Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in The Good Land is largely a fish out of water tale about how I eventually found my footing on a small farm in an Amish town. We are a mostly organic, somewhat self sufficient, sustainable farm in Ohio. There's action and adventure and I'll always tell you the truth about farming.


Monday, January 10, 2011

Ciabatta, Baby!

Did everyone see the ciabatta bread recipe over on Ruhlman's site? (btw, all hail Charcutepalooza!)

Ciabatta, baby... that's what I'm talking about. My crumb was pretty good for a first attempt.

Even tho these were the worst written directions I've ever seen (Sorry! Not trying to be a hater they just didn't make sense to me)... this made an awesome bread.  I pieced the steps together with the help of this guy. The trick was working with a super wet dough.

The instructions didn't really tell you how to make the loaf. So here's what I did. You need a heavily floured surface to work with it.  I baked it on parchment, on a pizza sheet, on a baking stone. Got that?

Also, I just can't bring myself to make a loaf of all white flour, so this was 30-40% whole wheat. It turned out very pretty.
Just out of the oven...baked at 425* for 25 minutes

We enjoyed it with a (whole wheat) pasta bake which featured a simmered-all-day-bolognese sauce. And a big glass of red wine, of course.

And now I gotta get the hatches battened down.. we're getting that snow from both the South and the Plains. Tomorrow oughta be a looloo for sure.

Stay warm everyone! And remember, when it cold just crank up the oven and bake something!

7 comments:

Veggie PAK said...

Mmmm! I can smell the bread. Wait! I really CAN smell the bread! I just took out two loaves of banana bread that I made!

I like how yours looks. I would like to give making that a shot. Warm bread, slathered with butter... drool!

Mr. H. said...

Sounds and looks delicious!

Grandpa said...

That looks absolutely yummy!

You always make me hungry OFG. If you were to send me a loaf, you think it'll keep over the long journey? :))

Grandpa said...

I was wondering what Charcutepalooza was all about, checked out the site, and now understand why it got you so excited!

Ohiofarmgirl said...

VPak - I totally LOL'd.. enjoy your banana bread! It was really easy peasy, just had to futz around with it thru out the day.

Hi Mr. H! yum.....

I'll pop a loaf in FedX to ya! Ha! And I know... nothing like charcuterie! I have the book by Ruhlman - its stunning. And you with all that free wild pork running around. Have a glorious day!

David P. Offutt - The Gastronomic Gardener said...

Well Done - looks great! Working my way through Ruhlman's book myself. It is straight forward, and the results are wonderful. So far the the bacon, canadian bacon, pastrami, and duck prosciutto. All good!

Ohiofarmgirl said...

Thanks David! Are you doing the Charcutepalooza challenge? My ducks are still.. ahem.. walking around out there.. so I havent done the duck prosciutto yet. Don't you just love that book? So beautifully put together. I'm glad Ruhlman is conscientious about local products... but if he wants to get the whole story he should come down for a hog harvest
;-)

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