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.