Olive, lemon and rosemary ciabatta
The recipe for this loaf comes from the Handmade Bakery in Slaithwaite, just five miles from Huddersfield. This artisan bakery is run as a co-operative along the lines of a Community Supported Agriculture Scheme where people from the local community are an integral part of the business - they work in it, buy their bread from it and have a say in how it is run. All the bread is real bread - slow fermented for between 16 and 24 hours and made from ethically sourced ingredients. The bakery has become successful enough to expand. Bread bonds were sold to raise £40,000 to convert a canal side warehouse into a beautiful open plan bakery, cafe and training school. A well organised kitchen garden flanks the front of the warehouse and the produce is used to make dishes for the cafe. As customers eat their meals they can see the bakers at work kneading, turning and baking the beautiful loaves. The bakery has won several awards and was runner up in the BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards in 2011.
This ciabatta recipe is not for the feint hearted. It is made with a very wet dough. I make stage two of the dough in a Magimix food processor with a dough attachment. When the kneading has been done the dough looks unpromising sloppy but if you oil your hands and a wooden chopping board before turning out, and then mix in the olives, lemon rind and herbs it comes together like wobbly jelly. The thin coat of olive oil helps the dough keep its shape and then it begins to behave itself and rise beautifully. This is the best ciabatta recipe I have tried and it freezes really well. It has saved me a fortune in buying ciabatta from the shops - that is if I can find any. Three cheers for the Baker Revolutionaries of Slaithwaite.
To make Olive, lemon and rosemary ciabatta
Makes 2 ciabatta or 6 ciabattini
For the sponge
200g strong white flour
115g cool water
4g salt
a very small pinch of dry instant yeast or 1.5g fresh yeast
For the dough
300g strong white flour
4g dried instant yeast or 8g fresh yeast
6g salt
5g sugar
260g warm water
315g sponge fermented overnight (from above)
150g of good quality black olives mixed with the rind of a ½ unwaxed lemon and a pinch of dried thyme
10g olive oil
a spring of fresh rosemary, flaked sea salt and olive oil for the top dressing
Making the dough - Stage 1
Mix all the ingredients for the sponge and leave it to ferment at 18C for 8 to 12 hours (overnight).
Making the dough - Stage 2
Mix the dry ingredients for the dough, then add enough of the water to form a coherent mass. Once the ingredients have been thoroughly incorporated add the prefermented sponge in small lumps and start kneading. If you have suitable mixer with a dough hook, use it, because you need to develop the gluten into a very strong network in order to hold the large bubbles of gas in such a wet dough. Once you have a strong well developed dough that has stopped sticking to the bowl or your hands add the remaining water and the olive oil in very small increments. You should end up with a wet but manageable dough with a silky sheen. Fold in the olives at this point. You may want to roughly chop them before adding them to the dough but you do not have to.
Dry, black olives, lemon rind and rosemary make this bread taste fantastic
Mixing in olives, and lemon rind. Bread scrapers are really useful as the dough is still quite wet
Oil a clean bowl and place the dough in it. Cover with a lightly oiled plastic supermarket bag or another bowl and leave to rise in a warm place for an hour. If your kitchen is warm enough you can leave the dough to rise on an oiled chopping board covered with a large, clean up turned bowl.
Proving dough under an upturned bowl
Take the dough out and gently stretch it on a floured work surface. This squeezes some of the gas from the dough and helps to strengthen and further stretch the gluten.
Fold the dough back on itself as if you were folding a business letter. You may need a dough scraper to help you with this as the dough may still be quite sticky. Return the dough to the oiled bowl, cover with the oiled plastic bag and leave to rise in a warm place for another hour or until doubled in size.
Tip the dough onto a heavily floured surface. Sprinkle the top lightly with flour. Cut into two pieces (or six if you are making ciabattini) and place them on floured baking parchment on baking trays. Heavily flour the tops and leave to rest for 5 minutes. Then gently stretch the loaves lengthways to create the ‘slipper’ shape – ciabatta is Italian for slipper. Leave covered in a warm place for 30 minutes or until the loaf is well risen.
Sprinkle over the rosemary, seas salt and dribble with olive oil. Bake on trays in an oven preheated to 230C/gas mark 8 for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
ps....... here is some bruschetta made with this lovely bread. Toast day old, or older bread, rub with garlic and top with your favourite toppings. Here I have used, roasted butternut squash and goats cheese with dressed salad leaves, dried cranberries and toasted pumpkin seeds strewn over the top.
