I’ve been meaning to make a ciabatta for a while now, but I never think about it early enough to make the starter that is required of it. This weekend I finally did think of it, so I was able to try out King Arthur’s whole grain ciabatta recipe, with some modifications of course.

The starter is made the night before of flour, water and a pinch of yeast. In this case I substituted my Organic 12-Grain Flour Blend for the wheat flour in the recipe.

After probably 12 hours the starter had puffed up and was kind of bubbly. It was ready for adding to the rest of the dough.

Mixing the dry ingredients, the wet ingredients and the starter formed a very wet, shaggy dough. Though in the original recipe the balance of the flour is made up of all-purpose, I substituted King Arthur’s European Style Artisan Bread Flour, since I thought it would be a good compliment to the ciabatta.

After kneading (which must be done with a mixer or a bread machine for this recipe), the dough had smoothed out but was still incredibly sticky.

Scraped into the greased rising bucket with my handy dough scraper. I don’t know what I would do without that thing. The dough took about 90 minutes to double even in my warm kitchen.

Doughs like this make me wish I had a silpat. This dough did not want to let go of anything, and I’m glad I decided to work with it directly on the parchment paper on which it would be baked, because I didn’t have to move it later.

I divided it I as best I could, and roughly formed it into two loaves, which meant heaping and pushing the dough until it was generally log shaped. The second rise wasn’t particularly vigorous; I got concerned about the plastic wrap which seemed to almost be holding the bread down and keeping it from rising, so I took it off for the last 30 minutes. I don’t think it made much of a difference.

I had thought that this recipe would yield loaves I could slice vertically to make slices of bread for sandwiches, but the low, flat rise it achieved was not going to let that happen. Sliced horizontally, however, it provided two halves that were the perfect thickness for sandwiches. It wasn’t particularly crusty, though that may be more a fault of the fact that I don’t throw any water/ice cubes in my oven during the baking. It was nice and holey like a good ciabatta, and it was chewy and had a great flavor. Definitely a winner, though I might throw in some whole-grain bread improver next time and see if that helps the rise.

12-Grain Ciabatta (adapted from King Arthur’s Harvest Grains Ciabatta)

Ingredients

Overnight starter

• 1 cup whole wheat or whole grain flour, organic preferred
• ½ cup cool water
• pinch of instant yeast

Dough

• all of the starter (above)
• 2 cups bread flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 ¼ teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon nonfat dry milk
• 3/4 cup lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions

1. Combine the starter ingredients and stir till cohesive. Cover and let rest at room temperature overnight, or for up to about 15 hours. The mixture will be bubbly.
2. Combine the starter with all of the dough ingredients and mix and knead to make a very smooth, soft, very sticky dough. Using a stand mixer equipped with the flat beater paddle, knead for 7 minutes; the dough may or may not clear the sides of the bowl.
3. Place the dough in a lightly greased rising container and allow it to rise for 90 minutes or until it’s doubled in size.
4. Gently deflate the dough, and divide it in half. Shape each half into a 10″ log. Place the logs on a large, lightly greased (or parchment-lined) baking sheet, leaving about 5″ between them.
5. Cover and let rise for 60 to 90 minutes, till very puffy. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425°F.
6. Spray the loaves with lukewarm water, and place them in the oven. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they’re golden brown.