Ciabatta

My current KCRW cookbook club selection is The Southern Italian Table by Arthur Schwartz.  While reading through the book after it arrived, I decided I’d take a stab at a sauce that was a fusion of Southern Italian and Spanish/Mexican cuisine.  A ragu with chocolate.  Since I knew I’d be making pasta, I decided it was time to take on Ciabatta in the BBA Challenge.

For the Ciabatta, I started with a poolish the night before.  This would form the basis of the dough the next day.  This is a fairly wet dough, so it can be a little sticky, but it was still pretty easy to work.  I ended up making 3 loaves, though because I only have a round pizza stone, I ended up baking two loaves first, and the last loaf by itself.  This actually worked out pretty well, as I accidentally degassed one loaf while shaping and the extra proofing time allowed it to get back up to a similar size as the other loaves.

All in all, I was pretty pleased on how the loaves turned out.  The crust had a nice golden touch to it, and the bread had good structure on the inside.   My girlfriend and co-workers all really enjoyed it.  It was a perfect compliment to the meal below: