ciabatta

Last night I completed my first real bread baking project. I've baked bread before, sure, lots of times, but this was different. This was real freakin bread, with a 2-day process and some sophisticated techniques involved. The results, I have to say, are amazing:


^^^an actual picture of the actual bread I actually baked^^^

When I opened the oven and took out these loaves, I couldn't believe that I actually baked them. They looked like something they were selling in some store I avoid because their prices are (deservedly, for the most part) too high. They smelled incredible. I've never smelled a more satisfying aroma.

What was so different was that they were made from a Biga that had been allowed to ferment in my refrigerator for 2 full days. It's a bit odd to make a batch of bread dough, complete with rising and everything, throw it in the refrigerator for a day, then cut it up and add it to essentially a whole new batch of bread as an ingredient. It works, though. Can't argue with results. I used the recipe for ciabatta in The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

This book and I, we have a spotted past together, to say the least. I've trifled with its bacon cornbread recipe twice now, and regretted it twice. It's not a good recipe. I baked some raisin bread out of there, as well, and it was pretty good, but not stellar. The ciabatta is stellar. I tasted just a bit last night (there was a bit of dangling crust), and it was truly great. I don't usually get too excited about bread, but this is exciting.

Lord help me, I may start doing it more often. I still cringe while remembering how it took me 4.5 combined hours of waiting and dough manipulation after work yesterday, on top of the Biga preparation 2 days before, to say nothing of the part where my kitchen was covered in flour and I still have a ton of cleanup to do, but I know (even though it's painful to contemplate) that I'll be back doing it soon.