December 29, 2009 - 11:31am
CI's Ciabatta
This is CI's Ciabatta, but I omit the water and use 6 oz of ale + 2 oz of buttermilk. Has the nicest flavor. They're baked in oval clay bakers so spring a little higher than a normal ciabatta. Perfect for sandwiches.
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Looks like they'd make wonderful hoagie rolls
I used King Arthur bread flour and machine kneaded for 15 - 20 mins. Since this dough is so wet and sticky, it doesn't appear to rise that much in the bowl when done mixing. But I wanted to try the clay oval bakers on the recipe and am pleased with the results. I know it doesn't look like a normal ciabatta loaf, but it's great for sandwiches. When making it for dinner, I use the traditional forming and bake on a stone. Either way, it's delicious. According to Cooks Illustrated, the small amount of milk in the dough tightens up the holes, but I didn't see much difference - still very holey bread. The flavor and color of the finished product is great. I'm testing a combination of beer-milk-water in many of my recipes to see what it does to the flavor of the bread. So far, so good!