Easy Ciabatta Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What makes ciabatta bread different? ›

Ciabatta is baked with a much higher hydration level, making the holes within the dough much bigger than a baguette. Ciabatta is also baked with a much stronger flour, which has a more delicate and sweet taste. Baguettes also tend to be baked more golden brown.

Ingredients in Ciabatta bread

Ciabatta bread is characterised by its crusty finish, and big holes inside the dough, which is often achieved by a long, slow rise, and high hydration.

Traditional ciabatta is characterized by a slipper shape as well as an extremely porous and chewy texture. Originating from the Lake Como region of northern Italy, ciabatta means “slipper” in Italian. Ciabatta dough is wet and sticky with hydration levels often 80% or higher.

Add Milk

To make your bread soft and fluffy, another trick used by commercial bakers is replacing water with milk. Milk has fats which make bread softer.

Sourdough bread is healthier than traditional ciabatta bread. Ciabatta bread is a popular type of Italian bread, and therefore, is less nutritious than sourdough bread due to the leavening agent used. However, if you are searching for a healthier ciabatta bread, you can choose one made with sourdough or whole grains.

“Ciabatta bread is relatively high in carbohydrates and has nearly zero grams of fiber,” Richards cautioned. Mowrer added some other red flags, which include “higher carbs, calories and sodium per slice compared to other bread.”

Try less water with your flour. Uneven heat in your oven can be the culprit – if you loaf is nicely golden on the outside but gummy or moist in the inside, it's baking too quickly on the outside. Trying reducing the temperature you're baking at and bake for a bit longer.

Baking Soft Ciabatta

You're looking for an internal temperature of 200°F for doneness. When the ciabatta is done it will have a light golden brown crust peeking out around the edges under the flour. Right out of the oven, the ciabatta loaves will feel hard to the touch.

Special Ingredients: Many bakeries use dough conditioners or enhancers, which improve the texture and extend the bread's shelf life.

Everyone wants light and fluffy bread loaves. The answer to getting light and fluffy bread is by letting the bread rise long enough.

Why is my homemade bread not light and fluffy? ›

That is because wheat gluten, which is in the bread flour, strengthens the dough and encases the gas produced by the yeast. You can actually add a small amount of wheat gluten to enhance the dough and make it lighter and fluffier. The more gluten, the stronger the dough is.

The literal translation of the word is slipper because of its shape. The loaf is somewhat elongated, broad and flattish and, like a slipper, should be somewhat collapsed in the middle. Since the late 1990s it has been popular across Europe and in the United States, and is widely used as a sandwich bread.

Why is ciabatta bread different? Ciabatta bread is made with a wheat flour that is slightly less refined than the one used for standard white bread, allowing a higher percentage of water in the dough. The dough is made using a 'pre-mix' of water, flour and yeast, which has fermented for long time.

"It reminds people of the older breads," Arnaldo Cavallari told The Guardian, describing his loaf as the "taste of an old-fashioned bread." The texture of ciabatta is chewy yet light and fluffy, with all its extra open-crumb air holes. By contrast, a French baguette, while airy, has small holes and a crisp crust.

Ciriola. These small rolls are similar to ciabatta in the sense that they're crusty on the outside and tender on the inside.