Delicious bread, not so hard to make either. A good tip: Read the entire recipe before you start 😊
I have long wanted to bake with sourdough. I just felt for baking ciabatta. I watched several YouTube videos and read at least 20 different recipes; finally, I decided to bake the recipe I had in one of my cooking notes from many years ago – I have no idea where it comes from. 😊 I changed the process in order tom to make it more practical and straightforward. At the end of this post, you will find a link to how to make your own sourdough starter.
Generally, sourdough bread takes time – so it’s nothing for those in a hurry, but the taste makes it worthwhile! 😊
Some details before we start:
General about the dough
This dough is quite sticky – do not be tempted to add in more flour!
Dough cupboard or cabinet
Useful if you create dough cabinets or fermentation cabinets. A trick that works incredibly well when you want to ferment dough in general. You make it by boiling water and having it on a baking sheet or a bowl; place the container with water at the bottom of the oven. Turn on the oven light.
Pizza stone or baking sheet?
It is an advantage if you have a pizza stone but not a must – you can get the same effect if you use a baking sheet that you heat in the oven. The bread gets a good start when it comes in contact with the hot surface. If you use a baking sheet, you should have it turned upside down – this way; there are no edges that are in the way when you want to glide in the loaves or when you are going to take them out!
Gives 8 – 12 pieces of ciabatta
| Day 1 (pre-dough) or levain | Day 2 (Ciabatta dough) |
| 200 g flour | Levain or pre-dough (all of it) |
| 50 gram coarsely ground rye flour | 420-gram water (78,8 F) |
| 250 gram water vatten (78,8 F) | 580-gram flour |
| 80 – 85 gram sourdough starter | 2 Tbsp olive oil |
| 20-gram sea-salt |
Day 1
- Mix the ingredients for the pre-dough (levain) well so that all the flour is thoroughly moistened.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in a not too hot room. I stored it in our laundry room with the heat off. It is also possible to store the dough at room temperature. I used a slightly colder environment because I wanted to get more taste out of the sourdough and kept it 24 hours. But if you mix the pre-dough(levain) the night before, the average room temperature is enough, and then you do not have to wait 24 hours. 10 – 12 hours is enough.
- If you do not have rye flour at home, you can use regular wheat flour instead; in other words, you take 250 grams of wheat flour.
Day 2
- Mix everything except the salt in a kitchen assistant with a dough hook.
- Knead for 10 minutes.
- Then add the salt and run it for another 3 minutes.
- Transfer the dough to a bowl greased with a little oil.
- Put it in the “dough cabinet” that you create by boiling water and keep it in an oven plate placed at the bottom of the oven. Just turn on the oven light.
- Let the dough rise to double size (it takes about an hour).
- Take the dough on a very well-floured surface. DO NOT KNEAD!
- Smooth the dough lightly with a floured hand. Dip a sharp knife or similar into flour and divide the dough into eight parts. Flour your fingers, and then move each piece of bread to floured parchment paper. Sprinkle flour on the bread – cover and let it rise (rest) for about an hour.
- Meanwhile, heat the oven to 482° F (50 degrees less if you have a convection oven).
- It is useful if you have a pizza stone. Otherwise, you can turn an oven sheet instead; just turn it upside down and let it get hot in the oven.
- Slide in the bread with parchment paper using a tray on top of the pizza stone or the hot baking sheet—Bake for about 20 minutes.
Enjoy!
