Ciabatta: The Open-Crumb Bread
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Origin
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Description
Ciabatta — "slipper" in Italian, named for its flat, wide shape — achieves its characteristic large, irregular open crumb through very high hydration and minimal shaping. The paradox: a dough so wet that it can barely be handled produces bread with an almost hollow interior structure. The technique is non-intervention: the dough is mixed, fermented long, handled as little as possible, and baked with steam in the oven. Every act of shaping compresses and destroys the gas bubbles that produce the open crumb.
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The Thread
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Flavour Context
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Pillars V — VII
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