Making Ciabatta Overview: - This recipe takes a full day from start to finish and should make one large loaf. - The advantage of just doing one loaf is you don't have to divide the dough, which makes things much easier. - The first stage is making a starter which takes about 15 hours to mature. - You need a stand mixer or you're gonna have a bad time. The dough is very sticky and near impossible to work by hand. Technical challenges: - Finding the balance between having a slack, airy dough and having dough that will rise without spreading too much. - Timing the final rise so that the loaves do not collapse. Ingredients: Starter: 118g flour 89g cool water 1/16 tspn active dry yeast or instant yeast Dough: Starter, all of it 118g flour 89g lukewarm water 2/3 tspn active dry yeast or instant yeast (approx, 1 tspn is fine) 1 tspn salt Steps: 1. Combine the starter ingredients in a bowl and let sit 15 hours or overnight. Mix well. ~Next day~ 2. Add additional lukewarm water to starter. Mix dough dry ingredients in a bowl and add everything to stand mixer bowl. 3. Mix it with the stand mixer flat attachment until it's silky smooth and extremely stretchy. 4. Pour dough into a big container and let rise for 1 hour. 5. Deflate and let rise another hour. 6. Turn out onto a liberally floured surface. Shape into a loaf. 7. Transfer onto parchment, cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap, and let rise about 45 minutes. 8. Dimple dough with fingers (helps if you cover fingers in flour 1st), re-cover, and let rise another 45 minutes. Meanwhile, pre-heat oven to 500F (heat baking stone and cast iron if using). 9. Spritz dough with water (or add steam to oven via cast iron), and bake for 22-25 minutes or until golden brown. 10. When cooling, put finished bread on bare oven rack once oven is turned off, with over door open.