PREPARATION

Mix the ingredients for the first dough the day before baking. Combine the flour, water and yeast in a bowl and mix with a whisk or wooden spoon until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and let ferment for about 16 hours overnight at room temperature.

You can skip this step and calm the dough in one day, but it is precisely this first acid that gives your chiabattas the perfect, slightly sour taste.

Use a kitchen robot with a dough hook and mix all dough ingredients for 10-15 minutes at medium speed. The dough must be like a cream after mixing (see photo and video below).

If it is well mixed, the dough is liquid, but it will release itself easily from the bowl and is not too sticky and most importantly: it is wonderfully supple – like a cream; and it looks like this (see photo).

Carefully “pour” the dough into the oiled bowl, where it extended to a rectangle and from each side and fold (see photo and video). Then cover it and let it rise for 45 minutes in a warm place.

Then pull it back into the rectangle and fold it with wet hands from each side and let it rise covered for another 45 minutes.

Sprinkle the workplace well with the flour and carefully pour the dough out of the box. Do not touch it with your hands at all. Cut it into pieces of the same weight (two larger ones or several smaller ones) with a dough stick. Start by first pulling each piece of dough from the shorter sides, gently pulling it in the middle until you get a rectangle; as for the first wicker, and fold the ends in the middle. Fold the last side together and gently squeeze the dough out at the end. Place the chiabatta’s on a floured kitchen towel with “ugly lace” facing up and let them rise for another 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 446°F – 482°F.

After rising, gently take the chiabatta’s with your hands and turn the joined side down while gently stretching them in length and place them on a baking sheet (see second video).

Place a drip plate (for ice) in the bottom rack of the oven. Put a few pieces of ice on it, put the chiabattas in the oven and immediately close the oven door.

Bake them for 25-35 minutes (long chiabatta’s) and let them cool on a rack after baking.

A well-baked chiabatta sounds nicely hollow when you knock on it. The inside temperature should be 93°C- 98°C warm, which means that the fermentation process is complete and will not continue in your gut.

Enjoy your chiabatta’s.