Ciabatta

This weekend I have tried another version of the a l’ancienne formula to make Ciabatta.

Starter - as before

Dough

• 200g starter
• 425g water
• 340g white flour
• 160g 00 white flour
• 10g salt
• 3g malt

I mixed as before, and the next evening folded at hourly intervals for 4 hours.

Then the dough was divided in two and roughly folded before being placed in two floured teatowels.

One of them was left out at room temp to prove - for another three hours. The other was placed in the fridge and baked this morning.

Loaf 1 (further proof at room temp)

crumb:

Loaf #2 (in fridge overnight, baked from cold)

Verdict

This formula is the closest that I have got to a sourdough ciabatta that I was hoping to bake. The 1st loaf was overproved, and perhaps could have been baked an hour earlier. Nevertheless it has the most extraordinary open texture for a sourdough loaf. The second loaf has a much better shape, but the texture of the crumb isn’t as even.

The third proving/baking option, would be to bake immediately (or soon) after shaping, and I haven’t got around to that yet.