My latest obsession

Ciabatta yeahhh!

For the past little while, I haven't been doing a whole lot of cooking. Tired and lazy.  So, I haven't had many opportunities to spend quality time in the kitchen.  Except...

I've caught the bread fever.  

Peter Reinhart is America's god of artisan bread.  He's an instructor and has written several easy-to-understand, well-reviewed books.  His most recent one, The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread, was my Christmas gift this year.  

I never knew there was so much potential in flour, water, yeast, and salt.  There is a real science and technique behind making different types of breads of various textures and flavours, and Reinhart really explains how to make the perfect crusty, slightly chewy, and almost melt-in-your-mouth bread that you've always been dreaming of. It is truly a book for bread nerds, takes a bit more time and detail than with regular bread recipes, but it pays off.

Tonight I made ciabatta for the third time, and this is definitely the best batch I've made so far.  I didn't realize that ciabatta is a very sticky dough, with about 80% hydration - that's how you get the lovely large holes that are so characteristic of this type of bread.  There so many other aspects of the bread making process that must be considered, from making the pre-ferment, to prepping the oven to create a warm steam environment for the bread to bake inside, to adequately cooling the finished bread to allow for proper gelatinization of the starches (not good when you want so badly to tear into it the moment it comes out of the oven).

Pinch My Salt writes up a good posting on the ciabatta, so give it a try! Or if you're serious, I recommend picking it up. It's incredibly informative, and it's a real sense of accomplishment when you take that first bite of what was an inedible lump just hours before. I'm really looking forward to getting through a few more of the recipes, including baguette, cinnamon buns, and challah.