A no-knead, low maintenance yeast bread with a chewy center and crisp crust. Great as a side for dinner or as a roll for sandwiches.
I’ve always wanted a bread like the sub loaves that I bought at the store. Chewy in the middle with a golden crust…
This is the one! Baked as a roll, this ciabatta bread makes the most delicious sandwiches! It transforms any sandwich into 5-star restaurant quality! Baked as a loaf, it’s a simple side for dinner or the perfect base for Restaurant-Quality Garlic Bread!
On my quest for the best sandwich roll, I tried many different breads, but none of them were right. French breads and sandwich breads were too fluffy. (Don’t get me wrong, they have a special place in my heart, too. It just wasn’t what I was looking for.)
I was about to give up when I tried one last recipe. I finally found the secret to the chewy center! It surprised me. The secret wasn’t some special ingredient, it was the absence of one: fat!
Butter and oil help baked goods become softer and fluffier. When a bread is made without fat, it has a chewy, rustic texture. This bread has a shorter list of ingredients than typical fluffy bread, yet is somehow even more amazing!
Simple Ciabatta Bread Ingredients
Water: room temperature water. If you are in a rush, you can use warm water or hot water (90-110°F). This will help the yeast get activated quickly and cause a quicker rise.
Yeast: active dry yeast. Must be added to water in order to start working (ie: producing dough-raising bubbles).
Flour: all-purpose flour. A ciabatta bread is flatter than a French bread, so in this instance, a lower-gluten flour like all-purpose is preferable. The dough will relax after shaping and spread out slightly.
Salt: flavor for your bread. Do NOT add the salt directly to the water and yeast. This will kill the yeast. Either mix it into the flour or sprinkle it on top of the flour so that the yeast isn’t exposed to a burst of deadly saltiness.
Ice: Throwing ice into the oven while the bread is baking results in steam as the ice melts and evaporates almost immediately. The steam helps to make a nicely browned, crisp crust. If you skip this step, your bread will suffer. See below for more on using ice in your oven.
Tips for making Ciabatta bread
Your mixing bowl
This is a one-bowl recipe. That’s one bowl for mixing, stretching and shaping. I find that it’s easier to shape a ciabatta loaf if I use a wide bowl. There’s more room to maneuver.
Order of ingredients
This recipe has a couple of ingredients that don’t mix well, namely yeast and salt. Too much salt will kill your yeast. Here’s my recommended order:
- Measure the water into a bowl, preferably one with a lid.
- Sprinkle the yeast on top.
- Measure (or weigh) the flour into the bowl right on top of the water.
- Sprinkle the salt on top. Give the salt and flour a light stir. Then, stir up the whole thing, doing your best to get all of the flour incorporated in the dough.
- Cover your bowl with the lid and rest (you and the dough!) for 1-2 hours. The resting time doesn’t affect the final product too much, so do whatever works best for your schedule.
If you don’t have a bowl with a lid, cover the bowl with a slightly damp tea towel.
Stretch and Fold Technique
One of the best things I’ve learned as a baker is that sticky dough won’t stick to wet hands. It’s amazing! That’s why you *must* wet your whole hand before doing the stretch and fold!
To stretch: Imagine the dough as a clock. You will will fold 12:00, 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00. First, using your damp hand, grab the 12:00 portion of the dough. Stretch up as high as you can without breaking the dough. Fold it over to the middle of the clock. Turn your bowl so that 3:00 is now at the top. Grab the dough and stretch again, folding it down to the center again. Repeat for 6:00 and 9:00.
The first time, the dough will feel very loose. It may not hold together well.
Each subsequent stretch-and-fold will have a shorter stretch. The gluten will develop and hold it together more.
Tips for shaping the dough
Give your dough at least 15 minutes after your last stretch-and-fold before trying to shape it. The gluten needs time to relax before you can coax it into a different shape.
Ciabatta dough is a bit more difficult to shape than the standard bread dough. If the dough bakes up into an imperfect shape, just chalk it up to being rustic. Everyone knows that rustic bread isn’t supposed to be perfect, right?
Most important first step: dampen your hands! Because sticky dough won’t stick to wet hands, this is very helpful. However, if your hands are too wet, the dough won’t stick to itself. Be sparse. If you can’t get it right. Take a break. Dry your hands. Let the dough rest and dry out a bit. You can always try again. Remember, we’re not going for perfect. We’re going for rustic!
Shaping a loaf
If you want to shape a loaf, start shaping right in the bowl. No reason to dirty another surface. Roll one side of dough over itself and keep rolling. Kind of like rolling up a sleeping bag. Pick up the dough by the long ends and stretch slightly as you transfer it to a prepared baking sheet with the seam on the bottom.
For a flatter loaf, bring two sides up to overlap on top of the dough. Almost like folding into thirds. Then, carefully lift, stretch and flip the dough all in one smooth motion. Lay the dough on the prepared baking sheet with the seam on the bottom.
Shaping rolls
Tear off a piece of dough of your desired size. (I make 5 rolls out of one recipe.) Shape each ball of dough by holding it in your hands and gathering up the sides, top and bottom and tucking them into the center. With this loose dough, the sides slide quickly, so keep tucking them in on the top to hold its shape.
If that technique feels too chaotic to you, place the dough ball on a lightly floured surface and gather up the sides at your leisure. Left then right. Top then bottom. Repeat until the ball is well-rounded. Flip it over and place it on the prepared baking sheet with the seam on the bottom.
Using ice in the oven
The first time I baked with ice in the bottom of my oven, I was pretty nervous. Would this be bad for my oven? I was so worried that I put a baking dish into the bottom of my oven so that I could pour the ice into that. Seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately, my baking dish was made of glass. Yes, I made a really bad decision.
Needless to say, the hot glass exploded when I poured ice into the dish. I had blazing hot glass shards everywhere, and I still had to bake bread for dinner. I couldn’t even close the oven because there were glass shards in the door.
Go ahead and have a good laugh. I got everything cleaned up. No one got hurt. And I still managed to have bread at dinner.
What I should have done is use a metal pan. When I thought of that and I realized that the bottom of the oven is also made of metal, I realized that it would be safe for me to pour ice onto the bottom of the oven. That’s what I do now. Ice directly onto the bottom of the hot oven.
Be careful when you add the ice as it will turn into steam almost immediately.
How to Eat Ciabatta Bread
The most common way we eat Ciabatta Bread is by making a big loaf for sub sandwiches! My family’s favorites are the Smoked American Sub (full of mesquite-smoked turkey, Black Forest ham and cheddar cheese) and the Italian (full of Genoa Salami, sandwich pepperoni and provolone cheese)!
The other way that we eat Ciabatta Bread is in this Restaurant-Quality Garlic Bread. With an additional 15 minutes, you can turn this delicious bread into wildly delicious garlic bread!
Comment below to tell me your favorite way to eat Ciabatta Bread!
Happy Baking!
Simple Ciabatta Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup water, room temperature 240 grams by weight
- 1 teaspoons active-dry yeast
- 2 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour 300 grams by weight
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups ice
Instructions
- In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Mix in flour and salt with a wooden spoon. Do not add salt directly to yeast and water. The dough will be wet and loose. Rest 1-2 hours.1 cup water, room temperature, 1 teaspoons active-dry yeast, 2 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon salt
- With damp hands, stretch and fold. Repeat every 30 minutes for a total of 3 times.
- Grease baking sheet or top with parchment paper.
- To form a loaf: roll one side of dough under itself, continuing to roll until a cylinder is formed. Pick up dough by long ends and stretch slightly as you transfer dough to prepared baking sheet with seam on the bottom.
- To form into rolls: Divide dough into 5 pieces. Shape each ball of dough by gathering up the sides, top and bottom and tucking them into the center. Repeat until the ball is well-rounded. Flip the ball over and place it on the prepared baking sheet with the seam on the bottom.
- Preheat oven to 420°F.
- Rise 30-40 minutes.
- Place bread in oven and throw 2 cups of ice into the bottom of the oven for perfect crust. Bake 20 minutes. Bread is done when bottom sounds hollow when knocked.2 cups ice
Notes
Try making Restaurant-Quality Garlic Bread with a loaf of Simple Ciabatta Bread!
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