If there is one thing that French and Italian bakers really excel at then it is the production of aromatic white wheat bread. This recipe for ciabatta rolls is simple. It contains only four ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast. No bread improver needed!
But wait, this is a German food blog. Why do I share a ciabatta rolls recipe with you? It’s because I was tweaking the ciabatta rolls recipe in the first draft of the book “Hand Made Small Breads“. I’ve never baked ciabatta before but Robert, the main author, asked me to take a look at his recipe. He was not satisfied with his version yet.
The recipe in the book is based on the original recipe from Arnaldo Cavallari, the inventor of ciabatta. Robert had the chance to bake with Cavallari in his bakery in Italy. That’s where he picked up the recipe and method for ciabatta rolls (“Zoccoletti”).
Let’s get to the recipe
Before we can fix and tweak anything, we need to take a look at the recipe and identify potential problems:
As far as I can see:
- Robert decided to add rye sourdough to his ciabatta rolls. This is an ingredient not in the original recipe so that we are going to leave it out. The biga is flavorful enough by itself.
- The hydration is too low (roughly 65-70 %). We are going to aim for 75-85 % hydration.
- The amount of yeast is too high. We are going to cut down on that and replace the yeast for the biga with a firm sourdough starter.
- The bran is an optional ingredient. So we will leave it out.
- Robert tried to imitate ciabatta flour by using a blend of different flours. I can easily source ciabatta flour in Germany so that we will just use that.
1st attempt at optimizing the ciabatta rolls recipe
Ok, I have to admit it took me two attempts to fix the recipe. My initial goal was to increase the hydration to 80 %. Then I got a bit overconfident with adding water to the dough during mixing. The end result was a dough with 92 % hydration (300 grams of water to 325 grams of flour). The dough consistency was “soupy” but I felt confident that I could handle it.
After a few stretches and folds during bulk fermentation, the dough had some stability but it was very soft. I managed to cut it into bread rolls and left them to proof for half an hour. I had never baked ciabatta rolls before so I was not 100 % certain how long to proof them. The dough was still stable and expanded a bit in the oven, but I instantly knew that I wanted the ciabatta rolls to have more height and show more oven spring.
The end results of the first batch were ciabatta rolls that tasted delicious but the crumb was not as airy as I wanted it to turn out. It was too dense around the larger air bubbles.
2nd attempt at optimizing the ciabatta rolls recipe
For the second attempt, I forced myself to stick with 80 % hydration. I resisted the temptation to add more water during mixing. At 80 % hydration, the dough was still soupy but it developed great structure and dough strength during bulk fermentation.
Cutting the dough into ciabatta rolls was easy to do and, this time, I decreased the proofing time to 15 minutes. The end result was astonishing. The crumb structure was much better than in the first batch.
As you can see, it’s the small details that have a big impact on the final result. So please, don’t follow my recipe blindly. Follow your hands and instincts. They will guide you to delicious ciabatta rolls.
My next task is now to incorporate wheat bran and maybe attempt the recipe with different flours. But that is a story for another time.
A quick note on the flour that I used
The ciabatta flour that I use in Germany is a mixture of German soft wheat flour and finely-milled Italian semolina. You can feel that the dough structure is a bit more coarse than usual because of the semolina (In Germany we call that “griffig”). The flour is from a local mill and of fine quality. The protein content is 11.5 grams per 100 grams of flour (11.5 %). And that is only thanks to the protein-rich semolina! I know that 11.5 % protein is not insanely high by American standards but it is very strong for a German flour. The standard white soft wheat flour (German Type 550) that I use has a protein content of 9.8 %.
I say this because I often see on the internet that American people get obsessed with the protein content in flour. But too much protein makes the bread chewier and less fluffy. You don’t need a protein content of 12 % or higher to bake ciabatta. In fact, I am very satisfied with my white wheat flour that contains 9.8 % protein. It produces soft and fluffy bread.
I never buy flour because it advertises a certain protein content. I buy flour from local millers where I know that the wheat is from Southern Germany, organic, and has a great taste. Bread is a wholesome food and so should the ingredients be. Don’t cheap out on flour and support small local millers!
How to blend your own ciabatta flour
Let’s assume that you can’t buy ciabatta flour with a protein content of 11.5 %. It’s very easy to calculate the ratio for blending semolina flour and white soft wheat flour. Let’s assume we have a German Type 550 flour with a protein content of 9.8 % and a finely-milled semolina flour from Italy with a protein content of 14 %. Using the variable x as the mass fraction, we get:
11.5 = 9.8 x + 14 (1-x)
11.5 = 9.8 x + 14 – 14 x
4.2 x = 2.5
x = 0.5995
So we have to blend 60 % white soft wheat flour (9.8 % protein) with 40 % finely-milled semolina flour (14 % protein) to end up with a flour that has a protein content of 11.5 %.
9.8 * 0.6 + 14 * 0.4 = 11.48
Please consider that the semolina needs to be finely milled semolina flour (“Hartweizen FEINGRIEß“/ “Semola rimacinata di grano duro“) not the coarsely milled semolina (“Hartweizengrieß”) that you use for pasta or semolina dumplings.
Ciabatta Rolls (‘Ciabatta Brötchen’)
Ingredients
For the biga:
- 5 grams (0.2 ounces) firm wheat sourdough starter (ideally 60 % hydration)
- 60 grams (2.1 ounces) water, at 35 °C (95 °F)
- 95 grams (3.4 ounces) ciabatta flour
For the final dough:
- 300 grams (10.6 ounces) water, at room temperature
- 350 grams (12.3 ounces) ciabatta flour
- 9 grams (0.3 ounces) salt
- 6 grams (0.2 ounces) fresh yeast
For greasing bowls and fingers:
- olive oil
Instructions
Prepare the biga:
- The day before you plan to bake, whisk together the sourdough starter and water for the biga. Combine with the flour and briefly mix until no dry spots remain. Cover and leave the biga to ferment at room temperature between 16-22 hours.
Mix and knead the final dough:
- In a bowl, combine the water and flour for the final dough. Mix until no dry spots remain and leave the mixture to sit, covered, for 30 minutes at room temperature (autolyse). Add the biga, salt, and yeast to the dough and knead the dough gently until smooth and elastic, about 6-10 minutes by machine. You should be able to stretch out the dough very thinly without tearing it. Don’t worry if the dough has a “soupy” consistency at this stage. After kneading, the dough temperature should ideally only be 22-24 °C (70-75 °F), thanks to the gentle kneading. If you’re attempting this recipe in summer, consider using chilled flour or water to prevent the dough from getting too hot.
Bulk ferment the ciabatta dough:
- Grease a small plastic or glass bowl with olive oil and transfer the kneaded dough into it. Bulk ferment the ciabatta dough for 3-3.5 hours at room temperature, until airy and bubbly. Stretch and fold the dough 4 times without deflating it. Do this with olive-oiled hands 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes into bulk fermentation. In the last hour of bulk fermentation, the dough should be allowed to rise uninterrupted so that large air bubbles can develop.
- Preheat your oven with baking stone or steel inside to 250 °C (480 °F). Place a tray filled with water on the bottom of the oven to generate steam.
Shape and proof the ciabatta dough:
- Gently transfer the risen dough onto a floured work surface without deflating it. Cut into 8 rectangles with a greased dough scraper. Place the bread rolls on a baker’s couche and leave them to proof uncovered for 10-15 minutes.
Bake the ciabatta rolls:
- Gently transfer the ciabatta rolls onto your preheated baking stone or steel. Spray the oven with water and bake the ciabatta rolls at 250 °C (480 °F) for 10 minutes. Then remove the tray with water from the oven and continue to bake the ciabatta rolls at 250 °C (480 °F) until browned to your liking, about 5-10 more minutes.
- Once you’ve taken the rolls out of the oven, lightly spray them with water to give them a nice sheen. Leave to cool down completely before eating them.
Great read Tim.
Can this recipe be made with 00 flour @3%protien mixed with Semola, for the making of the biga and the final formula, omitting the sourdough process?
Thanks Harold
Thanks Harold!
Yes this recipe can be made with 00 flour. You might not even need the semola if the protein content of the flour is more than 11 %. I assume your 00 flour has 13 % protein and not 3 %? This is a strong flour by European standards and should work perfectly for Ciabatta. In Europe, it’s necessary to blend because the local flour here is weaker than in North America. But blending a bit of semola with 00 flour can never hurt in terms of flavor (maybe sub around 10-30 % of the 00 flour with semola at first to see how it works).
If you don’t have a sourdough, then you can substitute the sourdough starter with a tiny bit of yeast (not much more than a very small pinch of dry yeast or a pea-sized ball of fresh yeast) and leave the yeasted biga in the fridge overnight to ferment. I wouldn’t omit the biga because it adds most of the flavor. If you leave out the biga, then the rolls might taste a little bland but it is possible to make these rolls without pre-ferment by combining all the ingredients at once.
I hope this helps. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reply back. – Tim