is under your stone, and quickly close the oven door to trap the steam.
• Bake at 500 F for 10 minutes. Then remove the parchment paper and rotate the slippers 180 degrees if your oven seems to brown unevenly.
• Bake an additional 8-10 minutes at 450 F.
• Important After baking, turn off the oven, crack open the door a couple of inches, and leave the slippers in the oven for another 5 minutes. This will make the crust crunchier.
• If you make rolls or larger slippers, adjust your cooking time accordingly. Internal temperature should be about 205 F.
• Let cool on a rack for at least 1 hour before slicing.
• For most purposes (olive oil and tomatoes, butter and blue cheese, BBQ pulled meat), I like to slice a slipper horizontally and then into roll-size pieces 3-4 inches wide.

SOURDOUGH CIABATTA

Steps:

• Add all ingredients to stand mixer bowl and mix on lowest power until well combined. Increase speed to medium-high and knead dough for about 15 minutes.
• You may have to stop the mixer a couple of times to scrape down the dough hook and the sides of the bowl. The dough should be very stretchy, but add more flour if the dough is unmanageable.
• Transfer the dough to a greased bowl, cover and let rise for 3-4 hours.
• Cover a baking sheet liberally with flour and turn the dough onto the sheet. As the photo above shows it looks like a blob (although yours will not look quite like this - see my What I Did Wrong below).
• Divide into two loaves. Stretch one piece and place on parchment paper. Repeat with the other half. Sprinkle with flour, cover and let rise about 40 minutes.
• Place a baking stone on the middle rack in the oven and preheat to 475 degrees.
• Uncover the loaves, dimple dough with your fingertips, and slide onto the stone. Bake until the loaves are browned and internal temperature reaches 205 degrees, about 30 minutes.