Application Guide
Table Of Contents
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Acknowledgments
- America’s New Bread Box
- Orientation
- Batterie de Cuisine: Know Your Bread Machine
- Making Bread
- Daily Breads: White Breads and Egg Breads
- White Breads
- Egg Breads
- One-Pound Loaves
- Pasta Doughs from Your Bread Machine
- Earth’s Bounty: Whole Wheat, Whole-Grain, and Specialty Flour Breads
- Whole Wheat Breads
- Rye Breads
- Specialty Flour Breads
- Multigrain Breads
- Gluten-Free Breads
- Traditional Loaves: Country Breads and Sourdough Breads
- Country Breads
- Sourdough Breads
- All Kinds of Flavors: Breads Made with the Produce of the Garden, Orchard, and Creamery
- Herb, Nut, Seed, and Spice Breads
- Savory Vegetable and Fruit Breads
- Cheese Breads
- Mixes and Some Special Breads Created from Them
- Stuffing Breads
- Circle, Squares, and Crescents: Pizzas and Other Flatbreads
- Sweet Loaves: Chocolate, Fruit, and Other Sweet Breads
- Breakfast Breads
- Coffee Cakes and Sweet Rolls
- Chocolate Breads
- Holiday Breads
- Express Lane Bread: No-Yeast Quick Breads
- Jams, Preserves, and Chutneys in Your Bread Machine
- Appendix 1 Bits and Pieces: Crumbs, Croutons, Crostini, and Toasted Appetizers
- Appendix 2 To Eat with Your Bread: Spreads, Butters, Cheeses, and Vegetables
- Appendix 3 Resources
- General Index
- Recipe Index
CIABATTA Makes 2 large loaves
Ciabatta is one of the hottest Italian-style country breads made in artisan bakeries in
this country today. Carol Field paved the way by including the recipe in her landmark
book The Italian Baker (Harper & Row, 1985), and every serious baker I know aspires
to master it. This is one of the best country breads you can make. It has a superb crust
and flavor. The word ciabatta describes the look of the loaf, like a flat slipper or old
shoe, hence the regional nickname “slipper bread” around Lake Como. This dough is
a perfect candidate for the bread machine because it is so wet that it couldn’t be mixed
by hand, except by a very experienced baker. (So don’t be tempted to add more flour
when you see how wet the dough is!) In addition, the mechanical kneading time of
about twenty-three minutes is just right for this dough. This bread uses a lievito natu-
rale, or biga, a starter that is firm like a bread dough and rests overnight, so be sure to
plan for a two- to three-day process leading up to the shaping of the bread and the
baking of it in the oven. You will need a six-quart plastic bucket for refrigerating the
dough. The combination of techniques produces a chewy bread with big, uneven holes,
known as occhi or “eyes,” throughout the crumb. Half of this recipe could also make a
dozen long grissini (see Grissini), or divide the recipe into 8 portions and make ciabat-
tini, or sandwich rolls. This formula is my adaptation of one given to me by P. J.
Hamel of the King Arthur Flour test kitchen. When this loaf comes out of the oven, I al-
ways think it is magic!
1
1
/
2
- OR 2-POUND-LOAF MACHINES
For the biga starter:
1
/
2
cup water
1
1
/
2
cups plus 3 to 4 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose
flour
1
/
4
teaspoon SAF or bread machine yeast
For the dough:
397