Hey there fellow epicureans! Today we are going to make a great loaf of bread. This is a variation on the basic Italian Ciabatta bread making method. This is somewhat advanced so, if you have never made bread before, practice by making standard loaves or buns at first. Also, a great book on the subject of making bread is “100 Great Breads“. This book is a must have along with Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cooking and La Bonne Cuisine. These two are THE books that all others are based on.

We need to make a sponge as the starter for this bread, so in goes 2 cups of warm water. a teaspoon of sugar,  two tablespoons of yeast and two cups of bread flour into the Kitchen Aid. I use King Aurthur Unbleached Bread Flour) its more expensive but makes better bread. This will look like a thick pancake batter. Mix this with the whisk attachment for a good 5 minutes until perfectly smooth. The sponge starter, or in this case a ‘Poolish Starter’ is explained here:

A poolish is a sponge starter has the consistency of a thick liquid and is very easy to prepare. It requires only a few hours of fermentation before it can be used, but it produces some excellent qualities, such as depth of flavor and a pleasing aroma usually in found breads prepared with the more time consuming sourdough method. The recipe for a poolish starter will differ depending on the type of bread being prepared, but often the only difference is in the quantities of the ingredients that are used in the starter in relation to the quantities of the ingredients in the full recipe. This does not apply to the yeast, which does not change proportionally as the quantities of the other ingredients are changed.

A biga starter is an Italian version of the sponge leavening method or French poolish. It differs from a poolish in that it is firm and dough-like instead of batter-like and it requires a longer fermentation period. Breads made with a biga starter feature a subtle flavor, a porous texture, moist, open crumb, and a champagne aroma. Like other starters, there are several methods for preparing a biga starter, but the biga recipe will differ with each type of bread being made. Often the same recipe for the biga sponge starter can be used for a number of breads if the quantities of the ingredients in the biga starter are changed proportionally to the quantities of the ingredients in the full recipe; however, the quantity of yeast usually does not change proportionally.

Sous-Chef Puti tests the sponge:

The starter should sit in the bowl, uncovered for 2-4 hours depending on temperature (or it can go in the fridge overnight). What will happen is it will expand and the yeast goes through its life cycle and produce CO2. In about an hour or so it will begin to collapse. This is when i like to add a half a cup to cup of Spelt Flour, or some rye, or whole wheat, or just stick with unbleached flour; this is where experimentation on your part will result in a loaf to your liking. The addition of more flour will cause the sponge to expand again. If you are just using unbleached flour, this step of adding specialty flour can be skipped. Don’t add this additional four at the beginning or you will probably have a mess on your hands.

The Sponge after an hour or so, note the large bubbles:

A Note: If the addition of different flour is skipped and you want to make traditional Ciabatta, after the 2-4 hours, add a teaspoon of kosher salt, 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 or so more cups of flour and mix with the dough hook attachment slowly adding the flour until the dough just lightly sticks to your finger. Let it rest in the bowl, uncovered for another 2 hours. Then turn int out onto a floured board, divide the loaf in 2 and make 8 long rectangles. Let them rest for another hour and split into 8 inch loaves again. Let rest for an hour. Then bake at 400F 25-30 minutes.

Once the sponge with the additional step of ‘other’ flour has begun to collapse (2-4 hours since the beginning) then it is time to add the rest of the ingredients.

1 tsp of kosher salt, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and 1-2 cups of flour, mix with dough hook and add the flour slowly until the dough just lightly sticks to you finger The final ratio of total flour to water is proximately 4 cups flour – 2 cups water. Let this rest in the bowl, uncovered for an hour so it doubles in size.

Once the dough doubles, or ‘proofs’, then gently turn it out onto a floured surface and very gently it into 2 loaves. Do not knead the bread, be as gentle as possible to save the air bubbles that have formed int he dough.  I prefer to cook the loaves in a French Bread pan . If you go this route, it is advisable to have two pans, that way doubling a favorite bread recipe can be done more efficiently. You will want the loaves to be cylindrical and about 8-10 inches long. Let them rest in the pan until they double in size.

The Loaves in a French Bread Pan:

Preheat oven to 500F.  Now comes the parts that have caused endless discussions: To score the top of the loaf or not and to use steam or not.  With this style of bread I normally would not score the tops as it is claimed that by scoring, air is released form the inside of the bread and I want to retain the large and small air pockets that worked so long to get. If this were a straight baguettes, i would have sous-chef Puti score each loaf 3 times. However, I have never scored this recipe, so lets experiment. I will score one and not score the other and see what happens.

Now, onto the question of steam. Steam in the baking does create a nicer crust.

These are ready to go into the oven:

Place a large cast iron skillet filled with lava rocks in the bottom of your oven. If you don’t have those on hand, go with a shallow baking pan. Carefully and quickly place the bread in the middle of the oven and pour two to three cups of  boiling water into the pan in the 500F oven. Be quick to maximize steam and limit heat loss. Reduce the oven heat to 425. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

The finished product; nice crunchy crust and a great texture on the inside:

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Now for the Football, at 8:30pmEastern on ESPN:

No. 4 Stanford vs. No. 3 Oklahoma State*
TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL

This promises to be a great game. Evenly matched offenses going head to head.