Ciabatta

[heliman]

Made today according to Reinhart's latest recipe...

[Wiley]

Re: Ciabatta

Rossco, Looks good!

Latest recipe...hum, is that from his "Artisan Breads for Every Day: Fast..." or another of his works? The author is so prolific...

Keep up the good work, I bet it tasted wonderful!
Bests,
Wiley

[Pdiff]

Re: Ciabatta

Nice! Those came out well. What did you end up doing with the door, etc this round? What ever it was, it worked!

Now you've reminded me that I need to whip up some ciabatta again. Haven't done that in a while.

Pdiff

[heliman]

Re: Ciabatta

Thanks for the positive comments Wiley & Pdiff...

Yes, the recipe is from Artisan Breads Every Day.

No, I just baked in the electric oven as I made a kettle BBQ for a change. I will definitely use a door on the WFO in future though. On that point - how do you increase the heat once the coals have been removed? Do you have to add them and remove them again once the desired level has been attained? Is i possible to leave a few in the back of the oven perhaps?

[Pdiff]

Re: Ciabatta

Rossco,
For the baking I'm familiar with, you don't add heat once you get things going. Baking and cooking are done in a progression starting with high heat and moving on to lower and lower temps. All ovens vary, but for mine, the sequence is often like this: The sourdough recipe I use takes 2.5 hours to proof, so right after shaping the loaves, I light the fire (I set up the wood in the oven ahead of time). I let this go and feed the fire for an hour, but stop adding wood after an hour (if you are doing pizza, pita, or flat bread, that could happen now, with the coals in the oven). The floor will be 700-800* F.

At 1.5 hours, I spread out the coals to even the heat loading across the floor. 30 minutes after that, I remove the coals, brush the floor, and swab it clean. At that point, the floor is around 600*F. I put the door on and wait 30 minutes. Usually the floor will be around 480-500* by then, which is about where I start baking. If the floor is too hot, I remove the door for 10-15 minutes to drive the temps down a bit. The bread is then baked (30 minutes or so) with the door on.

After bread baking, the floor may be in the 400-450 range. You could then hit some smaller items like muffins, rolls, biscuits, etc down to 300* or so. Or I often throw in a roast or similar + side dishes for dinner at that point.

Some people will carry on with low temps (200+), slow cooking ribs or brisket overnight. I haven't done that, but usually throw in a load of wood and close the door to dry it out before the next firing.

That's just my general course of things. It can vary, like using live coals to cook meals, etc. The timings are an example only, as your oven will vary (and change over time). My oven is only partially completed, without full insulation, so I too will have to tweek these things as I complete it and also as we move into the warmer temps of summer here.

A good video of this progressive cooking is here:

Baking in the wood oven

These people are using a massive barrel vault oven which takes forever (and a lot of wood!) to fire, but it shows the idea well.

Keep up the baking! Ciabatta's on my list now :-)

Pdiff

[heliman]

Re: Ciabatta

Thanks for outlining the process.

Interesting video! Those guys must have a really big family to feed making all that bread. I really like the design of the shute for coal removal - very neat.

Cheers