Years ago when I pulled my first loaf of Ciabatta out of my oven and inhaled that fresh baked Ciabatta aroma - oh there really is a very distinctive Ciabatta aroma different from other fresh bread - I was nearly knocked off my feet.  On my way to a yoga class, I popped a still warm loaf into a paper bag and gave it to my teacher.  Talk about knock you off your feet and swell with pride:  Oh, what kind of bread? ... Smells like Ciabatta.   I thought I’d made the big time if I could bake Ciabatta and somebody could recognize it by the smell.

I get the Ciabatta aroma every time I bake this bread ... what I don’t always get are the HOLES.  Right.  The aroma is characteristic and holes are suppose to be characteristic too.  I’ve gotten the holes but I have not reached Ciabatta nirvana with any consistency.

Characteristic aroma and taste are coming from the time spent developing flavors in either a Pollish or a biga, I’ve done it both ways.  I did it with a Pollish this time.

I use a square clear plastic rising box for this bread because of the folding technique.  I flour the bottom of the box well.

The fold is called a “letter fold” because the dough is stretched out into a rectangle shape and then folded into thirds like you would fold a letter for an envelop.

It’s folded three times and allowed to rise.  Gets pretty puffy.

I divided the dough into three loaves.  The dough is again stretched and folded in thirds.

Gentle handling of the dough is always in order.  Normally I might heat both ovens and do two loaves on my stone and one in the lower oven on clay tiles BUT it’s HOT here - I thought I could trick myself and set thermometers on C° but I discovered 38°C is just as HOT as 101°F.  SOOOO, I determined to try and get all three loaves into one oven.   I’ve always thought this was asking to much of my dexterity.  What I tried and found worked very well was putting each stretched loaf onto it’s own separate piece of parchment and then sliding each one separately onto the stone.  The parchment allowed for slight repositioning without deflating the dough!

Foiled by the Hole Eating Monster ...

Holes or no holes, this is really excellent bread.

My favorite way to enjoy a loaf of Ciabatta ... share it with my husband for our favorite sandwich.

The recipe can be found on Google Books but buy the book, if you enjoy breads and baking breads, it’s one of the most recommended and one I’ve turned to many times long before the BBA Challenge.

The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge is the brain child of Nicole at  Pinch My Salt.  You can see what we’re baking this week at our Flickr group, on Twitter (#BBA), or check out the challenge page.

A sampling of other BBA posts on Ciabatta:

Appoggiatura

Big Black Dog

I think I’m about to misbehave.  Yes, I’m begging off the Challah Bread.  Banish me to the garage like the puppy dog.  It’s just that I’ve done Challah fairly recently with the Babes and I’ve even done this BBA recipe but haven’t blogged it.  I just need to keep moving and the Ciabatta was calling my name so much louder than the Challah.

Have a Happy Fourth of July and everyday.

This goes to Susan at WildYeast for her weekly Yeast Spotting.  I’ve come to look at the weekly Yeast Spotting as a delightful trip to a Bakery Wonderland!  If you’re not familiar with Susan and Yeast Spotting, it’s explained here.