Quick and Easy Ciabatta

Quick and Easy Ciabatta

(Recipe from Pease Pudding)

500 grams strong flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon active yeast
450 mL warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil

Place all of the dry ingredients into a large bowl and stir to combine.

Combine the warm water and yeast. Let it sit for five minutes, until it gets frothy.

Pour the yeast mixture into the flour and begin to mix it with one hand. This is a very liquid mixture and is not kneaded like normal bread dough - you mix it with a method that other people call beating. Basically, you grab at the mixture and stretch it up, then slap it back down. You keep doing this for about 5 minutes.

Scrape the mixture off your hand and scrape down the sides of the bowl too. Drizzle the olive oil and then gently spread it around so that it covers the mixture as evenly as possible, right to the very edges.

Let the dough rise for 30 minutes, or until it is double in size.

When your dough is doubled in size you need to prepare a large tray by sprinkling it very liberally with flour. Pour the dough onto it. Then carefully scoop up a side of the dough and fold it over the rest of the dough. Do this for each side of the dough, so that you have a folded-up envelope-like loaf of dough.

Let the dough rise for another 20 minutes or so. While it rises, pre-heat the oven to about 180 degrees celsius.

Bake the dough for 30 to 40 minutes.

When the bread is done let it sit for half an hour so that it can dry out in the centre a little before eating.