Ciabatta

I am really enjoying the pizza dough setting on my breadmaker. I have made focaccia quite a few times and last weekend tried my hand at ciabatta. It took a bit of experimenting to find a suitable recipe, as there isn't one in my breadmaker's recipe book. I managed to adapt this ciabatta recipe from All Recipes Australia for New Zealand Surebake yeast and it works brilliantly. Also, using my breadmaker makes the process more manageable than Jason's famous ciabatta recipe, which I've tried a few times.

The secret to a crispy crust is to spritz the bread with water a couple of times while it is cooking. I've found the easiest way to do this is to use a small spray bottle. Admittedly, the cat looks very nervous every time I take her water spritzer out of the cupboard - she's not convinced that I'm just going to spray the bread as it cooks and not her!

The recipe makes two decent sized loaves.

Ciabatta

Ingredients

• 3 teaspoons Surebake yeast
• 450 grams high-grade flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 375 ml water

Method

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the breadmaker in the above order. Select the pizza cycle (for Panasonic machines) and start. This is a 45 minute cycle.
2. The dough will be quite sticky and wet once the cycle is completed - resist the temptation to add more flour. Place dough on a lightly floured board or bench. Cover with a large bowl and let it rest for 15 minutes.
3. Lightly flour or use a baking paper lined oven tray. Divide into two pieces and form each into a 10 x 35 cm oval. Place loaves on prepared trays, dimple the surface and lightly flour. Cover with a paper towel or plastic bag and let rise in a draft-free place for 45-60 minutes or until the loaves have doubled in size. (I use the proof dough setting on my oven, which keeps the temperature at a consistent 30°C.)
4. Preheat oven to 220°C.
5. Dimple dough for a second time and then place loaves in the oven, positioned on the middle shelf. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown. Spritz loaves with water every 5-10 minutes while baking for a crispier crust.

Ciabatta