Spelt Ciabatta
Author: Pizza Today
Recipe type: Breads
Ingredients
- 4 cups high gluten pizza flour or “00” flour (622 grams)
- 3 cups spelt or whole wheat flour (306 grams)
- 3 teaspoons salt (22 grams)
- 32 ounces ice water, either 40F or below (906 grams)
- 2 teaspoons yeast (9 grams)
Instructions
- Mix everything together with a dough hook on low speed for 10 minutes, then on medium speed for another 10 minutes.
- After mixing, use your wet hands to transfer the high hydrated mix to a round or square dough tub used for bulk fermentation. Coat the top with a little oil and plastic wrap to ensure crust does not form during the cold fermentation. Leave for 24 hours in the refrigerator.
- The next day, pull the dough out and dab the oil off the top of the dough with a towel. Using wet hands, mix the dough upon itself by grabbing an edge, pulling up as high as you can and fold the dough upon itself in the middle. Use this method going around 3-4 times until the dough becomes a bit stiffer, and the gluten net feels stronger. Place the plastic back on top of the container and let sit at a room-temperature of 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit for 2-3 hours until the dough mass has doubled. You will start to see the activity in the box such as large bubbles and expanding dough.
- Flour the dough table well and tip the container over letting the “Blob” pour (for lack of a better word,) out of the box and onto the floured table. Use a wet dough scraper to make this easier. Once the dough is on the floured surface you will no longer use a wet scraper or hands.
- Pre-heat a deck oven to 500 F and the timer to 8 minutes.
- Take a large 18 x 26-inch sheet tray and cover with parchment paper.
- Remembering that this is 98% hydrated dough, flour the blob well on the top and bottom. Using flour covered hands, form the blob into a vertical rectangle of approximately 10 X 10 inches in front of you. It will be approximately 2-3 inches thick. Push your plastic scraper underneath the dough to ensure it is not sticky. If you feel any stickiness under and on top of the dough, immediately apply flour to it. Do not press into the dough even if you see bubbles.
- Cut vertically down the rectangle to form two large ciabatta.
- Slide each flour covered hand under each end and pick up while supporting the middle also. Place the ciabatta across the sheet pan keeping it on the parchment.
- Place the other ciabatta next to it. (Option: you may cut 4 ciabatta out of this blob if you want.)
- Proof the ciabatta tray for another 10-20 minutes in a warmer place like atop your oven or in a 90-degree proofer for one last proof. Make sure the dough doesn’t spread out or get too crusty. If it does, coax it back with floured hands or scraper.
- After the final proof, place the bread on the tray into the oven (preferably with steam) and bake for 8 minutes then turn the temperature down to 475 for another 10 minutes. Check the crust for a deep golden brown and use the thermometer to see if the interior has reached over 200F.
- Pull the ciabatta out of the oven and let the bread cool off before cutting into it.
