Reinhart's Poolish Ciabatta --BBA

Well, I'll admit to you that I skipped a week of BBA--I didn't make the Challah. I will, at some point in the future, just to say I made every recipe, but for right now I just didn't feel like making a loaf to go to waste. Challah is a slightly sweet, very eggy enriched dough, and I didn't really have a use for it right now. There's nothing I hate more than seeing food--handmade bread especially--go to waste. So that's why you didn't see it from me. You didn't miss it!
But I was all over the ciabatta. I love the open-crumbed, slack doughs, and the beautiful holey breads that results, despite the challenges in working with them. (Think Nickelodeon Goo. That's about the texture of a proper ciabatta dough!) Not to mention the flavor usually present in these types of breads--tangy, full, and deep. Nothing like the white bread at the store, and nothing like even the "Artisan" style loaves you can get in most supermarket bakeries now. It just doesn't compare.
I started the poolish (wet starter) for this dough early, thinking it was going to need to be made overnight at least. Surprisingly, Reinhart's recipe calls for just a few hours of fermenting, followed by a relatively quick rise for this type of bread.
There are lots of advantages to using a starter (preferment, poolish, biga, sponge, etc)--they give amazing flavor to the bread, they acidify the dough which helps get an open crumb, they tenderize and actually preserve the bread, extending its shelf life, and lend to a beautiful crust. Volumes have been written on this topic, and it's all covered in-depth in his book, so I won't go on. But if you want that wonderful, elusive "bread" flavor, you have to start with something.
Anyhow, I started the poolish, and just like with the bagels, had to stop for the day. I ended up with it at maybe 5 hours room temperature (during which time it nearly exploded the bowl) and then refrigerated it overnight. I let it sit about 2 hours the next day to come up to temperature before finally mixing the dough. What can I say, my life is never predictable. I had to get new brakes and tires on the van! I suspect this extended time may have given my dough a bit more flavor than the standard recipe would have.
Mixing the dough was easy, and the bulk fermentation and subsequent rises didn't take too long at all. Reinhart says this is a same-day bread, but you'd never know it from the terrific flavor and texture. It had that wonderful tang, that indescribable flavor of good bread, that scent to it. Reminded me why I spent an entire summer last year making no-knead breads, cranking my un-airconditioned oven up to 500 degrees day after day to get that amazing flavvor and texture.
The use of a starter will contribute to an open, airy crumb, but really it's the percentage of water in the dough that will get you there. Ciabatta generally has one of the highest percentages of any bread dough, at about 80%, although Reinhart's recipe is less than that. It's a really, really wet and sticky dough, and has to be handled carefully. One of the trickiest things is moving it to its final position on the baking peel, to slide it onto your stone. As Reinhart directed, I used a floured cloth to make a couche, bringing up folds of fabric to separate my loaves. It was sort of tricky to get them to the parchment-lined peel without deflating them, and that will actually make a big difference as well. You want these breads to be very, very puffy, very light and ethereal by the time they're ready to go in, and you don't want to deflate them! You lose valuable air pockets if you do. So in hindsight, next time I make ciabatta or a similar loaf, I think I'll make a couche out of a big sheet of parchment. Then I can simply cut down the folds when I am ready, and slide my peel underneath.
But I still had pretty good results. I was rewarded with a beautifully golden crust, creamy interor, and nicely open crumb. I have read from other BBA'ers that the biga version of this bread actually has a slightly higher percentage of water, and will give you larger holes. I have also read that compared to other recipes with higher hydration, this one isn't as great if that's what you're looking for. That may be true--I mean, the crumb was open, but nothing like a no-knead and nothing like the pictured bread--but it was still better than my previous attempt at a ciabatta had been. It was so soft, so light--I acually made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the next day. This loaf is actually really good if that's what you're planning on using it for--the holes are not so large that your filling oozes out! So for my purposes, it was still an acceptable loaf. Reading the comments at the BBA Google group, I am very curious to try the other version, and maybe even try Rose Levy Beranbaum's version again from the Bread Bible. I'm a bit more experienced at handling these doughs now than when I initially tried her recipe, so maybe I can have a better result! So it may not be the holey-est ciabatta ever, but I can vouch for the flavor of the bread. And it was good bread.


One other thing I may do is hold back on some of the flour during the dough mixing. I didn't use the full amount of water, but I always find it easier to add less flour than to add more water. I could probably have snuck a few more tablespoons into my loaf, made it even stickier and holey-er, but it turned out great and wasn't too impossible to work with the way it was. I also might try the boule shape, or even baking it in a preheated Dutch Oven, a la the no-knead, just to see what kind of crust and rise I could get. All in all, a pretty good ciabatta.

If you want to join the fun, check out Nicole's blog, Pinch My Salt, and get baking!
If you'd like to try this loaf yourself, and check out some commentary, check out this thread at The Fresh Loaf.