Busy weekend

Ciabatta, stocking up on pickled veg and sauces for the foreseeable future, scallion pancakes for dinner, and testing some bread recipes using beer yeasts from a friend. This particular one was from a chocolate stout and was made into a walnut and cranberry boule with a touch of cinnamon and black pepper.

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Jeremy_131558

Gorgeous loaves! What was the cooking process on that ciabbata?

Side note, there is nothing better than recycled pho containers for storage...

Brendan_Lee_56950

I buy the containers in bulk. They are our only source of plastic wares in the house!

Ciabatta recipe

Biga

AP flour - 130g/100%

Water - 118g/90.77%

Instant Yeast - 2g/1.54%

Final Mix

AP Flour - 567g/100%

Water - 482g/85.01%

Salt - 15g/2.65%

Instant Yeast - 5g/0.88%

Biga - 250g/44.09%

For the biga:

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the flour and stir to form a thick, gloppy paste. Give it a good fifty or so brisk stirs to build up the gluten. Cover and let sit at room temperature for eight hours or overnight.

2. By the next day, the biga will look soupy with many big bubbles dotting the surface.

For the dough:

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water in the bowl of a standing mixer. Scrape the biga into the water and break it up with your spatula or squeeze it between your hands. You don't need to completely dissolve the biga, just loosen it up and break it into stringy blobs.

2. Add all of the flour and the salt. Stir to form a thick, very wet dough. Let this rest for 10-20 minutes to give the flour time to absorb the water.

3. Fit your standing mixer with a dough hook and knead at medium speed for 15-18 minutes (Level 5 or 6 on a KitchenAid). Keep a close eye on your mixer as it has a tendency to "walk" on the counter at this speed.

4. The dough will start off sticking to the bottom and sides of the bowl. Around the 7-minute mark it will start to pull away from the sides of the bowl, collect around the dough hook, and regularly slap the sides of the bowl. If it doesn't, nudge your mixer speed up a notch. Also, if the dough starts climbing the dough hook, stop the mixer and scrape it down again. By the end of kneading, the dough will look smooth and creamy with a glossy shine. It will puddle back into the bowl once you turn off the mixer, this is fine.

5. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise at 70-75F for 2-3 hours until tripled in bulk.

6. Dust your work surface heavily with flour. Set two sheets of parchment near your work surface. Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto the flour, taking care not to deflate it too much. Dust the top of the dough with more flour. Using a pastry scraper or pizza wheel, cut the dough in two pieces for loaves or into 16 pieces for rolls.

7. Brush your hands with flour. Working gently but swiftly, scoop the loaves/rolls one at a time from the work surface to the parchment. Press your fingertips about halfway into the dough to dimple the surface and slightly flatten the loaves/rolls. Let the loaves/rolls rise, uncovered for 30-40 minutes. When ready to bake, they should look pillowy with many big bubbles beneath the surface.

8. Preheat oven to 475F while the loaves are rising. If you have a baking stone put it in the oven now.

9. When ready to bake, slide the loaves, still on the parchment, onto the pizza peel or baking sheet. Transfer them to the oven to cook, either on the baking stone or directly on the baking sheet if you don't have a stone. Bake for 20-30 minutes until puffed and golden brown. Let cool completely before eating.

artstype

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!

Jeremy_131558

Appreciate it, thanks!