ciabatta bread

[Daniel]

I am in the middle of baking ciabatta bread.. I have a few loaves going right now and have a couple more to go.. I am using a regular kitchen oven and have found the bottoms of the bread to be over moist.. I am thinking that the water bath i am using is making the bottoms too soggy,, Has anyone had this problem.. I just removed the water bath in hopes to solve my problem.. Or should i flip the bread and put the bottom on top.

[jackal10]

What water bath?

If its steam in the oven you need, then a half a cup or water throen onto the hot bricks or a hot cast iron pan will do. You pnly need a burst of steam at the very beginning of the bake to gelatanise the crust.

Cibatta is a very wet dough. You need to bake it with direct contact to a hot pizza stone or bricks on a shelf, pre-heated.

It sounds like the bread is not cooked long enough, so maybe the oven is too hot, I get best results around 220C., and bake for around half an hour to 40 minutes for a cibatta

Additionally it important to let the bread cool on a wire grid, so that the final moisture can evaporate.

Edited January 31, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[chiantiglace]

If you don't have a stone, try this.

Put about 3 sheet pans in the oven 20 minutes before baking, then put your ciabatta loaved pan ontop of the 3 heated pans to help generate a thourough heat underneath.

Also, yea you don't need a water bath even though i have done that before for some lean doughs that were underproofed. Just get a spray bottle filled with water and right when you throw the dough in spray down the oven with the spray bottle and shut the door quickly.

Edited January 31, 2005 by chiantiglace (log)

[polack]

I've seen Nancy Silverton put parchment paper on the top of the bread and after 15 minutes she removed the paper and rotated the bread for even baking. I tried it when I made a loaf and it was successfel for me. I also used Jackal's idea of putting a cast iron pan in the oven for the water steam bath, and didn't open the oven until 15 min., when I removed the parchment and rotated the bread.

Polack

Edited January 31, 2005 by polack (log)

[ellencho]

If its steam in the oven you need, then a half a cup or water throen onto the hot bricks or a hot cast iron pan will do. You pnly need a burst of steam at the very beginning of the bake to gelatanise the crust.

I always wondered about this: If you have a heated pizza stone and you splashed hot water onto it or sprayed it with water, wouldn't it crack?

I use an aluminum 8x8 pan filled with water for my ciabatta too but I have never had an issue with soggy bread. Were the ciabatta loaves on top of some sort of ceramic baking stone? Or were they on metal pans?

[chiantiglace]

It wont make soggy bread, it's just not nescesary. It only brings the humidity of the oven up, doesn't put off too much steam. Bursting water onto heated plates inside the oven will give plenty of steam for the first ten seconds (recommended) as jackal said.