Community bake. Ciabatta

I have never tried to bake ciabatta before but encouraged by this community bake I thought I would spend a morning on YouTube to watch a bundle of videos on the subject to see how it is done. I eventually settled on John Kirkwood's Sourdough Ciabatta Bread  largely because it uses a sourdough poolish which I have often used before.

So with the poolish it became a fairly leisurely process over two days. On day one the poolish was put together late in the evening by mixing 200g each of flour, water and active starter and letting it sit at room temperature overnight. (I used 85% Dove's strong white flour with 15% home milled wheat flour).

Next day mid morning with the poolish bubbling away strongly

The remaining 140g water was stirred in and then 250g flour and 8g salt and machine mixed for 10 minutes. (Well I had to justify the purchase of that shiny new Ankarsrum mixer during lockdown).

I did not have the recommended couche to hold the divided and shaped dough but I had found a clever alternative in a video by Buzzby Bakes who lays a sheet of baking parchment in a roasting tin and after spacing out the divided dough on it pulls up a fold between each piece exactly as you would do with a linen couche. The big advantage of using parchment paper is that at the end of proofing you just stretch out the folds to separate the loaves/rolls which can then be baked in the same roasting tin on the parchment paper and without handling them. I was able to cover the tin closely with a baking sheet to keep the steam in for the first 15 minutes. 

My own feelings are, not bad for a first try. the crumb could more open with a longer bulk ferment but I am anxious now to have a go at ciabatta bake 2.