Easy ciabatta bread

Here is a easy ciabatta bread recipe! Ciabatta means slipper because of the shape of the bread.
It's crunchy and brown on the outside and bubbly and fluffy on the inside, perfect for great sandwiches or even as a daily bread served just with extra virgin olive oil. 

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Ingredients: 

• 400g of strong white bread flour 
• 300g of warm water  
• 3g of dried yeast 
• 10g of sea salt
• Olive oil 

Method: 
      Mixing flour, water, yeast and salt

• In a bowl add the warm water and the dried yeast and with one hand mix well until all the the yeast dissolves. 
• Add all the flour plus salt and mix well for 5 minutes, until there are no more bits of dry flour and it forms a very shaggy dough. 
• Transfer the dough onto a work surface making sure there is no dough or flour left inside the bowl and start kneading the dough with the palms of your hands - the dough will be a little wet but do not worry and do not add any flour, be energetic and a little fast with your kneading movement. The slower your kneading movement, the stickier your dough will be on the table. Help yourself with the scraper to bring back the dough together while kneading it and to take off the sticky dough from your hands! Knead for another 6-7 minutes (be patient with this process, we know the dough is sticky but bear with it and you will have a perfect result).
• Once the dough it's nicely kneaded and elastic, help yourself by using the scraper to bring the dough all together. 
• Add a tbsp of olive oil to the same bowl and with both hands spread it all around.
• Now transfer the dough inside and cover. Let it rest for 45 minutes. We suggest to keep the dough in a warm and wet enviroment for the best result. Usually in bakeries is often used a dough proofer wich is a warming chamber used to encourages fermentation of dough by yeast through warm temperatures and controlled humidity. You can do the same at home leaving the dough inside your oven at 25-30 °C  with a cup full of boiling water on the bottom to help to create umidity. Cover the dough at all time and once you put the cup of boiling water inside the oven do not open the oven until next step so you won't loose any of the humidity and warm temperature. Change the water in the cup with new boiling water every time you open the oven for the next step. 

  
      Folding the dough 

• After 45 minutes from the dough been rest fold the dough few times. 
•  To fold the dough, wet your hand with a little bit of water and grab the dough at one side, lift it up, and fold it over on top of itself. Fold the dough four/five times, moving clockwise from the top of the bowl. 
• Now cover the bowl and let the dough rest for another 45 minutes always in a warm place.  
• After the dough been rest give the dough few folds again as you did before. Cover it and let it rest for again 45 minutes in a warm place. 
• After the last 45 minutes of the dough been rest should be nice and bubbly. GIve the dough the last fold and let it rest for the final 30 minutes always cover and in a warm place. 

         Prepare the baking tray and shaping the dough

• Once the dough is perfectly proved and fermented, turn the oven on to  230°C (fan) and place a small baking pan or a deep tray at the bottom of the oven.
• Line a large baking tray with baking paper. 
• Take the dough and heavily flour the top of the dough and your work surface. 
• Gently turn the bowl upside down to release the dough onto the floured work surface. Now sprinkle the top of the dough with some more flour.
• Flour the scraper and divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Do not worry if they don't have a perfect shape, try not to handle the dough too much as you want to keep as much air in as possible for the perfect light texture. 
• Bring the lined baking tray next to you and transfer all the shapes into the tray. Slide your fingers under each end of the loaf and quickly transfer it to the parchment paper, keeping as much space as possible between each shape. 
• Let them rest for 15 minutes. 

        Let's bake it! 

• Once the oven reach the temperature put your ciabatta in the middle of  the oven and straight after add half glass of cold water into the small baking pan at the bottom and quickly close the oven. This will produce steam which helps the bread to rise.
• ​Bake for 15-20 minutes. Do not be afraid of the colour when baking bread, the ciabatta needs a proper crust or the structure of the crumble will collapse.  
• Once the ciabatta is out of the oven, let it cool down on a cooling rack for at least 2 hours or even better overnight. 
• Make a sandwich or simply drizzle some good extra virgin olive oil on top and enjoy.