CIABATTA

Directions

Place the flour together with the grated brewer’s yeast (or dry brewer’s yeast) in a large bowl. Make a pit in the center and add the olive oil, honey, and gradually all the water. Mix well with a spoon and, when the dough is ready, add the salt. Knead quickly with our hands even if the dough is quite sticky. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and let it rise in the fridge for 12 hours or at room temperature for 4 hours. Once the rising time has passed (it will have made a lot of bubbles), we take the dough, deflate it with our hands, and place it on a well-floured surface, kneading for 5 minutes and creating a ball. Cover the dough with a towel and let it rise for about an hour in the oven with the light on. Then divide the ball into four equal parts. We take each part and open it so that we have a rectangle. We roll up the rectangle from the long side and do the same with the four pieces of dough. Place the rolls of dough on a baking tray with baking paper, covered with a floured towel, and let it rise for another 40 minutes. Then make a cut with a sharp knife on the surface of the ciabatta bread. Preheat the oven to 200°C and place a pot of water on the bottom level of the oven. When the oven is hot, bake the ciabatta for 20 minutes. Then remove the pot with the water and continue baking for another 10 minutes until the ciabatta gets a golden color. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely before cutting.

VARIATIONS AND TIPS

You can use either dry brewer’s yeast or fresh brewer’s yeast. Use a little warm water for the dough. The amount of water can vary slightly depending on how the flour absorbs it. If you want to speed up the rising, you can let the dough rise in the oven with the light off instead of in the refrigerator.