Sourdough Ciabatta Bread Recipe

This bread is such a treat. It’s soft, incredibly open, and light in hand—almost like a bushel of puffy marshmallows bound together by a crust poised to shatter at the slightest pressure. It begs you to tear it with your hands and dunk it into the best olive oil in the pantry. That is, if you can stop cutting it in half and sandwiching delicious ingredients (I couldn’t, as you’ll see later). I hope this sourdough ciabatta bread recipe becomes a regular in your kitchen as it has been in mine.

While the appeal of this specialty bread is evident in its beautiful rustic crust and open crumb, working with a highly hydrated and wet dough can be challenging. But, once you embrace its “hands-off” approach, you’ll find this is an incredibly easy bread to make.

What is Ciabatta Bread?

Ciabatta is a rustic bread from Italy with a high hydration, chewy texture, thin crust, and wildly open crumb (interior). If you squint, you’ll see that the shape of the ciabatta loosely resembles a slipper (ciabatta means slipper in Italian) with a wide, sturdy crust and somewhat tubular shape. Smaller ciabatta panini are wildly popular in Italy, and even here in the United States, they’re the perfect little sandwich.

Flour Selection

Whole-Grain Flour for Ciabatta

I’ve iterated on this recipe utilizing a variety of grains, ranging from modern wheat to spelt to Khorasan (Kamut). When using 15% whole grain Khorasan, the grain imparts its characteristic golden hue and buttery, sweet flavor. The beauty of this formula is that the 15% can be used as a playground for whatever grain you fancy.

Whole-grain spelt sure was good—and you all know I have a soft spot for spelt—but I also enjoyed hard red whole wheat. So, if you don’t have Khorasan, swap that out for any whole wheat you have in your pantry.

I milled the whole Khorasan berries into fine flour on my Mockmill 100 countertop mill. Because Khorasan is a relatively “hard” berry, it takes a bit longer to mill the grain, but it’s not a problem for the Mockmill.

High-protein White Flour for Ciabatta

I also use a large percentage of high-protein white flour in this formula. Why? In testing, I found that the high-protein flour helps support the high hydration of this dough and the added olive oil enrichment.

Generally, with bread formulas, I like to use as little high-protein flour as possible to avoid an overly gummy crust and interior. With high hydration doughs that have lots of inclusions (like seeds and nuts), though, the higher protein content gives the dough more structure to achieve a taller rise and more open interior.

Always a balancing act.

Mixing and the Bassinage Technique

What is the Bassinage Mixing Technique?

Bassinage is a French term that describes the process of adding water in several stages during mixing and kneading. This is helpful when working with highly hydrated dough, such as this, to increase mixing efficiency—it’s easier to develop a dough’s gluten when it’s at lower hydration levels. Adding water in two or more stages also helps you judge the consistency of the dough as you mix and avoid over-hydrating the dough.

If you’re a frequent reader here, you already know I do this often. It shows up in my recipes as a “Water 1” and “Water 2” in the recipe formula. Water 2 is held back until the dough is strengthened and smooths out. Then, it’s slowly added at the end of mixing to adjust the dough’s consistency. Holding back this water to avoid over-hydration and make mixing more manageable and efficient is essential. If all of the water is added at the start, it takes much longer to mix the dough to the right level of strength.

How to Mix Ciabatta with a Mechanical Mixer and By Hand

Mixing with a Mechanical Mixer

Due to its high hydration, this ciabatta dough benefits from mixing and kneading with a mechanical mixer such as a KitchenAid, Ankarsrum, or larger mixer like a Famag or Sunmix. These mixers are incredibly efficient at incorporating ingredients and developing the gluten in the dough, and when there’s a high water content, this is even more helpful.

Mixing By Hand

You can make this ciabatta dough all by hand, though. To do this, perform the autolyse as indicated in the recipe, perhaps extending it to 1 hour. This will help start the dough off with more strength. Then, slap and fold the dough on the counter or fold it in the bowl to strengthen it before adding more water—you want to lean into the bassinage technique when mixing by hand. Once you strengthen the dough significantly, add the water to the dough in stages while you’re mixing. Continue to mix the dough until it absorbs the remaining water.

At the end of mixing this dough by hand, it won’t be quite as smooth as it would be coming out of a mixer. To give the dough more strength, add in another set or two of stretches and folds during bulk fermentation.

Baking Schedule

This sourdough ciabatta is a same-day, direct, recipe, meaning it’s mixed and baked in the same day. The fast levain can be created in the morning, the dough mixed 3 hours later, and then the ciabatta baked early evening for dinner.

If you’d like to do an overnight levain or change its timing, take a look at my options on my levain quicksheet reference.

Sourdough Ciabatta Bread Recipe

Recipe Update!
I recently updated this sourdough ciabatta to streamline the process and make the dough much more manageable—especially if you’re not using freshly milled flour. If you’d still like to follow the old recipe, I’ve saved it and have it for download. However, I urge you to try the new version below. I feel like the dough is more straightforward, and the results are even a little better!

Here’s a link to the old sourdough ciabatta recipe.

Use baker’s percentages to scale up or down this recipe. For example, if you’d like to make only two large ciabatta, divide all the ingredients in half (including the levain).

Vitals

Total Formula

Desired dough temperature: 78°F (25°C) (see my post on the importance of dough temperature).

Sourdough Ciabatta Bread Method

1. Prepare the levain – 9:00 a.m.

This is a fast levain build: we go from feeding to ripeness in only 3 hours. The high inoculation percentage and warm temperature expedite the ripening of this levain, but it also helps emphasize yeast activity for large volume in the final ciabatta.

Mix the above ingredients in a jar and leave them covered at 74-76°F (23-24°C) to ripen for 3 to 4 hours.

2. Autolyse – 11:30 a.m.

I use the autolyse technique for this recipe to help reduce the total mixing time required, but I also find it helps aid in the dough’s extensibility.

Warm or cool the autolyse water so that the temperature of the mixed dough meets the final dough temperature (FDT) of 78°F (25°C) for this recipe. To do this, use my water temperature calculator to input the temperature of your kitchen and your ingredients to have it automatically calculate precisely what temperature to heat or cool the mixing water.

Place the flour and remaining water 1 (autolyse) in your mixer bowl or a large bowl (if mixing by hand). Turn the mixer on to low speed and mix for 2 minutes until no dry bits remain; the dough will be shaggy and loose. Use a bowl scraper to scrape down the sides of the bowl to keep all the dough in one area at the bottom. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

3. Mix – 12:00 p.m.

To the mixer, add the levain, salt, and a splash of the reserved water. Mix on speed one until everything is incorporated, about 30 seconds. Then, switch the mixer to speed 2 and mix for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, start adding the rest of the reserved water, a little bit at a time, throughout an additional 4 minutes for a total of 8 minutes mix time.

Turn the mixer to speed 1 and slowly stream in the olive oil. Continue to mix until the oil is absorbed and the dough is cohesive and shiny about 2 minutes.

As you can see in the mixing progress images above (left: after mixing 4 minutes, and right: at the end of mixing), the dough will still be plenty wet and sticky by the end of mixing, but smoother and with some strength. At the end of mixing the dough will not pass a full windowpane test, but will come very close. Be sure to mix this dough sufficiently!

4. Bulk Fermentation – 12:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. (3 hours 30 minutes)

For bulk fermenting this dough I used the 11-quart Rubbermaid rectangular tub, which is the perfect size for 2 kg of dough (and more). It makes dividing the dough into four equal rectangles much more straightforward: when the container is inverted, it drops the dough into a perfect rectangle.

During this phase (of the two-step bulk fermentation phase), give the dough 3 sets of vigorous stretch and folds separated by 30 minutes each. The first set happens 30 minutes after the beginning of bulk. The dough will be very slack and wet. Use wet hands and perform the folds quickly.

After the last set of stretch and folds, let the dough rest for the remainder of bulk fermentation, covered.

5. Divide – 3:45 p.m.

First, put aside any notion of using only a small amount of bench flour when handling this dough. The heavy use of dusting flour not only allows you to control the dough more naturally but also makes it possible. And anyway, the thin veil of flour on the crust adds to the classic look of ciabatta and adds visual appeal.

Heavily dust the top of your dough in the bulk fermentation container with white flour.

Using your bench scraper, loosen the dough from the sides (insert your scraper between the dough and the container). Then, in one quick motion, invert the rectangular bin and let the dough fall from the inside of the container down to your work surface (upper-right image above). Liberally flour the new top of the dough. Using your bench knife, cut the dough into four rectangles and separate them by dragging them apart.

You will use the couche in the same fashion as when making baguettes, but the “wells” are much wider to accommodate the pudgy ciabatta.

Lay your couche (a large kitchen towel also works well) out on your work surface and flour it very liberally (upper-left image, above). You want to be generous with the flour to avoid sticking.

Using your bench knife grab one of the four rectangles and transfer it to the couche. I like to keep the dough the same way it was resting on the work surface: the bottom stays on the bottom when transferring. Next, using your hands gently stretch the rectangle out as tall as you desire (for me this was about 14″ to fit my home oven).

Instead of stretching them out into long ciabatta, you can also keep them in smaller rectangles about 6-7 inches long.

Finally, make a crease in the couche and flour the new spot to get ready for the next piece.

6. Proof – 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Cover your dough with the end of the couche or a food-safe plastic bag (be sure not to let the plastic touch the dough). Let your dough proof for around 2 hours. At the end of this time, the dough will look significantly fermented and bubbly all over, and when poked for the poke test, it will almost have little to no spring back.

7. Bake – 6:00 p.m.

There are two effective ways you can bake ciabatta in the home oven. The first is to transfer all the pieces of dough to a full sheet pan (21 x 15 inches) lined with parchment paper, then slide the pan into the oven on a baking surface (or empty oven rack). This is the easiest method, but it may (just may!) result in a little less rise in the oven due to the slightly less efficient heat transfer than baking directly on the baking steel.

The second option is to bake the pieces of dough directly on a baking surface such as a baking steel or baking stone. This is the method I will outline below.

Preheat your oven with baking stone/steel for half an hour at 450°F (230°C).

Prepare a single, large piece of parchment paper that will cover your entire baking stone or baking steel. Flour the top of the resting dough to ensure there are no sticky parts. Then, using a large, straight cutting board placed at the edge of a piece of dough, grab the couche and flip each portion out onto the cutting board: what was resting on the bottom is now on the top. Transfer the dough to the parchment paper by sliding it off the cutting board to one side of the parchment paper. The process for flipping the dough is the same as shown/described on my Kamut baguette post, only with a broader cutting board in place of the thin transfer peel.

Place the other two pieces of dough into your fridge; you will bake these after the first two.

Slide the parchment paper with dough onto your baking surface using a pizza peel. Once you’ve loaded the dough, steam the oven and bake for 20 minutes with steam. Then, remove the pans used for steaming, vent the oven, and turn it down to 425°F (220°C). Bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes until done. The crust should be golden brown with no pale or white spots.

It’s important to bake this bread fully—if underbaked, it could result in a gummy and “wet” interior.

I steamed my oven in my usual way, described here in my post on how to steam your home oven when baking bread.

Sourdough Ciabatta Bread Recipe

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• Author: Maurizio Leo
• Prep Time: 9 hours
• Cook Time: 45 minutes
• Total Time: 9 hours 45 minutes
• Yield: 4 loaves
• Category: Bread, sourdough
• Cuisine: Italian

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Description

Rustic bread with a thin crust, creamy and open crumb, and delicate flavor profile. Ciabatta is perfect for sandwiches!

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Ingredients

Levain

• 68g high-protein white bread flour (King Arthur Bread Flour)
• 68g water
• 68g ripe sourdough starter (100% hydration)

Autolyse

• 876g high-protein white bread flour
• 105g freshly milled Khorasan or hard red whole wheat
• 686g water

Main Dough

• 84g water
• 21g extra-virgin olive oil
• 20g fine sea salt
• 204g ripe levain

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Instructions

1. Prepare the levain – 9:00 a.m.
   Mix the levain ingredients in a jar and leave them covered at 74-76°F (23-24°C) to ripen for 3 to 4 hours.
   
2. Autolyse – 11:30 a.m.
   Place the flour and autolyse water in your mixer bowl or a large bowl (if mixing by hand). Turn the mixer on to low speed and mix for 2 minutes until no dry bits remain; the dough will be shaggy and loose. Use a bowl scraper to scrape down the sides of the bowl to keep all the dough in one area at the bottom. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
   
3. Mix – 12:00 p.m.
   To the mixer, add the levain, salt, and a splash of the reserved water. Mix on speed one until everything is incorporated, about 30 seconds. Then, switch the mixer to speed 2 and mix for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, start adding the rest of the reserved water, a little bit at a time, throughout an additional 4 minutes for a total of 8 minutes mix time. Turn the mixer to speed 1 and slowly stream in the olive oil. Continue to mix until the oil is absorbed and the dough is cohesive and shiny about 2 minutes.
4. Bulk Fermentation – 12:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. (3 hours 30 minutes)
   During this phase (of the two-step bulk fermentation phase), give the dough 3 sets of vigorous stretch and folds separated by 30 minutes each. The first set happens 30 minutes after the beginning of bulk. The dough will be very slack and wet. Use wet hands and perform the folds quickly. After the last set of stretch and folds, let the dough rest the remainder of bulk fermentation, covered.
5. Divide – 3:45 p.m.
   Heavily dust the top of your dough with white flour. Loosen the dough from the sides using a bench scraper, then invert the container to let the dough fall onto your work surface. Flour the new top of the dough, cut it into four rectangles, and separate them. Lay out a floured couche (or kitchen towel) on your work surface. Transfer each dough rectangle to the couche, keeping the bottom side down. Gently stretch the dough to your desired length. If you prefer, leave them in smaller rectangles. Make a crease in the couche and flour it before placing the next piece.
6. Proof – 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
   Cover your dough with the end of the couche or a food-safe plastic bag (be sure not to let the plastic touch the dough). Let your dough proof for around 2 hours. At the end of this time, the dough will look significantly fermented and bubbly all over, and when poked for the poke test, it will almost have little to no spring back.
   
7. Bake – 6:00 p.m.
   Preheat your oven with a baking stone or steel at 450°F (230°C) for 30 minutes. Flour the dough and flip each piece onto a large cutting board, then slide them onto parchment paper. Transfer two pieces to the fridge for later. Use a pizza peel to slide the parchment and dough onto the baking surface. Steam the oven and bake for 20 minutes, then remove steam pans, vent the oven, and reduce heat to 425°F (220°C). Bake for another 20-25 minutes until fully done to avoid a gummy interior.
   

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Ciabatta FAQs

What’s Next?

Now that you’ve mastered sourdough ciabatta, try your hand at another tast—and fun-to-make—Italian bread: filoncini (kind of like twisted baguettes).

Happy baking!