No Knead Ciabatta Bread

Recipe courtesy: Food Wishes

I always wanted to bake bread , somehow I didn’t have the courage. May be it’s my previous experience with bread had stopped me. Back in india, before my marriage Sundays used to be my culinary experimental days: white rats? My parents and two dogs :). Once I came across this awesome honey bread recipe, I decided I am gonna make it. My mother being wiser told me to use half the quantity since it’s an experiment. Well no , I was very sure that this will be a success and I some how convinced her. The ingredients were 1kg all purpose flour, honey and blah blah blah. I made it according to the instructions and a golden brown loaf was the result. I made tea and invited my parents to the table. Hmmm you should have the seen the look on my father’s face, as if his daughter has conquered the world. They both sat down and I started slicing the bread, well the knife was not moving. How do you cut a chicken? Yeah I had to use the same butcher knife and the force. My mother was hesitant on trying the piece like thing I had served, but my dad somehow managed to nibble something from the sides and he was so happy that his daughter made “BREAD AT HOME”.

The saddest part is that since I didn’t want to hurt my parents tooth anymore I happily gave the bread to my dogs and they rejected it. After the first bite they gave me a stare that I will never forget. From that day I never went near them alone, who knows whether they will take the revenge???

Anways this Ciabatta bread came out well and my family loved, especially my little one. I made it one V- Day. Because of his curiosity he started poking the bread which I had kept on the table to cool down. I was trying to keep him away from my bread and forgot to switch of the oven with my Parmesan chicken and nearly burned it. Well life is not that easy!!!

Ingredients:

Bread flour / All Purpose Flour- 4 cups
Yeast- 1/4 tsp
Water- 2 cups
Salt- 1 1/2 tsp

Method:

In a mixing bowl, mix together flour, yeast, water and salt together. It comes out as a very sticky dough. Cover the bowl with silver foil and keep it at room temperature to rise for 18 hrs.

After 18 hrs, you’ll get a very bubbly sticky dough. On a silver foil or plastic sheet sprinkle some flour and scrape down the dough. Sprinkle some more flour on top of the dough and slowly punch down the air. Stretch it into long flat loaf. On a baking sheet spray some oil and sprinkle corn meal generously. Transfer the dough to the sheet and shape the loaf once more. Cover it with a kitchen towel and let it rise for 3 hrs.

Pre-heat the oven to 425 C. Fill a loaf pan with water and keep it inside the oven. Steam from this will give the bread a nice crust and chewy inside. Bake the loaf for 35- 45 mns. Cool it over a wire rack and enjoy….

My little one having fun !!!