Making Ciabatta bread

update 28/5/2020

I'm trying a wetter mix to see what that is like, same as usual but instead of 440g water, 480 g of water and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt instead of 1 teaspoon.

A much wetter mix , will see how that comes out. 3 x rises as well.

From this article

Ciabatta bread

I have been trying to make Ciabatta bread now for a couple of months.

I have watched quite a few videos and worked it down to 3 recipes.
The first was a no knead process.
This was really dense, tated fine straight out of oven but not very flavorsome once it had cooled. Two attempts then I moved on to the 2nd recipe. Also note, I was using plain flour instead of High Grade Flour (that's what they call it in NZ)
The second was all done the same day. I had trouble with my dough rising and also it was very dense and loaves small. It did not taste that great when it cooled. It did not have airy pockets in the bread but was dense like a normal loaf. Flat too, it was not rounded and did not rise. I had 2-3 tries at this. Plain flour here too.

then  decided to be patient and follow John Kirkwood's video :

• It seems more complicated, at first, from the other methods.
• Once you have the routine of it, it is easy to do.
• The results are far superior to the other methods, and that is what it is all about, getting a bread that you want to eat.

Poolish-Overnight on top shelf of fridge

• 200g flour
• 200g water
• 7g fresh yeast or 1/4 teaspoon dry

next day add the following and mix

• 240 g water
• 350g flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

The first couple of times I allowed it to stand for 3 hours, now I've purchased the mixer I can do that part in about 10-12 minutes
In mixer John Kirkwood 

• 1 min slow
• 1 minute next slow speed
• then next speed for 4 min until dough releases from sides

I found it took about 10-12 minutes for the dough to be released from the base , but my mixer is a baby compared to the one on the video.
1 teaspoon olive oil for bowl then dough in bowl to rise.
 Then 45 min rest then knead

• Then 45min rest then knead
• Then take out and flour outside and shape to square from sides and split into 2
• put on couche for 20min

Here I just have a tea towel with rolled up tea towels under to make the divide and rest on baking paper, that way I do not need lots of flour for this part of the process.

• oven 230 deg C and water in bottom and spray.
• 12min, turn loaves around and swap shelves. Then
• 6 min more- min 18min max 25 min

Then out and rest and eat, yum.

This recipe. 

I made it 3 times  before I got it right, now ithas become a little more routine.
First time, it didn't rise much, then I realised that I had put a tablespoon of salt, rather than a teaspoon of salt, so a dense loaf. I realised later that the salt had killed the yeast, hence the no-rise.
I had also gone out and got high grade flour for the recipe. In NZ it is about 11.5% protein, not the 12.5% that John Kirkwood talks about.
 I was using the dry yeast. So I decided to test the yeast to see that it was alright. John Kirkwood had a video on this. It was fine. That is when I realised about the salt.
Second time, pretty successful, but this was standing for 3 hours instead of mixing, and a very wet mixture. Loaves were formed correctly and air gaps in the loaves too. I also decided to use Fresh Yeast instead from the supermarket.

Third time also very successful, and with the mixer. I thought the dough was easier, and drier than the standing method and was easier to work with.

4th time- 10th March 19  minimal rise. It was a cold day and room temp about 17deg C so better to let rise/proove in HWC cupboard which is a bit warmer.
I do find the loaves small compared to the shop bought ones, but as its only for me that's fine. 

Making butter. 2 ingredients

 I followed the recipe of John Kirkwood on his video below:
End result, lovely although it could have used more salt for my taste.
 For 500ml of cream I got 220g of butter.
The cream cost $3.25 and you can buy 500g of butter for $5.50 so, in New Zealand the economics do not quite stack up at present.
So, only to be used on special occasions.
Easy and fun to do.




I bought a mixer from the Warehouse, the making of butter was the justification as I'd been making Ciabatta bread by hand and didn't feel that on its own it would justify buying the mixer.
So, following his demonstration I used:

•  500ml of cream from  Pak'nSave
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

In the video I think he mentions thick cream, but I could only find one type of cream on the shelf, so I used that.
The mixer is 350 w so not that powerful. In the video it took about 4 minutes to churn the butter, with my mixer it took about 15-18 minutes. I also had to scrape the sides down as it was working a central bit of whipped cream and a lot on the sides was not moving.
Otherwise all went the same, my butter clustered in bigger lumps, maybe because of the slower mixing (it was on the top speed).
I appreciate what he said about it possibly splashing all over the kitchen when it separated from the buttermilk.
The final weight was 220g.
I know 500g of butter is about $5-6$ Nz, so I'm not sure that this is a saving.
I'm waiting for my bread to be baked and then I'll do the tasting test. It definitely looks good though.
Tasting, fresh Ciabatta from the oven and homemade butter. YUM.
 But, not enough salt in the butter for my taste, so I'll have to raise the salt content for the next time.