Sprouted Wheat Sourdough Ciabatta Food

SPROUTED WHEAT SOURDOUGH CIABATTA

Steps:

• MIXING AND BULK FERMENTATION
• Combine all the ingredients in a stand mixer with dough hook attachment. Mix on low speed about a minute until combined and then scrape down the sides. Then mix on medium-low speed for about 5 minutes and then transfer the dough to a clean bowl. Alternately or additionally, mix in a bowl with a stiff spatula and then with the Rubaud Method for 2-10 minutes (the longer time is if you take breaks). After mixing, note the time and room temperature if you like to track fermentation this way.
• Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
• Do three gentle stretch and folds, spaced 25-45 minutes apart. Use damp fingertips or a dough scraper to pull the dough from the sides of the bowl and fold it over (four sides, twice around). Cover after each stretch and fold.
• Let ferment until bubbly and roughly doubled. This was a little over 4 hours from mixing in summer house temps (75-78F).
• SHAPING
• Flour your countertop, then scrape the dough out of the bowl.
• Flour your hands and gently slide your fingers under the dough from all sides to pull it outward into a square shape about 1/2 an inch thick. Do not flour the surface of the dough as this will be the interior of your slippers.
• Using a bench scraper, fold the rectangle of dough in half on itself. Then cut the dough in pieces. I went with five small slippers, almost like large rolls. Of note I did not do a bench rest and reshape. It was about 10 minutes from bowl to couche.
• Using a bench scraper and your free hand, transfer the slippers to the channels of a heavily floured couche or tea towel. The slippers will scrunch up a bit as you gather them, but you can adjust and stretch them out again as you lay them in the couche.
• Loosely cover the slippers with the couche itself or with another tea towel.
• PROOFING AND OVEN PREP
• Let the slippers proof for about 30 minutes at warm room temperatures, longer in cool temps.
• If you have a baking stone or steel, put it in the oven. You can also cook the slippers on a metal cookie sheet. (Do not use a dark non-stick surface because of the high oven temperature.)
• Prepare to create steam early in the baking process. You can put a cast iron pan on the shelf under the baking stone. Or you can create a drip system by putting an aluminum pan with a pinhole in the oven under the stone, and a metal cookie sheet on the base of the oven. When making the pinhole, test over your sink that water drips through it about 1-2 drops a second. My heating element is exposed on the bottom of my oven, so the aluminum pan drips onto the bottom of the oven rather than a cookie sheet, which works fine too. (See gallery for photo of setup.)
• Preheat your oven and stone to 500 F for 30 minutes as the dough proofs. If you are baking on a cookie sheet, a 15 minute preheat should be enough.
• BAKING
• When proofing is complete, flip the slippers onto pieces of parchment paper, and slide the slippers onto your preheated stone. You can use a pizza peel or a cold upside down cookie sheet to transfer the slippers.
• Immediately pour a cup of water onto the aluminum tray or cast iron pan that is under your stone, and quickly close the oven door to trap the steam.
• Bake at 500 F for 10 minutes. Then remove the parchment paper and rotate the slippers 180 degrees if your oven seems to brown unevenly.
• Bake an additional 5-10 minutes at 450 F.
• After baking, turn off the oven, crack open the door a couple of inches, and leave the slippers in the oven for another 5 minutes. This will make the crust crunchier.
• Internal temperature should be about 205 F.
• Let cool on a rack for about one hour before slicing.

SPROUTED WHEAT SOURDOUGH BREAD

Steps:

• Mix all of the ingredients together until everything is incorporated. Sprouted flour has a lot of enzymatic activity, so a long autolyse is not advised, but mixing the flour and water first and letting it sit for 20-30 minutes is okay.
• After mixing, cover your dough and let it rest for about 15 minutes, then hand-mix it Rubaud style for a minute or two, to boost the gluten development.
• For the next few hours, perform four rounds of coil folding of the dough (see video), roughly every 30 minutes.
• When the dough has close to doubled, and has bubbles on the surface (see gallery), scrape it out of your bowl onto a floured countertop and preshape it into a boule.
• Cover the dough with an upside-down bowl, plastic wrap or damp towel, and let it rest about 30 minutes.
• The second video in this recipe blog depicts the shaping technique described below. Sprinkle the top of the rested dough with flour and flip it over. Gently stretch it outward in all directions, then fold the top of the dough about 1/3 down. Now fold the sides inward one at a time. Cinch/fold the tube that is forming down again. Fold the sides inward again. Finally roll the tube onto any remaining dough and adjust to have the seam in complete contact with your countertop.
• Using your bench knife, pull the dough tube toward you while gently tugging the sides outward. Your final tube should be about 12 inches long.
• Place the dough in your floured proofing basket seam-side up, cover it, and let it proof at room temperature 30-90 minutes or in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours.
• Begin preheating the oven and oblong clay baker to 500F 30 minutes before baking.
• Flip the dough into the hot baker and score the top. I wanted to do an intricate score, so I flipped the dough onto parchment paper, brushed off the excess flour, scored the dough, and lifted the paper/dough into the base of the baker.
• Cover the baker and bake at:
• 500F for 20 minutes, cover on
• 450F for 7 minutes, cover on
• 450F for 7+ minutes, cover off
• Final internal temperature of the bread should be around 205F.