Sunday, January 20, 2008

A warm cozy day


Ciabatta! According to The Bread Bible, success with bread this is most difficult to achieve. The bread is very light, with huge air holes (an essential feature), and a crispy crust. However, cooking from this wonderful book reminds me a bit of chemistry lab, and that is what is needed here. Incredibly specific instructions - 176 grams of this, 3 grams of that – beat for 4 minutes, and so on, up to “bake until thermometer reads 214 degrees.” Very exact, but that is what is needed with ciabatta, as the dough is so moist that, if not for the chemistry lesson, one would think it surely needed more flour, and the end result would be disappointing.

1 comment:

bex said...

You're falling behind in your blogging! HAve you not baked lately?