What is ciabatta, cooking features. TOP 7 best Italian bread recipes. How to serve it?
Ciabatta is a traditional Italian bread famous for its crispy crust and airy crumb. That is why it is also often called airy bread. Translated from Italian "ciabatta" means "carpet slippers". But even this rather strange translation has an explanation. After all, outwardly, it looks like flat slippers, the nose of which is slightly raised. The main advantage of bread is that it contains a minimum of calories compared to other varieties: the energy value of ciabatta is only 262 kcal per 100 grams of product.
Features of cooking ciabatta
Initially, ciabatta was baked in a special stone oven. This bread consisted of wheat flour, yeast and olive oil. Today, housewives know much more ways to bake ciabatta. To do this, you can use an oven, multicooker or bread maker.
It is not necessary to use wheat flour; for homemade ciabatta, you can also use buckwheat, whole grain or rye. Yeast is often replaced with wheat sourdough.
Another feature of the preparation is that the dough in this case is prepared in several stages. Initially, they make the leaven for it, and then the dough itself. It turns out to be rather bland, since salt and sugar are not used in this case.
It is also worth noting that initially the sourdough dough should not be tight, it is more liquid in consistency. It is somewhat reminiscent of pancake dough.
Fresh yeast is used to prepare ciabatta. From dry, it will turn out to be less airy. Also, you need to add cold, even ice water to the dough. And after kneading, it is not customary to put the dough in the refrigerator. On the contrary, it is left for a couple of hours in a warm place.
TOP 7 recipes for ciabatta
There are many recipes for making ciabatta with different types of flour and different fillings. To your attention TOP-7 Italian bread recipes.
The classic Italian ciabatta recipe
This Italian ciabatta recipe is a classic homemade Italian bread in the oven.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 262 kcal.
- Servings - 10
- Cooking time - 5-6 hours
Ingredients:
- Wheat flour - 300 g for sourdough and 600 g for dough
- Ice water - 300 ml for sourdough and 350 ml for dough
- Fresh yeast - 6 g for sourdough and 9 g for dough
- Whole grain flour - for dusting
Step by step preparation of ciabatta according to the classic recipe:
- First, prepare the leaven. We need a small deep vessel. Pour wheat flour into it.
- Dissolve yeast in water and pour into a bowl with flour. Stir thoroughly until smooth. The sourdough should be similar in consistency to pancake dough.
- Cover the dish with cling film and leave in a warm place for 2-3 hours. During this time, the leaven will darken slightly and fill with bubbles.
- To prepare the dough, dissolve the yeast in water and leave for 10 minutes. After the expiration of time, pour out the liquid to the leaven.
- Add flour, stir well. Next, we continue to knead the dough by hand. It should be of a uniform consistency.
- We leave the dough in a bowl, cover with cling film and again leave in a warm place for an hour.
- Next, you need to prepare the work surface, for this we sprinkle it with whole grain flour. Divide the dough into 10 approximately equal parts. We form a rectangle from each. Cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for another 1, 5-2 hours. During this time, it should rise.
- Preheat the oven to 240 degrees. Cover the baking sheet with parchment, which must be sprinkled a little with whole grain flour. We shift the dough. Before placing it in the oven, it must be sprinkled with water a little. For this, you can use a spray bottle. This is done so that the crust on the bread does not appear ahead of time.
- We bake in a well-heated oven at a temperature of 220-240 degrees for 5 minutes. We reduce the temperature to 180-160 degrees and bake for another 8 minutes. Open the oven and bake for another 5 minutes. This will make the crust crispier.
Ciabatta on wheat flour in a bread maker
Ciabatta in a bread machine is one of the most convenient options for preparing this dish. Since you don't have to knead the dough by hand, the bread maker will do just fine. This recipe is designed for the Moulinex apparatus.
Ingredients:
- Wheat flour - 250 g
- Water - 180 ml
- Dry yeast - 1 tsp
- Olive oil - for lubrication
Step by step preparation of ciabatta on wheat flour in a bread maker:
- Put water, flour and yeast in the container of the bread machine. In this case, it is necessary to adhere to exactly this order.
- For the ciabatta, choose program no. 2. As for the color of the crust, we choose it according to our own taste. After that, press the "Start" button. The bread maker will knead the dough with this program for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
- After the time has elapsed, the dough must be taken out and divided into 2 parts. Put both parts of the dough on a flat tray, which must first be formed into rectangles and anointed with olive oil.
- Press the "Start" button again. The ciabatta will be ready in 30 minutes.
It's important to know! The order in which the ingredients are added depends on the manufacturer of the bread machine. Each comes with a recipe book, where you can see the order.
Rye ciabatta
As you know, it is not necessary to use only wheat flour to make Italian bread. If you add a little rye, you get an incredibly tasty and aromatic rye ciabatta.
Ingredients:
- Milk 2, 5% - 250 ml
- Warm water - 125 ml
- Fresh yeast - 5 g
- Malt (liquid extract) - 1.5 tbsp
- Vegetable oil - 3 tablespoons
- Rye flour - 150 g
- Wheat flour - 400 g
- Sunflower seeds - 2 tsp
- Pumpkin seeds - 2 tsp
- Dried Bulgarian pepper - 1 tsp
- Provencal herbs - 1 tsp
Step by step preparation of rye ciabatta:
- First you need to prepare a large deep vessel. In it we mix milk, vegetable oil, liquid malt and yeast. Fill with water and mix thoroughly.
- Add rye flour, stirring well. Then we gradually introduce wheat and continue to knead the dough.
- Next, add seeds and Provencal herbs. We continue to knead the dough by hand. It will turn out to be quite thick, although it will be watery in consistency.
- Wrap the dough with cling film, leave in a bowl. It is important that it is large enough as the dough will rise. We leave for 12 hours in a warm place. Little tip: it's better to knead it in the evening.
- Over time, the dough will become more fluffy and increase in size. We take it out of the film and transfer it to a work surface that has been previously floured. Sprinkle the dough with flour and divide it into 2 parts, from which we form rectangles.
- Cover the baking sheet with parchments, add a little flour to it and spread the dough.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Pour a glass of water into a bowl and put it on the bottom of the oven. This will make the ciabatta more airy. When the water begins to evaporate, place the ciabatta baking sheet in the oven for 30 minutes.
- After this time, the water must be removed, and the ciabatta must be left for another 15 minutes. 5 minutes before cooking, you can open the oven door slightly. This will make the crust on the ciabatta crisper.
Ciabatta with cheese
Don't forget that you can use a variety of fillings when baking Italian bread. Ciabatta with cheese is a safe bet.
Ingredients:
- Wheat flour - 270 g
- Water - 200 ml
- Grated cheese - 50 g
- Dry yeast - 7 g
- Provencal herbs to taste
Step by step preparation of ciabatta with cheese:
- Dissolve yeast in water and leave for 10-15 minutes. Add flour, stirring well.
- Then we add cheese and Provencal herbs. And we begin to manually knead the dough. It will be a little runny.
- We wrap the dough with cling film and leave in a warm place for 2 hours. It should rise and become more porous.
- We prepare the work surface by sprinkling with flour. We spread the dough on it, divide it into 3 parts and shape it into rectangles.
- Cover the baking sheet with parchment and spread the ciabatta on it. We form sides between each ciabatta using a piece of parchment.
- We bake at 200 degrees for 30 minutes. You can open the oven door 5 minutes before it is ready - this will make the crust more crispy.
Ciabatta on beer
If you add beer to the dough, it will turn out to be incredibly aromatic and softer. Ciabatta on beer is a vivid proof of this.
Ingredients:
- Wheat flour - 500 g
- Light beer - 300 ml
- Fresh yeast - 40 g
- Egg - 1 pc.
- Olive oil - 5 tablespoons
Step-by-step preparation of ciabatta with beer:
- First you need to make a dough. To do this, dissolve the yeast in beer and leave for 15-20 minutes. Add flour, stirring thoroughly. We leave in a warm place for half an hour.
- We take a deep dish, pre-oiled with olive oil. Put the dough into it, the egg and pour in a little olive oil. Mix everything until smooth. Knead the dough by hand for 10 minutes. After that, cover the dish with cling film and leave it in a warm place for another 1.5 hours.
- After the expiration of time, we spread the dough on the work surface, previously sprinkled with flour. You don't need to knead it anymore, add a little flour to it.
- Divide the dough into 3 parts, each of them give a rectangular shape, such as that of a ciabatta. Sprinkle with flour, cover with cling film and leave for another half hour in a warm place.
- During this time, the dough should swell a little. We spread it on a baking sheet, which was previously covered with parchment and sprinkled with flour.
- We bake in the oven for 35 minutes at 180 degrees. Then open the oven door a little and bake for another 5 minutes. This will give the ciabatta a golden crust.
Italian bruschetta with prosciutto
In Italy, ciabatta is used to make a world-famous appetizer called bruschetta. The following recipe is especially popular.
Ingredients:
- Ciabatta - 1 pc.
- Arugula - to taste
- Processed cheese, sliced in portions - 140 g
- Prosciutto - 100 g
- Sun-dried tomatoes - 50 g.
- Olive oil - 3 tablespoons
- Basil - to taste
- Pine nuts to taste
Step by step preparation of bruschetta with prosciutto:
- Cut the ciabatta into small slices. Cover the baking sheet with parchment, spread the ciabatta pieces. Sprinkle with olive oil and place in the oven. We bake for 15 minutes at 160 degrees.
- Next, you need to thinly chop the prosciutto and cut off the stems from the arugula.
- Place the cheese on top of the ciabatta slices, add green leaves and prosciutto. Garnish with sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts on top.
Italian bruschetta with salmon
Ingredients:
- Ciabatta - 1 pc.
- Lightly salted salmon - 60 g
- Tomato - 1 pc.
- Pesto sauce - to taste
- Basil - 2-3 leaves
- Garlic - 2 cloves
How to prepare bruschetta with salmon step by step:
- We prepare the ciabatta in the same way as the previous recipe.
- Next, we make the filling. Finely chop tomatoes, salmon and garlic. We mix everything in a deep bowl.
- Put the basil leaves on the ciabatta, add the sauce. Put the filling on top.
How to serve ciabatta correctly?
Ciabatta, like any other bread, is usually served with first courses. Italians are also used to serving it with various salads. It is great for making sandwiches, sandwiches. Sometimes they even make burgers from it.
Everyone's favorite dish is prepared from ciabatta - bruschetta, which is served as an appetizer for the main course. There are many variations of its preparation. In this regard, you can safely give free rein to fantasy.
Ciabatta goes well with cheese. And no matter what kind - it is in perfect harmony with absolutely everyone. It also goes well with ham, prosciutto, fish, herbs and various sauces.
As far as alcohol is concerned, wine goes best with ciabatta.
