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Ciabatta!

I made some ciabatta today using Jim Lahey's, "My Bread" cookbook. Interesting method, baked on a baking stone with a Romertopf clay baker over the bread. Came out quite tasty. Enjoy!

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Wow! Those are really nice! I have wondered about those cookers but never have come close to taking the plunge. The crust looks outstanding!

Did you have much trouble handling the dough? The times I have baked it I used a recipe from Carol Field's "Italian Baker". It was delicious...but hard to work.
 
No, it was actually pretty easy. There is minimal handling since there is very little kneading. The hardest part was getting the dough on the pizza stone. Other than that, not much to it.
 
Last loaf I made on a pizza stone was a soda bread (recipe that I won't use again unfortunately) but I turned the dough onto parchment paper then plopped the whole thing parchment and all onto the hot stone. I'm not sure if that takes away too much from the point of using the stone, but it was easier and I figured that I lost less oven heat than trying to toss the dough onto the stone right in the oven.
 
I love ciabatta. I especially like using it to mop up the sauce from my home made chicken cacciatore.

Just out of interest:

ciabatta
n noun a flattish, open-textured Italian bread, made with olive oil.

ORIGIN
Italian, literally 'slipper' (from its shape).
 
Last loaf I made on a pizza stone was a soda bread (recipe that I won't use again unfortunately) but I turned the dough onto parchment paper then plopped the whole thing parchment and all onto the hot stone. I'm not sure if that takes away too much from the point of using the stone, but it was easier and I figured that I lost less oven heat than trying to toss the dough onto the stone right in the oven.

Actually a lot of the recipes I have say to put the dough on parchment and to cook it directly on the parchment. I've done it before and seems to work pretty well.
 
I love ciabatta. I especially like using it to mop up the sauce from my home made chicken cacciatore.

Just out of interest:

We had it with some pasta and homemade marinara. Works great to sop up all the extra sauce. :drool:

In one of my cookbooks, ciabatta is described as Italian slipper bread. Apparently after the slippers worn by dancers in the area.
 
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