Baking by Hand (14 page)
Authors: Andy King
CHEWY CRUST, OPEN CRUMB
Everyone knows this classic rustic loaf, but unfortunately, so many factory bakeries make this as an underbaked mess that a lot of folks aren’t used to the real deal. We’re happy to report, however, that everyone is easily converted after one taste. We like our loaves with dark crusts, and moist and open crumbs, and we also like to make them into a few different shapes. There’s the classic pound-and-a-half/700-g ciabatta (which means “slipper” in Italian), ciabattini (little rolls that are perfect for little sandwiches) and long stirato (stretched-out strips of dough used at the bakery for sandwiches). Because this dough is so rustic, it’s also very flexible. It can be split up in any way you see fit for your usage; we’ve given the example of a couple of ciabatta loaves and enough rolls to serve for dinner. If you don’t want the rolls, use the extra dough to make stirato.
• Yield: Two 1 lb 8 oz/700-g ciabatta, plus eight 4-oz/100-g ciabattini or four 8-oz/250-g stirato
• Desired Dough Temperature: 85°F/30°C
• Mixing Time: 40 minutes
• Bulk Fermentation: ~3 hours
• Proofing Time: ~1 hour
• Baking Time: ~25 minutes
• Cooling Time: ~15 minutes
Mix your biga (see
here
).
9.25 oz/260 ml 75°F/20°C water
15.5 oz/440 g white bread flour
½ tsp/2 g instant yeast
1 lb 11 oz/765 g white bread flour
2.25 oz/60 g whole wheat flour
1 lb 8.75 oz/700 g biga
1 lb 9.25 oz/715 ml 90°F/32°C water
3 ½ tsp/25 g fine sea salt
1 tsp/4 g instant yeast
Combine your flours in your large mixing bowl. In another bowl, mix your biga and water, and remember to keep that water warm to give your yeast a comfortable atmosphere to grow. (You should pull your biga apart with your fingers when adding it to the water so it incorporates into the rest of the ingredients more easily.) Then, dump your flours on top of the liquid ingredients, and mix it by hand for about 30 seconds, until it comes together in a shaggy mass.
Don’t forget to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl regularly; you want all of that flour hydrated and don’t want to see any dry spots. Set aside in a warm place, at least 80°F/25°C, for 30 minutes. If you’re having trouble finding your warm place, it’s time to use your trusty heat lamp.
Sprinkle the salt and yeast on top of the dough and grab a four-finger pinch of the dough and pull. It should stretch out like chunky taffy rather than just tear off. Incorporate the salt and yeast into the dough, continuously pushing the sides of the dough into the middle while turning the bowl. After a minute of this, the dough should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl and developing a bit of a sheen, and you shouldn’t feel any crunchy salt crystals. Cover the bowl, and put it in your warm place for 30 minutes.
Turn your dough onto a lightly floured surface and give it your four-fold (see
here
). It should make a tight little package and after every fold the dough’s volume should increase. It should consistently feel warm and active. Roll the dough over and place it, seam side down, back into the bowl. Repeat every 30 minutes (you’ll fold the dough four times in total). After the fourth fold, leave the dough alone to develop volume for the last hour; those bubbles are what will make up the nice, open crumb of your
ciabatta. You’re looking for the dough to be strong but puffy, warm to the touch and able to hold a fingerprint when pressed into the surface. The whole process will take about 3 hours with a warm kitchen and warm dough.
Shaping ciabatta is easy because there’s no shaping involved, only cutting. Once your dough has risen, turn it out onto your floured work surface. Using your bench knife and scale, cut two large rectangles out of the dough. You’re looking for them to weigh 1 pound 8 ounces/700 g, but you’ll only know how good your guesswork is when you put the loaf on the scale. If you need to rip off or add on pieces, that’s fine; just add your pieces to the middle of the rectangle. As a guide, they should be about 5 inches × 10 inches/12 × 25 cm.
If you’re making ciabattini, cut the remaining strips of dough into 4-ounce/100-g squares, again placing the smaller “correction” pieces right in the middle. Place the ciabatta and the ciabattini loaves on a well-floured couche and pleat them snugly. To make stirato, just cut off 3-inch × 12-inch/7 × 30-cm strips of dough and lay them onto a floured couche, as you would baguettes. Pleat them snugly. All of these options will take about 1 hour to proof in your warm kitchen.
While your dough is proofing, place your baking stone on the lowest rack in your oven, and your cast-iron pan on the highest rack. Preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C. Check in on your bread periodically; if the surface feels dried out, spray it with a bit of water to allow for maximum expansion. If it feels cold, make it warmer. This may take up to an hour, depending on the conditions of your kitchen. The loaf is ready to go in when it feels very airy and holds a fingerprint when pressed into the surface.
Gently flip the loaves over and place onto your peel (See? The extra pieces are now hidden underneath the loaf. Nice and tidy.) It might take a couple of batches to bake all your bread, depending on your oven size. Ciabatta are easy in this sense as well—no slashing is necessary to create the classic “old slipper” look.
Now, grab three ice cubes from the freezer. Being careful to not keep the oven door open too long and let the heat out, open the oven, slide your loaf onto the stone, throw the three ice cubes into the cast-iron pan and close the door. After 5 minutes, quickly open the door and spray the interior of the oven with water. Continue baking until the loaf is evenly browned, about 25 minutes, and has a nice hollow thump when you tap it on the bottom. If you’re baking ciabattini or stirato, the total baking time will be more like 15 minutes, to keep your crust soft for sandwiches. Let cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting.
THE FARM STAND SPECIAL
As soon as school starts in the fall, we begin fielding calls from customers asking when this bread will be back on the shelves. It has a limited life cycle in the bakery, as we bake it during the couple of months when we can source the pumpkins from nearby farms. Notice that we call for corn flour, which has a finer grind than cornmeal and absorbs liquid better, resulting in a smoother final crumb. You can find it in specialty grocery stores and online.
This bread has a sweet, moist and tighter crumb than some of the other breads we make, and the crust has a bit more give. It makes amazing toast and grilled cheese sandwiches, its yellow hue crisping to a beautiful golden in the pan. You can easily shape these into loaf pans for more convenient sandwich slices; we make them as pumpkinesque rounds.
• Yield: Three 1 lb 10 oz/750-g loaves
• Desired Dough Temperature: 85°F/30°C
• Mixing Time: 40 minutes
• Bulk Fermentation: ~2 hours
• Proofing Time: ~2 hours
• Baking Time: ~25 minutes
• Cooling Time: ~1 hour
Mix your poolish (see
here
).
15 oz/425 ml 75°F/20°C water
15 oz/425 g bread flour
½ tsp/2 g instant yeast
1 lb 4.75 oz/590 g white bread flour
8.75 oz/250 g corn flour
1 lb 13.5 oz/840 g poolish
8.75 oz/250 ml 90°F/32°C water
8.75 oz/250 g roasted pumpkin (see
here
)
2.25 oz/70 ml extra-virgin olive oil
1.5 oz/40 g honey
3 ½ tsp/25 g fine sea salt
1 ¼ tsp/5 g instant yeast
Combine your flours in your large mixing bowl. In another bowl, mix your poolish, water, roasted pumpkin, olive oil and honey, and remember to keep that water warm to give your yeast a comfortable atmosphere to grow. Swirl those ingredients around with your hand to combine. Then, dump your flours on top of the liquid ingredients, and mix it by hand for about 30 seconds, until it comes together in a shaggy mass. Don’t forget to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl regularly; you want all of that flour hydrated and don’t want to see any dry spots. Set aside in a warm place, at least 80°F/25°C, for 30 minutes. If you’re having trouble finding your warm place, it’s time to use your trusty heat lamp.
Sprinkle the salt and yeast on top of the dough and grab a four-finger pinch of the dough and pull. It should stretch out like chunky taffy rather than just tear off. Incorporate the salt and yeast into the dough, continuously pushing the sides of the dough into the middle while turning the bowl. After a minute of this, the dough should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl and developing a bit of a sheen, and you shouldn’t feel any crunchy salt crystals. Cover the bowl, and put it in your warm place for 30 minutes.
Turn your dough onto a lightly floured surface and give it your four-fold (see
here
). It should make a tight little package and after every fold the dough’s volume should increase. It should consistently feel warm and active. Roll the dough over and place it, seam side down, back into the bowl. Repeat every 30 minutes (you’ll fold the dough three times in total) until the dough is strong but puffy, warm to the touch and holds a fingerprint when pressed into the surface. The whole process will take about 2 hours.
Once your dough is ready to cut, turn it out onto your floured work surface. Using your bench knife and scale, divide into three 1 pound 10 ounce/750-g pieces. Gently shape the dough into rounds (see
here
), being careful not to compress the dough too much, and place seam side down on your work surface. Cover and rest for 20 minutes to build a bit more strength into the loaf before final shaping. Dust three bannetons with corn flour.
Take your rested rounds and gently but firmly shape them into rounds again. If your seams feel like they’re coming undone when you lift the loaf up, give it a few minutes sitting seam side down on the table to seal it, and next time, use less flour for shaping. The dough’s moisture should be enough to seal the loaf closed. Place your shaped loaves seam side up in your bannetons, cover with a cloth or plastic wrap and place in your trusty warm spot.
While your dough is proofing, place your baking stone on the lowest rack in your oven, and your cast-iron pan on the highest rack. Preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C. Check in on your bread periodically; if the surface feels dried out, spray it with a bit of water to allow for maximum expansion. If it feels cold, make it warmer. This may take up to 2 hours, depending on the conditions of your kitchen. The loaf is ready to go in when it feels very airy and holds a fingerprint when pressed into the surface.
Flip the loaves over onto your peel. It might take a couple of batches to bake all your bread, depending on your oven size. Slash the surface of the loaves in your desired pattern. Now, grab three ice cubes from the freezer. Being careful to not keep the oven door open too long and let the heat out, open the oven, slide your loaf onto the stone, throw the three ice cubes into the cast-iron pan and close the door. After 5 minutes, quickly open the door and spray the interior of the oven with water. Continue baking until the loaf is evenly browned, about 25 minutes, and has a nice hollow thump when you tap it on the bottom. Let cool for at least 1 hour before cutting.
The best pumpkins for this recipe are the smaller ones called sugar pumpkins. Choose those that are 8 inches to 10 inches/20 to 25 cm in diameter. Wash any remaining field dirt off the surface, and knock the stem off with a hammer. Bisect the pumpkin top to bottom (starting at the stem) and scoop out the seeds. Place the two halves cut side down on a sheet pan and roast at 400°F/200°C until the skin starts to collapse and a skewer passes through the flesh easily, 45 to 60 minutes. Let cool, and then scoop the roasted flesh off the skins. Refrigerate until ready to use. Remember to warm the pumpkin to room temperature before using in this recipe (or else you’ll sandbag your dough temperature), and squish it through your fingers to smooth it out a bit before incorporating it into the other ingredients.