I know, man can not live on bread alone. So I’m a little obsessed with baking bread lately… humor me. There will be more “real food” soon, promise.
You may remember this video that I referenced in my very first no-knead bread recipe post. The recipe and technique in the video are a little different from the basic no-knead recipe. The dough is wetter, it ferments for 18 hours at room temperature and is shaped into a long, fairly flat, ciabatta shaped loaf.
Well, I’m glad I decided to give this one a try. For some reason it seems easier than the original no-knead and the result so much better. The inside is lighter and fluffier. The flavor is wonderful. The shape, although flat, is perfect for sandwiches. PERFECT.
After making this bread countless times, I now make a “half batch” loaf and usually use 100% all-purpose, rather than using some whole wheat (I like the texture better). The ingredient amounts listed below are for a half batch sized loaf.
If you can’t time the dough just right to ferment for 14-18 hours, you can actually slow the fermentation by putting it in the refrigerator for a few hours. When I need to leave it for about 24 hours, I pop it in the fridge over night (8 hours), then let it come to room temperature before continuing.
(Updated 10-26-15)
No-Knead Ciabatta
Servings 4Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour plus some for dusting ($0.26)
- 1/8 tsp instant or “bread machine” yeast ($0.02)
- 3/4 tsp salt ($0.03)
- 1 cup water ($0.00)
- 1/2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.08)
- 2 Tbsp cornmeal ($0.03)
Instructions
- In a large bowl combine the flour, salt, and yeast. Stir the dry ingredients well until they are evenly combined. Add the water and stir it until a wet, sticky ball of dough forms and no flour remains on the bottom of the bowl. Loosely cover and let sit at room temperature for 14-18 hours to ferment.
- After fermentation, the dough should be wet, sticky, very bubbly, and fluffy. Dust the top of the dough and your hands with flour. Carefully scrape the sticky dough from the bowl, adding a small amount of flour if needed to keep your hands from sticking.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and stretch it into a long, 12-16 inch loaf. It’s okay if the loaf is lumpy and uneven. The dough will be very soft and sticky, so don’t worry too much about the shape.
- Prepare a baking sheet by smearing olive oil over the surface and then sprinkling with cornmeal. Carefully pick up the loaf and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet, reshaping it as needed. Let the dough rise for 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and bake the loaf for 25 minutes, or until it is golden brown. Let the bread cool on a wire rack before slicing.
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Nutrition
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Step By Step Photos
In a large bowl, stir together 2 cups all-purpose flour, 3/4 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp instant or “bread machine” yeast. Stir until they’re well combined. Add one cup of water and stir until a soft, sticky ball of dough forms and no flour remains on the bottom of the bowl.
Loosely cover the dough and let it ferment for 14-16 hours. If you need to let it sit longer, it can be placed in the refrigerator for part of the fermentation to slow it down.
After fermentation, it should look like this. Big, fluffy, and full of bubbles. Oh yeah, it’s also sticky. Dust the dough and your hands with flour, then gently scrape it from the bowl. Turn it onto a lightly floured work surface and shape it roughly into a 12-16 inch rectangle.
Prepare a baking sheet by spreading 1/2 Tbsp olive oil over the surface, then sprinkling with a tablespoon or two of cornmeal. I added parchment to my baking sheet just to make cleanup a lot easier. Transfer the shaped dough to the baking sheet (it’s okay, good even, if it’s unevenly shaped).
Let the dough rise for two hours. This is where all the nice, big internal bubbles come from, so don’t skimp on this step! Begin preheating the oven to 425 degrees.
Bake the bread for 25 minutes, or until golden brown on the outside. Make sure the oven is fully preheated before the bread goes in, because it needs that sudden blast of hot air to really puff up.
Let the bread cool before slicing (I know, it’s hard to wait, but you’ll avoid crushing the bread that way).
This bread is perfect for sandwiches. Light and fluffy inside with a good crust. YES!
Oh, my other favorite thing about this bread is that it only uses 1/8 tsp of yeast – TOTAL. Now I can make great bread every week and my yeast will last for-ev-er.
Just made this today. SUPER easy. I go to bed at 7 pm and get up at 2:30 am for work so I started it right before bed. Made it right after work. My oven naturally runs 50 degrees too hot so I turned it down. The crust was getting a bit dark so I took it out. The crust is GREAT. The inside is just slightly undercooked (still very good) so next time I’ll turn the temp down by 25 degrees and cook longer since mine only took 15 minutes. Can’t wait to try some salad sandwiches :D
I made this today with whole wheat, white wheat and AP flour and although I haven’t tried it yet my bread making radar is indicating it was a success. I separated them into 6 buns or mini loaves for easy portion control and sandwich making. I love this blog and all your great recipes!
I made the ciabatta yesterday for a brunch with friends. It turned out amazing and everyone thought I was so clever ;-) Let’s not tell them how super easy it is to make…
The 14-18 hour ferment time was an issue for me, too…but more for lack of patience than anything else! I only have bread machine yeast (rapid rise yeast) in the house right now, so I used that and doubled the amount to 2tsp. I also added just a sprinkle (maybe 1/2 tsp at most) of sugar, just because my yeast is old and I wanted to make sure it did something.
After 4 hours, my bowl looked very similar to the picture, so I decided to go ahead and knead it/move it to the baking sheet (my cornmeal is self-rising, so I sprinkle cream of wheat granules on the pan instead…works great and slower to burn than anything else I’ve tried!). I let it rest on the pan for 3 hours (would have been 2 if I hadn’t gotten stuck on Pinterest) and baked it. During the 3-hour pan rise, it almost filled out my entire sheet tray…even touched the rim on 3 sides, so this made a LOT of sandwich bread for us.
Mine really looked and felt done after 20 minutes at 425, but I gave it an extra 5 for good measure…it didn’t need it. The bread is perfect! Good crust (even without spritzing with water), perfect spongy texture, and the perfect thickness all across for sandwiches. It’s just a tad dry from my overbaking, but a spritz of olive oil and a smear of lowfat mayo fixes this. Can’t wait to try making paninis with this today!
I have a challenge with the 14-18 hour ferment time of this bread. In order to have it warm and fresh for dinner, I have to start at about midnight. Since I work, that’s difficult. I can make it 10 hours before hand, by doing it before I leave in the morning, or I can do it at about 9 PM the night before – giving it a ferment time of almost 20 hours. I’m experimenting to see which is better.
Tiffany, actually that is an EXCELLENT idea and I think I’ll do that with the batch that I’m going to make tomorrow! Just be aware that the dough can be very wet, soft, and slightly sticky so you’ll need to keep flouring your hands as you shape the rolls! Good luck!
I’m a complete bread newbie, is it possible to turn this into rolls? Would I just seperate them into roll shapes before baking? Or is this just not a good idea? lol thank you :)
i’ve made this bread quite a few times and it is LOVELY. actually munching at a warm piece right now… absolutely best the first day or two. i always use at least half wholegrain flour, and it works puuurfectly. also, i brushed a bit of water before the oven, and it seems like it came out with even more of a crust.
Anonymous – yes you can sub. regular or bread flour for the whole wheat. As a matter of fact, it might even improve the crumb! I was just trying to squeeze in a little extra fiber ;)
I followed the recipe to the last crumb and just had a piece of it with marmalade- Fantastic and simple as advertised. This is the first loaf of bread I have made in my life and considering I just retired, that’s probably a longer life than most of your readers. My wife couldn’t believe it when I came home with all the ingredients but she is a believer now. No more store bought for me and I am now delving through all your bread posts. Maybe I’ll change my blog name to thesavvyboomerbaker.
i usually tend to stay away from making my own bread simply because trying to make certain doughs without a stand mixer or food processor is impossible! but this seems super simple and the bread looks delicious!
Thanks for posting this. Wow, only that much yeast? awesome! may have to make it this weekend. It will be perfect with some Italian Beef.
Can the whole wheat flour be substituted with all purpose?
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! for this recipe!!! your sandwich looks delish!! Going to make this tonight so that we can bake it tomorrow during the snow storm we’re expecting!
This is perfect for me! I don’t have a bread maker so bread I can make without one is great.