07/04/07

Yet Another Ciabatta

I continued my Ciabatta adventures after eating a loaf of Ciabatta with Pesto from Cedele Bakery. Even though there were loaves and loaves of sourdough and raisin bread at home which I had baked over the weekend, the sight of the Ciabatta in the shop overwhelmed me. Thoughts of how it would taste made me reached for my wallet.

The Ciabatta from Cedele did not disappoint and I was inspired to bake some for myself. I made the pesto in the heirloom mortar and pestle from my grandmother using Roasted Garlic, Oregano, Thyme, Basil, Rosemary and a very high grade olive oil given to me by a very generous friend. Unfortunately, I did not have pine nuts on had so some walnuts was used instead. Added some parmesan and voila!.

This time round, instead of using Jeffrey Hamelman's recipe, I decided to formulate my own recipe. I had made up 24 oz of poolish the night before and decided to use this for the Ciabatta. The total hydration of the dough was about 78% with about 2 tablespoon of olive oil.

My dough yielded 3 large loaves of Ciabatta with pesto

Another view of the Ciabatta

Very nice crumb texture. The shiny crumb is an indication of gelatinisation

A close up view of the pesto. The crust was slightly crunchy and the crumb texture was tender.

One more picture since we are at it.