Whole Wheat Ciabatta Bread Recipes

CHEF JOHN'S WHOLE WHEAT CIABATTA

Steps:

• Stir 1 cup warm water, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup rye flour, and yeast together in a large bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit until the sponge bubbles and doubles in volume, 5 to 6 hours.
• Stir 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 water, sunflower seeds, polenta, flax seeds, salt, and honey into sponge with a wooden spoon until a very sticky dough ball forms, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the the sides of the bowl, cover bowl with plastic wrap, and let dough rise until doubled in volume, 10 hours to overnight.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Dust parchment paper with 1/2 teaspoon all-purpose flour and cornmeal.
• Scrape dough out of bowl onto a lightly floured work surface, press down to remove air, and form into a smooth oval loaf. Place dough on the prepared baking sheet. Dust top of loaf lightly with flour, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Place a baking dish filled with water on the bottom rack of the oven.
• Remove plastic wrap from risen dough and mist the top of the dough with water.
• Bake loaf in the preheated oven, misting the top of the loaf with water every 8 to 10 minutes, until loaf is golden and sounds hollow when tapped, 30 to 35 minutes total. Transfer bread to a cooling rack and let cool completely before slicing.

WHOLE WHEAT CIABATTA BREAD RECIPE

Steps:

• Add the flour, yeast and salt to a mixing bowl. Try to keep the yeast and salt on separate sides of the bowl when you add. If use a Kitchen Aid mixer with a bowl and dough hook, that will make your bread making life easy.
• Then gradually add water and start mixing on medium speed with the dough hook (or blending and beating up by hand if you don't have a dough hook). This will mix the ingredients and break down the gluten. With a machine, it will take about 10-15 minutes.
• While waiting, prepare a square or rectangular plastic or glass tub(a 4″ square all around will work well). Then lightly coat the proofing container with olive oil before proofing.
• When the dough has been mixed and worked enough (10-15 minutes), it's ready for proofing. Slip off the dough hook and place directly in the proofing container. Close the top or put a piece of plastic wrap on top and let the dough proof for 3 hours or more at room temperature. You can also leave overnight.
• When proofing is near done (minimum of 3 hours), prepare a baking sheet with sprinkled flour or bench flour. You can use any bench flour you like, including semolina flour. I like to keep it simple and stick with the flour I used for making the bread (so whole wheat in this case).
• After the dough has proofed enough, you can pour out slowly, letting the dough land on the flour on the baking sheet. It will maintain the same square or rectangular shape that it was sitting, making the final shapes more uniform.
• Then cut 3 same-size rectangular loaf pieces. I use a pizza roller but you can alternatively use a professional flat bread cutter tool where you make sharp straight down cuts.
• If you have one of those, then you can more easily make the traditional top ciabatta cut that you find from professional baking loaves. To do this, you cut off each loaf with two sharp cuts (following along aline pattern), and then roll the bottom of the loaf up/forward 90 degrees towards you so the two cuts rest on the top.
• Then add a little bench flour sprinkle to the top of the bread loaves.
• Let the dough on the baking sheet rest for about 15 minutes before placing in the pre-heated 350 degrees Fahrenheit oven.
• Bake for about 25 minutes (adjust as needed as each oven is slightly different).
• I leave the bread in the oven a little longer after I turn off the heat, just to give the bread a 'lil more crunch.And presto!... you have better or as good as fresh store bought or restaurant prepared ciabatta.
• You can eat and enjoy the ciabatta while it's still piping warm.

WHOLE WHEAT CIABATTA BREAD ROLLS OR LOAVES

Steps:

• Weigh out dry ingredients in your mixing bowl.
• And water.
• Mix with a dough hook until a smooth, elastic dough ball is formed, about 5 minutes.
• Turn the dough out onto a greased countertop (olive oil or Pam Spray works well).
• Knead into a ball (1 minute) and place into a dough riser lightly coated with oil. Spray top of dough with oil, cover and let rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size*.
• Preheat oven with two pizza stones (one per shelf) to 450°F Be sure that the stones and a cookie sheet (bottom shelf) are in the oven when you start pre-heating it.
• Turn bread dough out onto a lightly floured countertop and divide into four pieces. You can make four large long ciabatta type loaves at this point or you can continue on and divide each dough ball into 8 pieces for rolls (see below).
• Using a bench knife or scraper, gently form the dough into four long flat loaves. Try not to work the dough to much. If you would like to make ciabatta type sandwich rolls, divide each long loaf into 6-8 short segments using your bench knife.
• Place loaves or rolls on 2 sheets of parchment paper that are roughly the same size as your pizza stones (2 loaves/sheet; 12-16 rolls/sheet).
• Cover** and let rise for 45 minutes.
• After rising, sprinkle the loaves with flour and slash the tops (I do not slash the rolls). ***.
• Place the rolls/loaves in the oven using a pizza peel.**** At the same time, put a cup of ice into the cookie sheet to humidify your oven.
• Bake at 425F for 30-35 minutes. If your oven has a convection bake setting, switch to convection for the last 10 minute of baking.
• Cool on wire racks and enjoy!
• *If you are not ready to form the rolls/loaves after the first rise, you can punch the dough down and let it rise again until doubled in size. **I use a plastic storage container that is designed to store things under my bed. It is the perfect size and keeps my dough safe from cats, dogs and other critters. ***A sharp serrated knife works well. ****An inverted cookie tray works in a pinch.
• Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-crusty-bread-rolls-447320#ixzz1dmJ4t9Av.

WHOLE-GRAIN CIABATTA BREAD(OR ROLLS)

Steps:

• In large bowl, combine water and yeast; stir and let stand for 10 minutes. When yeast is bubbly, add milk, olive oil, whole-wheat flour, oat bran, ½ cup bread flour, and salt and beat for 2 minutes. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour.
• Add enough remaining bread flour to make a soft dough; beat for 1 minute. Cover bowl and let rise for 1 hour.
• Remove dough to lightly floured surface (dough will be soft and sticky). Grease two 4″ × 10″ shapes on a large cookie sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal. Divide dough in half and shape into two 3″ × 9″ rectangles on the greased areas of the cookie sheet. Let rise for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 400ºF. Place a 9″ pan filled with ½″ of water on bottom rack. Bake bread on middle rack for 20-30 minutes or until loaves are light golden brown and sound hollow when tapped with fingers. Cool on wire rack.
• Yields 2 loaves; 8 servings.
• For Rolls:.
• 2 tablespoons olive oil.
• 3 tablespoons cornmeal.
• Prepare Whole Wheat Ciabatta Bread through the first rising. Punch down dough and turn onto lightly floured surface.
• Divide dough into 6 portions. Using floured fingers, shape each portion into a 3″ × 3″ rectangle.
• Grease six 4″ × 4″ squares on a cookie sheet with olive oil and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place dough onto each cornmeal coated square. Drizzle with remaining olive oil.
• Let rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 425ºF.
• Bake rolls for 10-15 minutes or until very light brown. Turn off oven and prop open oven door. Let rolls stand in oven for another 5 minutes. Then remove from oven and let cool on wire racks.
• Yields 6 rolls.
• Note:.
• Creating Steam When Baking Bread.
• Adding steam to the oven when baking bread makes a crisper, thicker crust. There are several ways to do this. You can place a pan with some water in it on the rack below the bread. You can also spritz the loaves with water a few times while the bread is baking. The steam helps keep the bread softer longer, so the crust develops more slowly.

SPROUTED WHEAT SOURDOUGH CIABATTA

Steps:

• MIXING AND BULK FERMENTATION
• Combine all the ingredients in a stand mixer with dough hook attachment. Mix on low speed about a minute until combined and then scrape down the sides. Then mix on medium-low speed for about 5 minutes and then transfer the dough to a clean bowl. Alternately or additionally, mix in a bowl with a stiff spatula and then with the Rubaud Method for 2-10 minutes (the longer time is if you take breaks). After mixing, note the time and room temperature if you like to track fermentation this way.
• Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
• Do three gentle stretch and folds, spaced 25-45 minutes apart. Use damp fingertips or a dough scraper to pull the dough from the sides of the bowl and fold it over (four sides, twice around). Cover after each stretch and fold.
• Let ferment until bubbly and roughly doubled. This was a little over 4 hours from mixing in summer house temps (75-78F).
• SHAPING
• Flour your countertop, then scrape the dough out of the bowl.
• Flour your hands and gently slide your fingers under the dough from all sides to pull it outward into a square shape about 1/2 an inch thick. Do not flour the surface of the dough as this will be the interior of your slippers.
• Using a bench scraper, fold the rectangle of dough in half on itself. Then cut the dough in pieces. I went with five small slippers, almost like large rolls. Of note I did not do a bench rest and reshape. It was about 10 minutes from bowl to couche.
• Using a bench scraper and your free hand, transfer the slippers to the channels of a heavily floured couche or tea towel. The slippers will scrunch up a bit as you gather them, but you can adjust and stretch them out again as you lay them in the couche.
• Loosely cover the slippers with the couche itself or with another tea towel.
• PROOFING AND OVEN PREP
• Let the slippers proof for about 30 minutes at warm room temperatures, longer in cool temps.
• If you have a baking stone or steel, put it in the oven. You can also cook the slippers on a metal cookie sheet. (Do not use a dark non-stick surface because of the high oven temperature.)
• Prepare to create steam early in the baking process. You can put a cast iron pan on the shelf under the baking stone. Or you can create a drip system by putting an aluminum pan with a pinhole in the oven under the stone, and a metal cookie sheet on the base of the oven. When making the pinhole, test over your sink that water drips through it about 1-2 drops a second. My heating element is exposed on the bottom of my oven, so the aluminum pan drips onto the bottom of the oven rather than a cookie sheet, which works fine too. (See gallery for photo of setup.)
• Preheat your oven and stone to 500 F for 30 minutes as the dough proofs. If you are baking on a cookie sheet, a 15 minute preheat should be enough.
• BAKING
• When proofing is complete, flip the slippers onto pieces of parchment paper, and slide the slippers onto your preheated stone. You can use a pizza peel or a cold upside down cookie sheet to transfer the slippers.
• Immediately pour a cup of water onto the aluminum tray or cast iron pan that is under your stone, and quickly close the oven door to trap the steam.
• Bake at 500 F for 10 minutes. Then remove the parchment paper and rotate the slippers 180 degrees if your oven seems to brown unevenly.
• Bake an additional 5-10 minutes at 450 F.
• After baking, turn off the oven, crack open the door a couple of inches, and leave the slippers in the oven for another 5 minutes. This will make the crust crunchier.
• Internal temperature should be about 205 F.
• Let cool on a rack for about one hour before slicing.

CHEF JOHN'S WHOLE WHEAT CIABATTA

Steps:

• To make sponge, stir 1 cup warm water, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup rye flour, and yeast together in a large bowl.
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit until the sponge bubbles and doubles in volume, 5 to 6 hours.
• Stir 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup water (at room temperature), sunflower seeds, polenta, flax seeds, salt, and honey into sponge with a wooden spoon until a very sticky dough ball forms, about 3 minutes.
• Scrape down the the sides of the bowl, cover bowl with plastic wrap, and let dough rise until doubled in volume, 10 hours to overnight.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Dust parchment paper with 1/2 teaspoon all-purpose flour and cornmeal.
• Scrape dough out of bowl onto a lightly floured work surface, press down to remove air, and form into a smooth oval loaf. Place dough on the prepared baking sheet. Dust top of loaf lightly with flour, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Place a baking dish filled with water on the bottom rack of the oven.
• Remove plastic wrap from risen dough and mist the top of the dough with water.
• Bake loaf in the preheated oven, misting the top of the loaf with water every 8 to 10 minutes, until loaf is golden and sounds hollow when tapped, 30 to 35 minutes total.
• Transfer bread to a cooling rack and let cool completely before slicing.