using BBA's pain a l'ancienne for ciabatta loafs

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ringopaul on 2 Sep 2012 at 12:45

I have made BBA's pain a l'ancienne twice now and my wife and I enjoy it immensely with olive oil and seasonings. Today we tried using it for sandwiches and the taste and texture were a wonderful accent to our lunch. So, I got to thinking has anyone here ever tried using the BBA recipe to make ciabatta rolls? The recipe in the book says that you can use the formula to make ciabatta bread by leaving the dough out for 1-2 hours for final proofing, but it just seems to me that this would cause over proofing. I'm looking for any info from previous attempts and of course any and all suggestions are always welcome. I would try another recipe for ciabatta but I like the taste and texture of this recipe and would like to try and make it work before expanding my formula search.

 

Thanx,

Paul

I have used this recipe to make both small loaves, that came out like small ciabatta, and also it makes wonderful focaccia.  I find it easier to divde into rolls, or press out onto a sheet pan for focaccia, if I use the dough fresh from the refrigerator.  The rolls I just cook straight away with no proof, and the focaccia I let proof for a couple of hours before baking.  I baked the focaccia this morning with cherry tomatoes, olives and basil, and it was wonderful!

I used Kalmata olives, sliced into quarters, and a combination of fresh basil and dried basil. The dried basil I mixed with the oil the previous night, and the fresh basil I placed on the top of the dough, under the herbed olive oil so it did not burn. Have fun!