Very similar to the ciabatta recipe -- but this recipe does not require preparation the day before, and it uses a slightly different folding method.
Between starting and being able to cut into the bread, you're probably looking at about 8 hours, with the first 2 hours of that period requiring regular but brief attention. You'll need to be home to pay a few minutes of attention to this bread every 20 minutes, so it fits into a Pomodoro workday best (just like the ciabatta).
This bread goes well with broccoli sandwiches and with basically any soup.
If the bread goes stale (it is such high hydration that it is likely to go stale easily), reheat at 400 for about 10 minutes to recover it.
| Ingredients | Step |
|---|---|
| 500 g. bread flour 500 g. warm water ¾ t. yeast 2 t. (10 g.) salt |
Mix until homogenous. You want the (extremely slack, pourable) dough to have an internal temperature of 72 degrees. |
| olive oil 2 rectangular baking dishes |
Oil a rectangular baking dish. (It does not need to be oven safe.) Pour dough into the oiled pan and cover it with the other pan. If it seems cooler than 72 degrees Fahrenheit, put it in the oven with the light on. Let it rest 20 minutes. |
| Bowl fold: Using wet hands, fold the dough from the edges to the center repeatedly, until it can't take it anymore (8-12 times). Cover and let rest 20 minutes. | |
| First coil fold: Using wet hands, reach under the middle of the dough and lift it until it no longer touches the dish. Fold it in thirds (there's a video on the KAF site). Rotate 90 degrees and repeat, until the dough won't take it anymore. Cover and let rest 20 minutes. | |
| Second coil fold. Cover and let rest 20 minutes. | |
| Third coil fold. Cover and let rest 20 minutes. (Or, if it's already extremely tight, skip the fourth fold and move directly into resting for 80 minutes.) | |
| Fourth coil fold. Cover and let rest 80 minutes. | |
| Flour the surface, and very gently turn the dough out onto it, trying to not deflate it and trying to maintain the rectangular shape. Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Place each piece of parchment. Let rest at room temperature, uncovered, for 2 hours. (You can rush this, but if you can wait 2 hours, you'll get the most open crumb.) | |
| At least an hour before baking, place two cast iron skillets on the bottom rack of the oven and place the other rack toward the top of the oven. Then preheat to 475 degrees. | |
| After about 2 hours, when the loaves are light and airy and you can see some large bubbles on the surface, transfer 1 loaf to each cast iron skillet. Bake them for 15 minutes, ignoring the other 2 loaves for the moment. They should see some nice oven spring! After 15 minutes, transfer the loaves to the top rack to bake for another ~10 minutes (this lets the cast iron heat up again for the next round). | |
| Repeat with the last two loaves. |
Source: Martin Philip at KAF