December 29, 2008 - 3:06pm
100% Hydration Ciabatta
Hey All,
Just for kicks, I was inspired by ericlindley 100% hydration ciabatta, so I decided to give it a go... I used a 100% hydration poolish starter, and then used the same ratio for the final dough... They aren't the best looking things, and the dough was very difficult to handle as it was on the verge of running away from me... Overall, I think they turned out pretty good for a 1st attempt, and they taste pretty good. I don't think I need to do this again though...
Here's the link for Eric's forum post: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/9761/highest-hydration-possible
Tim
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Nice work Tim, I think they look great, especially the inside, it looks like perfect form for ciabatta.
enjoy!
ben
My question is this, is ciabatta as good as great sourdough, if you are a sourdough lover?
This is probably the wrong place to ask this but your loaves look so good I just had to. My problem is that the ciabatta I have made was good, a little like yours but fell short a bit. I liked the taste, bland as it was, and it was good for dipping in soup, etc. But for flavor, I haven't found anything that compares with my weekly sourdough. I regularly make WW, rye and other breads too, but I can't live without that sourdough. True, the sourdough is my holy grail, so perhaps that is to be expected. So my real question is: is ciabatta not just another good but bland bread like the yeasted french breads?
Lee
I think the "allure" of ciabatta is the wild crumb structure with all the holes and stuff, and dealing with an extremely wet dough...
As far as the taste leaving something to be desired, that's up to the maker... I used a 100% hydration poolish for this one that consisted of mostly bread flour along with a little bit of whole wheat and rye flours, that I let go for about 12 hours... For the final dough, I used all purpose flour along with 2.5% salt. I have seen some recipes that have 3%+ salt.
The final flavor wil depend on the pre-ferment that you used, biga, poolish, sourdough, none, along with how much salt you use.
I think if your holy grail of bread is sourdough, most plain breads will fall short. My "thing" right now is to get a very airy crumb like some of the rustic breads that you find at nice italian restaurants. If you've seen my Sweet Potato Pugliese bread, that's the crumb structure that I have been after for years...
Tim
and if 09 doesn't get too crazy I will try it.
I liked the ciabatta I made, but it wasn't drop-dead wonderful. I guess not all breads will be. It's a matter of taste and process.
Thanks,
Lee