Ciabatta bread

I usually do the same stuffing every year for Thanksgiving, but I wanted to try a new one this time around. I found a interesting recipe online from the foodnetwork.com that included ciabatta bread and chestnuts, two ingredients I never used before for stuffing. I never make my own bread for the stuffing but unable to locate the bread at the market, I thought, "why not?"

Ciabatta

Recipe from allrecipes.com

Cooking time: 1 day 1 hour (including proofing time)

Yield: 2 10 inch loaves

Ingredients

1/8 tsp active dry yeast

2 tbsp warm water (110 degrees F)

1/3 cup warm water

1 cup bread flour

1/2 tsp active dry yeast

2 tbsp warm milk (110 degrees F)

2/3 cup warm water

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cups bread flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

1. To Make Sponge: In a small bowl stir together 1/8 teaspoon of the yeast and the warm water and let stand 5 minutes, or until creamy. In a bowl stir together yeast mixture, 1/3 cup of the water, and 1cup of the bread flour. Stir 4 minutes, then over bowl with plastic wrap. Let sponge stand at cool room temperature for at least 12 hours and up to 1 day.
2. To Make Bread: In a small bowl stir together yeast and milk and let stand 5 minutes, or until creamy. In bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with dough hook blend together milk mixture, sponge, water, oil, and flour at low speed until flour is just moistened; add salt and mix until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Scrape dough into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
3. Let dough rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours. (Dough will be sticky and full of air bubbles.) Turn dough out onto a well-floured work surface and cut in half. Transfer each half to a parchment sheet and form into an irregular oval about 9 inches long. Dimple loaves with floured fingers and dust tops with flour. Cover loaves with a dampened kitchen towel. Let loaves rise at room temperature until almost doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
4. At least 45 minutes before baking ciabatta, put a baking stone on oven rack in lowest position in oven and preheat oven to 425 F (220 degrees C).
5. Transfer 1 loaf on its parchment to a rimless baking sheet with a long side of loaf parallel to far edge of baking sheet. Line up far edge of baking sheet with far edge of stone or tiles, and tilt baking sheet to slide loaf with parchment onto back half of stone or tiles. Transfer remaining loaf to front half of stone in a similar manner. Bake ciabatta loaves 20 minutes, or until pale golden. Cool loaves on a wire rack.

Nutritional Analysis:
per serving: 108 calories, 1.4g fat,  20g carbohydrates, .7g fiber, 3.4g protein

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

I find that many of the recipes on allrecipes.com needs some tweaking here and there. For instance, the starter for this bread recipe yields a much more doughy starter than it should be. The starter is what gives the bread a sourdough quality, yielding that specific sour taste. It should look like wet dough, but with the amounts listed in the recipe, I got more of just a dough. To remedy this, I simply added 1/4 cup more water and mixed together. 

Make sure to put your starter in a big enough bowl because it will rise over time. You will notice at least 12 hours later that bubbles have formed on the top and the mixture has a slight sour smell.

Ciabatta is a very easy bread to make because there is no kneading involved. The dough is very sticky so don't add any more flour than is necessary!

Now comes the waiting part. After you've prepared the dough, the hard part is done and now all you have to do is wait.

Right before baking, I drizzle 1 tbsp of olive oil on top of the bread. Now I don't have a baking stone so I baked my bread in a baking pan (decided to make one large loaf instead of two smaller ones). Put an oven proof pan with some water in the bottom rack when you are preheating the oven. This allows the oven to become filled with steam and gives the ciabatta a nice crust. I also sprinkled water on the bread during the last 5 minutes of baking. If you want the soft version, you can forego this step.

This ciabatta bread is amazing! I'm so tempted to just eat the bread as is instead of using it for the stuffing. The bread has a great golden crispy exterior with a light interior; look at the air bubbles in that bread! Dip in balsamic vinegar and olive oil mixture or use for sandwiches, this bread is so versatile and just darn delicious!