About My Easiest No-Knead Homemade Ciabatta Bread Recipe
Ciabatta is one of Italy’s most famous breads. It was conceived in Italy as a sandwich bread (to try to take on the rising popularity of the French baguette). Today it’s become one of the most popular sandwich breads in the world! When making bread, I think kneadless recipes are often the easiest because there’s so little hands-on time and effort required for working the dough, and you don’t need a stand mixer. That’s why I like to make my ciabatta using a no-knead method. Many recipes for ciabatta that I see online get this iconic bread badly wrong. So, let’s make homemade ciabatta the right way, and all without any kneading!
Now, ciabatta is a little trickier to make than some other Italian breads, such as focaccia. So, you might need a bit of practice before you get it perfect! Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t go quite right on your first attempt, you’ll get it right the next time! My method is designed to be approachable, so if you follow this recipe, before you know it, you’ll find yourself being able to make perfect homemade ciabatta! As well as giving you lots of tips to help you succeed making this bread, I’ll give you a couple ideas for authentic Italian sandwiches you might want to make with your freshly baked ciabatta. Of course, it’s not just for sandwiches, it’s also great for dipping in soups or sauces, and I’ve given you my top 5 favorite ways to use ciabatta later on in the recipe!
What makes a good, authentic loaf of ciabatta?
My recipe is designed to allow you to make real ciabatta easily at home that’s just like the versions you can buy in the very best artisan bakeries. It’s delicious, and quite unlike other white breads. So, what exactly makes a good ciabatta?
Ciabatta is probably most famous for its irregular, incredibly open crumb (see the photo below). In the town of Adria (which is near Venice in northern Italy) where ciabatta was created, ciabatta is actually known as “Il pane con buco”—the bread with big holes. The bubbles/holes are so big, it makes you wonder how the bread holds itself up during baking. When you taste it, you might even wonder how the crumb can be so soft and delicious, when it looks like there’s almost no crumb there! So then, the interior of good ciabatta should be a thing of beauty—soft, light and seemingly impossibly airy.
Ciabatta should also have a very particular exterior form (see the photo below). The crust should not be at all smooth. Rather, it should be crispy, crackly, with lines and “stripes” giving a texture resembling tree bark. It should be mahogany in color, be evenly coated with flour, but have absolutely no tears or “ears” like you see in many rustic breads where the crust “bursts open” during baking. If you see recipes for ciabatta, or loaves for sale in bakeries, where the crust looks smooth, has burst open, has no tree bark texture, no flour, or looks pale, walk away! They made it wrong!
Finally, the loaves (both big and small) should be roughly rectangular in shape, and should not be too tall. As you might already know, the word “ciabatta” in Italian means “slipper”. So, this bread needs to be rather flat compared to many loaves—so that it vaguely has the profile of a slipper. The reason for this is obviously not so you can try to fit your foot in it! It’s not actually a slipper! Rather, the idea for ciabatta when it was created originally, was that you should you split it open horizontally to make sandwiches. Hence the need for it to be relatively flat so there’s not too much bread in the sandwich. Obviously, though, you can cut your ciabatta in whichever way you want, and use it however you want!
If you love ciabatta, you might like some of the other breads that feature in my new cookbook, Simple Pleasures. In particular, you might the rustic Italian bread, called pane di Genzano, which while not as famous in name as ciabatta, is famous for being used by top Italian chefs for making bruschetta. I also have an incredible focaccia recipe in the book which is made with mashed potato in the dough to make it extra soft on the inside, and crispy on the outside.
To biga or not to biga…
Commercially, ciabatta is made using a biga (a so-called “preferment”). However, I’ve eliminated this step for my homemade version, and instead used a cold overnight bulk fermentation. (If you’re not sure what any of that means, by the way, don’t worry—it just a fancy way of saying, in this recipe, we put the dough in the fridge overnight!)
Now you could argue that this is not “authentic”, and you’d be right. However, as with a number of things about ciabatta, the decision to specify a biga in the original recipe was not really a culinary decision. Rather, the creators were focussed on making a new, commercial Italian bread to take on the French baguette, which was growing rapidly in popularity in Italy at the time.
(As an aside, this is actually quite surprising when you think about it—that Italians were preferring a French bread over Italian breads! Italians are famous for believing, no not believing, knowing that Italian food is always the best! I can see both sides here, though... but then I’m half French—my mom is French and my dad is Italian! I love French breads!)
Anyway, as the creators of ciabatta were thinking about the recipe for their new bread, they compared absolutely everything they did to a baguette. In France, good baguettes are made commercially using a poolish (a type of preferment). So, the creators of ciabatta decided they wanted to use a preferment too, but an Italian one! It Italy, a common type of preferment is a biga. So they chose to specify a biga.
However, as a chef, when designing recipes, I’m all about flavor and texture! Quite honestly, I think ciabatta is even more delicious made the way I suggest—by using a cold, long, overnight bulk fermentation, rather than using a small amount of biga and a short, room temperature bulk fermentation like we’d use in a bakery.
Besides, my way, it’s less hassle and there are fewer dirty bowls to wash up! I don’t know about you, but in my house, when I dirty a bowl, it’s me that has to clean the thing up! So, when baking at home, fewer dirty bowls is always a winning idea with me!
What kind of flour should I use for ciabatta?
Now there’s a question! I’ll give you a short answer, then a longer answer! First, let me tell you what I use, and why. For ciabatta, I use a high protein Italian Type 00 flour called “Garofalo W 350 Type 00”. The reason is that this particular flour has a particularly high quality gluten content that will stand up to long fermentations (up to 48 hours). It also absorbs water well. We want for both these characteristics for our homemade ciabatta.
It’s a great flour for using with long fermentations, and I highly recommend it. However, don’t feel the need to search it out. Any good strong bread flour will work well in this recipe. I’d recommend you go for a bread flour with around 13% protein content, but a strong all-purpose flour would also work.
Now, for the longer answer. Many Italian breads, perhaps even most, have origins dating back hundreds or even thousands of years, to before the days of the Roman Empire. Over the centuries, many different versions of these breads have been developed by bakers. For example, today, there are literally thousands of different and diverse kinds of focaccia made through Italy; there are even hundreds of different variants in single provinces. Ciabatta though, is different.
Ciabata was created less than 50 years ago, in 1982. Right from the start, it was created as a commercial product, with a single, specific, licensed recipe that specified precisely what flours to use. (Shockingly, it specified flours produced by mills owned by the creator of the bread!) Today, the specified flours have changed, and if you wanted to get close replicating that mix at home, you’d need to use a combination of flours made from hard and soft wheats originating in Italy, Canada, the US and Australia.
Today, many bakeries both across Italy and around the world make their own versions of ciabatta, often with pretty poor results. You’d be surprised how many bakeries in Italy produce shockingly bad versions of this amazing bread.
However, in my opinion to make a top quality ciabatta, there is little if any real benefit to developing a complex mix of four or more flours. Remember, the origin of the idea for using such a mix of flours was a commercial decision, not a culinary decision. It was about creating a commercial vehicle for using flours produced in the mills owned by the creator of the ciabatta!
If you want to try something a little bit more authentic than, say, using a strong King Arthur flour (which will give excellent results, by the way), here’s what I would suggest. First, try to find the Garofalo W 350 Type 00 flour that I use (see above). It’s really ideal for ciabatta, in my opinion. If you can’t find that, then I would suggest using a mix of two flours: any high protein Type 00 flour designed for pizza or bread making, along with some Manitoba flour (Manitoba flour is typically made from a Canadian wheat that has high quality gluten). Use a mix of 2 parts Manitoba flour and 1 part high protein Type 00 flour. A mix like that can give stunning results with my recipe.
Phew, well done making it to the end of that section! I bet you wished you’d never asked!
What makes ciabatta different from other bread?
Ciabatta stands out from other breads due to its incredible open, airy texture. The high hydration levels, combined with the method of working the dough, give rise to big, irregular air pockets in the finished bread. Because the dough is so “wet”, you need to use a lot of flour on the surface to prevent it sticking while its proofing. This coating of flour on the wet dough gives rise to the second key characteristic of ciabatta - its rough-textured, tree-bark like, crispy crust.
What are the ingredients in ciabatta bread?
There are many incorrect recipes for ciabatta on the Internet with incorrect ingredient lists. In 1982, when the creator of ciabatta, Arnaldo Cavallari, came up with his recipe, these are the ingredients he used: high gluten flour, water, salt, and yeast. That’s it. Four ingredients. No olive oil. No milk. Nothing else.
Should ciabatta be hard or soft?
Ciabatta should be soft on the inside, and crispy and crunchy on the outside crust. The soft interior crumb is at its best on the day of baking. However, you can refresh day or two old ciabatta by putting it in a hot oven for a few minutes.
My Top 5 Ways To Use Ciabatta
Sandwiches. Ciabatta was designed for use in sandwiches. Split it open horizontally, and add the fillings of your choice.
Grilled Panini. One of the most popular breads for using in grilled, pressed panini is ciabatta. Split the ciabatta open horizontally. Stack up your preferred meat, cheese, and maybe some pre-grilled veggies. Then heat in a panini grill press.
For dipping in olive oil. Served warm, and cut into small slices, ciabatta is a great way to start a meal. Dip in good olive oil, add a little flaky salt if you like, and maybe even a little good quality balsamic vinegar.
Garlic bread. Cut slices of ciabatta, and brush generously with a mixture of olive oil, finely crushed garlic, and optionally some finely chopped Italian flat leaf parsley. Bake in the oven until toasted.
Croutons for soups, salads or stuffings. When your ciabatta is a few days old, and starting to go stale, chop it into bite-sized rough cubes, toss it in olive oil and whatever seasonings you like e.g., herbs, garlic, grated Parmesan. Then bake or fry until crunchy.
