Seeded Sourdough Ciabatta

This incredible seeded sourdough ciabatta recipe of seeded sourdough ciabatta was posted by talented Chiew See on her YouTube channel.

Super light ciabatta with yummy seeds will become one of your favorite breads.

Sourdough Starter (night before)

• 5g sourdough starter
• 35g water
• 30g all purpose flour or bread flour
• 5g rye flour

I always feed starter with 90% all purpose flour and 10% rye. Which makes it nice and strong.

Please note, summertime ratio for overnight feeding is higher (1:10:10) compared to wintertime (1:7:7), because of the temperature difference. Depending on the strength of the starter, you can change the ratio.

Learn how to make starter from scratch here.

Ingredients

Soaker

Night before

• 40g seeds of your choice ( flaxseed, sesame seeds or any other)
• 40g water

Main Dough

• 60g sourdough starter (20%)
• 270g  bread flour (90%)
• 30g whole grain whole wheat flour (10%)
• 240 water (80%)
• 6g olive oil (2%)
• 6g salt (2%)
• All seed soaker

A detailed Ciabatta Course with videos and instructions is available here.

Directions 

Starter preparation step

Night before

• 10 pm add starter to the water and whisk together, add flour, mix well, cover loosely, let sit at room temp 70-75F till next morning until it reaches the peak (10-12 hours), it should at least double (starter isn’t strong enough), or triple in size(strong starter).

Soaker preparation step

Night before

• 10 pm Toast seeds on low heat for 3-5 min, cover with water, let soak overnight.

Ciabatta dough preparation steps

Next morning

• 8 am mix water with flour, using spoon, cover, let rest 1 hour for autolyse (during the autolyse stage flour absorbs water, becoming fully hydrated. This activates gluten development).
• 9 am add sourdough starter salt.Mix on low speed of your mixing machine for 2-3 minutes, or KitchenAid on speed 3 for 2-3 minutes until well incorporated. Cover, let rest 30 min.
• 9:30 am add salt.  Mix until well incorporated 1-2 minutes. Add olive oil, continue mixing for 3-7 minutes, until dough will come up together .
• Oil the container with olive oil, transfer the dough into the container, close the lid. 
• Leave to rest for 30 minutes at 74-78F /23-26C.
• 10:00 am spray table with water, wet  hands dump the dough on the table and perform lamination, by stretching the dough as thin as possible without ripping it. Spread soaked seeds all over the surface. Fold the dough and let rest 1 hour covered.
• 11 am 1st stretch and fold.
• 11:45 am 2nd stretch and fold.
• 12:30 pm 3rd stretch and fold.
• 1:15 pm 4rd stretch and fold
• Performing stretches and folds will help to continue gluten development.
• After the final stretch let the dough rest for 15 minutes. You should see some bubbles on the surface, the dough has to become lighter. We are looking for 50% rise.

Ciabatta preshaping and shaping steps

Next day

• Remove the dough from the fridge. 
• Generously sprinkle with flour table and dough, turn container on the floured surface. 
• Using the of scraper divide the dough in 2 equal parts,  try yo stretch them into a rectangular.Sprinkle more flour all around ciabattas.
• Now transfer each shaped dough onto a proofing couche. Cover ciabattas with kitchen towel. Let them proof for 1 hour and 30 min.
• Perform poke test to check the readiness. Give the dough a gentle but assertive poke. If the dough springs back right away, let it rise for a few more minutes. If the dough springs back slowly, like it’s waking up from a long nap, and your poke leaves a small indentation, it’s ready to go.

• During proofing time start to preheat oven 500F with baking stone inside and iron tray on the bottom rack for 1 hour.
• When the oven is hot and ciabattas are proofed enough, flip them over on a parchment paper( bottom side should be on the top, and top part should be on the bottom.
• Prepare 10 ice cubes.
• Act fast, open the oven, transfer ciabattas on to the baking stone, dump the ice cubes into the tray and put it on the bottom rack, close the oven door.
• Bake for 10 minutes.
• Lower the temperature to 475F, open the oven door, remove the tray with excess water. Bake for 15 more minutes.
• Let your ciabattas cool for 1 hour.

Enjoy!