Bread!

So last year for Christmas my dad bought me a book on baking bread. Mostly to amuse himself. See, my dad thinks it's just hilarious that I can bake tiered cakes, pies, cookies, fudge, cheesecake (usually) and cannot, for the life of me, bake bread. Everytime I try to make it, it doesn't rise properly and it comes out like a block of bread. So he bought me the book and told me to "practice" and then chuckled. (Let's just say it was not a good idea to bring over to my parent's house one of these blocks of bread. Until I figure this bread thing out, I will never live it down.) So Saturday afternoon started the 24 hour trial that was Ciabatta. Here is the recipe I used from my dad's book combined with a friend's recipe. Oh, and I used my KitchenAid mixer because I live for my KitchenAid mixer. You can do it by hand, you just have to knead with hands wherever the recipe says to stir in KitchenAid mixer.

(Day 1)

1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast

2 tablespoons warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C) - This was a damned pain

1/3 cup warm water

1 cup bread flour

(Day 2)

1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast

2 tablespoons warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C) - was still a pain the next day

2/3 cup warm water

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups bread flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1. To Make Starter: In a small bowl stir together 1/8 teaspoon of the yeast and the warm water and let stand 5 minutes, or until creamy. (You shouldn't see many granules at this point)  
2. Using a standing mixer, stir together yeast mixture, 1/3 cup of the water, and 1cup of the bread flour. Stir 4 minutes (do not move this from the stir setting). When starter becomes smooth and starts to form a ball, transfer starter dough into a bowl that has been lightly oiled, then cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let stand at cool room temperature for at least 12 hours and up to 1 day. The starter will be a little bubbly.
3.  To Make Bread: In a small bowl stir together yeast and milk and let stand 5 minutes, or until creamy. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with dough hook blend together milk mixture, starter dough, water, oil, and flour at low speed until flour is just moistened. (It should start looking like a sticky dough). Add salt and mix until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Scrape dough into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
4. Let dough rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours. This can take up to 3 hours, but dough will be sticky and full of air bubbles.  Turn dough out onto a well-floured work surface and separate in half. Transfer each half to a parchment sheet and form into an irregular oval about 9 inches long. Dimple loaves with floured fingers and dust tops with flour. Cover loaves with a dampened warm kitchen towel. Let loaves rise at room temperature until almost doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
5. At least 45 minutes before baking ciabatta, put a baking stone on oven rack in lowest position in oven and preheat oven to 425 F (220 degrees C). (You can get a baking stone for about $10 at Target - they're also great for baking homemade pizza)
6. Transfer loaves on parchment to warmed baking stone. (I made my hubby do this, I am prone to falls and spills). The easiest way to do this is to place the loaves on the parchment onto a cooking sheet and then sliding the parchment from the cookie sheet onto the stone.
7. Bake ciabatta loaves 20 minutes, or until pale golden. If you knock on the bottom of the ciabatta and it sounds hollow, it is done. Cool loaves on a wire rack.

Results: Pretty darned good. It's not as good as fancy-bakery bought bread but after all that work you feel rather good about yourself. Unless of course you're married to my husband, who says after you place both loaves onto the cooling rack: "Wow, two whole days of work and we got two loaves of bread. Aren't these like $1.50 at Jewel?" Thanks dear. Anybody who reads this (all 4 of my friends) please let me know if you have tips on baking better bread. It is much appreciated. And the tip had better not be "Go to Jewel" because my husband already took that one.