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Title: Ciabatta and Biga Starter
Categories: None
Yield: 1 Servings
| 1 | ts | Yeast |
| 5 | tb | Milk; warmed |
| 1 | c | Water; plus |
| 3 | tb | Water; room temperature |
| 1 | tb | Olive oil |
| 2 | c | Biga starter; *note |
| 3 3/4 | c | White flour |
| 1 | tb | Salt |
| Cornmeal | ||
| Biga starter: | ||
| 1/4 | ts | Yeast |
| 1/4 | c | Warm milk |
| 3/4 | c | Water; plus |
| 1 | tb | Water; plus |
| 1 | ts | Water |
| 2 1/2 | c | Flour |
*NOTE (see below), made 12 hrs before
By coincidence, my sister just gave me a recipe for ciabatta, a slipper-shaped bread from Lake Como, which she recommended highly. It's from an Italian cookbook, the name of which I didn't copy down. I made it last week, and it was very good, but it takes a long time to make!:
Stir yeast into milk; let stand until creamy, about ten min. Add water, oil and biga, mix until blended. Mix flour and salt, add to the bowl, mix for 2 or 3 min. Knead. Let rise until doubled. Cut dough into 4 pieces. Roll each piece into a cylinder, then shape into a rectangle, about 10x4 inches. Place on floured baking sheets. Dimple with knuckles so they won't rise too much -- dough will look heavily pockmarked. Cover with dampened towels, let rise 1 1/2 - 2 hours, till puffy but not doubled -- the loaves will look flat, but will rise in the oven. Heat oven to 425 F, sprinkle loaves with cornmeal. Bake 20-25 min. , spraying 3 times with water in the first 10 minutes. Cool on racks.
Biga starter for Ciabatta: Stir yeast into warm water, let stand 10 min. Stir in remaining water and flour. Mix for 3 or 4 minutes. Let rise at cool room temp 6-24 hours -- the starter will triple in volume and be wet and sticky. Refrigerate until ready to use. It freezes well, needs 3 hours at room temperature to re-activate. Can be refrigerated for about a week.
makes about 2 1/3 cups
>From: Nancy Gandhi Posted to MM-Recipes Digest V4 #7 by Bill Spalding previous next