Ciabatta with olives
I learnt to make ciabatta when I worked at Bertus Basson’s restaurant Overture in Stellenbosch from 2011 to 2012. I want to make it easy for people to make ciabatta. You should get 4 lovely loaves from this recipe, depending on what you want. You could also make rolls or breadsticks. Be creative!
4 loaves
Makes Preparation time 15 minutes Baking time 15–20 minutes
YOU NEED
• 800 ml (800 g) lukewarm water
• 1 sachet (10 g) instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) sugar (optional, but it does help with the fermentation process)
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
• 1 kg good white bread flour (weigh it for accuracy)
• 1 sachet (200 g) olives of your choice, pitted and chopped
3 Heat the oven to its maximum temperature – usually 230–250 °C. Spray a baking tray with cooking spray, or just sprinkle a little flour on top. Turn the dough out onto a flourdusted work surface. Use a dough scraper to remove all the dough from the bowl. Don’t touch the dough.
THIS IS HOW
1 Pour the water into the mixing bowl of an electric mixer. Add the yeast, sugar and salt and mix everything well until dissolved. Add the flour and olives and use the dough hook to mix the dough until it starts to pull away from the sides.
4 If you plan to bake loaves, use the scraper to divide it into four pieces equal in size, or divide the dough into smaller pieces for rolls.
Transfer the dough to a large bowl in which it has room to rise to at least double in volume.
5 Very gently shape each piece of dough into the shape of your choice and place it on the prepared baking tray. Bake it for 15–20 minutes until golden brown (this will depend on its size). Enjoy the bread immediately, or let it cool down before freezing it. a frozen loaf can be heated in a hot oven and will taste as though it’s been freshly baked! >