This is my attempt at imitating Essential Bread Co.'s Ciabatta bread (highly recommended!), using their list of ingredients and the bread-making directions in the Tassajara Bread Book (highly recommended!). It turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself! It tastes like sourdough bread even though it doesn't have a sourdough starter - this is probably due to the lack of sugar and the slow risings.
Ingredients:
3 C lukewarm water
1 1/2 Tbsp. salt
2 pkg. (1 1/2 Tbsp.) dry yeast
7 C. unsifted unbleached white flour
unbleached white flour for kneading
1. Combine water (that is neither warm nor cold on your wrist) and yeast in bowl. Stir to dissolve.
2. Stir in 3 cups of flour. Stir with ~100 strokes to give the yeast a boost.
3. Cover with damp cloth and let rise until double (~1 1/2 hrs) in warm place (85-95'F). I usually place my loaves next to the fireplace.
4. Sprinkle salt on dough. Fold in (cut dough as little as possible).
5. Fold in rest of flour.
6. Flour board and hands. Empty bowl onto board. Knead, adding flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking.
7. Lightly oil bowl. Put dough in bowl, turn to coat dough with oil.
8. Cover with same cloth and let rise until double (~2 hrs) in warm place.
9. Invert onto board. If kneaded well, you should not need flour on the board. Cut into two loaves.
10. Flatten loaves with hands and roll into log.
11. Lightly oil bread pans. Place smooth side of loaves down in pans. Turn loaves over to coat with oil.
OR Lightly oil a cookie sheet. Place loaves smooth side down on sheet. Turn loaves over to coat with oil.
12. Turn the oven on to 350'F.
13. Cover with same cloth and let rise until noticeably bigger (~30 min.) in warm place.
14. Cut tops with scissors. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a golden brown and they sound hollow when thumped.
15. Immediately take loaves out of pans and place on racks to cool.
Variation:
To add more nutritional value and protein, substitute the 7 C. flour with
1/2 C. soy flour, 1/2 C. dry milk, 1/4 C. wheat germ, and 5 1/2 C. flour.
Vegans can use 1/2 C. flour instead of 1/2 C. dry milk and still get a
nutritional boost. Add 3 C. flour in step 2 as usual. In step 5, fold in
the soy flour, dry milk, and wheat germ before the rest of the flour. I
haven't tried this yet, so I'm not sure how it will affect the bread. However,
I have done these additions in other breads with no noticeable difference.