Ciabatta

I'm ready for a chewy, crusty bread.  I found the recipe for ciabatta and that appealed to me.  The night before, I made the biga, allowing it to rest overnight.

Biga

4 ounce (1/2 cup) water
1/2 teaspoon active-dry yeast
5 ounce (1 cup) all-purpose flour

Here's what it looked like at night.

And here's the next morning.

 Ciabatta

17 ounces (2 cups + 2 tablespoons) water
1 teaspoon active-dry yeast
Biga
20 ounces (4 cups) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt

After adding the next ingredients and beating, it was obvious it was a very slack dough.

After 10 minutes with the stand mixer, I had a runny batter.  10 more minutes, still a runny batter.  I gave up and added three more ounces of flour.  It finally came together after 15 more minutes of beating.  But you can see how soft it is.

It is almost like trying to handle jello.

They were very well received.  I guess I'll try this again!

Sadly, one tray got burned on the bottom shelf of the oven before I caught it.  That meant I could not take it to the covered-dish lunch.  I'll have to trim off the dark places and eat them myself.

The recipe says 475º for 20-30 minutes.  Too hot, too long. . .