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CiabattaRecipe

Open-crumb Italian slab. Wet, sticky, glorious.

high hydrationstretch and foldslabopen crumb

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About this ratio

Ciabatta is the loaf you make when you want the most dramatic open crumb a home oven can produce: big, glossy, irregular holes, a thin crackly crust, and a flat slipper shape (ciabatta means "slipper" in Italian) that is built for splitting into sandwiches or mopping a plate. It is the hardest lean bread in this library, and the difficulty is almost entirely about the water.

At 78% hydration the dough is genuinely wet — too slack and sticky to knead the conventional way without adding flour and ruining the crumb. That is the whole technique. Instead of kneading, you develop the gluten with a series of stretch-and-folds in the bowl, gathering the dough up and over itself every half hour or so during the bulk ferment. Each fold builds strength while keeping all that water in, and the gas you are trapping is what becomes those huge holes. The low 0.5% yeast keeps fermentation slow so flavor has time to develop.

The overnight biga (a stiff Italian pre-ferment) is the classic path and the one documented here: build the biga the night before, then mix, fold, and bake the next day. It adds a faint tang and a noticeably more open, more flavorful crumb than a straight dough.

Two things make or break it. First, resist the urge to add flour — a wet, slack, almost unmanageable dough is correct, and a bench scraper plus floured hands is how you handle it. Second, handle the proofed dough gently when you cut and transfer it; ciabatta is shaped by barely shaping it at all, letting the gas stay where it is. Bake hot with steam for the spring and the crust.

At a glance

At its default setting, this Ciabatta recipe makes 2 loaves at about 400g each — about 800g of dough in total. In baker's percentage that breaks down to 443g Bread flour or 00 flour (100%), 346g Water (78%), 8.9g Salt (2%), and 2.2g Instant yeast (0.5%). Change the loaves or enter a target dough weight in the calculator and every amount rescales to match, in grams or ounces.

Recommended hydration

75–85%

Make

2loaves

Display unit

Total dough

800g

  • 443gBread flour or 00 flour100% baker's
  • 346gWater78% baker's
  • 8.9gSalt2% baker's
  • 2.2gInstant yeast0.5% baker's

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Step-by-step method

How to bake this Ciabatta

Ciabatta is a wet, sticky high-hydration dough. Wild open crumb is the whole point. The the night before builds the flavor; the daytime stretch-and-fold sets you up for the open structure. Don't knead. You can't, and you don't need to.

01

Build the biga

12–16 hours (biga build)room temperature (~68°F / 20°C)
  1. 1.The night before, mix : 150g bread flour, 100g warm water (~75°F / 24°C — slightly cool for the long overnight build), and a pinch (0.3g) of instant yeast in a quart container.
  2. 2.Stir into a stiff paste, cover loosely, and leave on the counter overnight.
  3. 3.In the morning the biga should be domed and webbed with bubbles. It smells lightly tart and very yeasty.

Use cool water on a warm night to avoid overproofing the biga before morning.

02

Mix final dough

15 minutesroom temperature
  1. 1.Tip the biga into a large bowl. Add the remaining flour, water, salt, and yeast.
  2. 2.Mix with a spatula or wet hand for 3–4 minutes until shaggy and no dry flour remains. The dough will be very wet and sticky. That's correct.
  3. 3.Cover and rest 15 minutes.
03

Bulk fermentation

3–4 hours75°F / 24°C
  1. 1.Do a set of every 30 minutes for the first 2 hours. Four sets total. Use a wet hand; the dough will let go more easily.
  2. 2.After the last set, the dough should be smoother, hold a soft dome, and feel airy when nudged.
  3. 3.Let it rest covered for the remaining 1–2 hours until risen by about 75% and full of visible bubbles.

Ciabatta wants more bulk than baguette. You're building the open crumb here, not at the shape.

04

Shape

5 minutesroom temperature
  1. 1.Generously flour a counter and tip the dough out. Gently, to preserve the air.
  2. 2.Dust the top with flour. Use a bench scraper to cut the dough into 2 rectangles, each roughly slipper-shaped.
  3. 3.Lift each piece onto a heavily floured or parchment-lined sheet pan, smooth side up. No tight shaping. Gravity will do the work.
05

Final proof

30–40 minutes75°F / 24°C
  1. 1.Cover loosely and let proof until visibly puffy. The dough should look relaxed and slightly jiggly.
  2. 2.Preheat the oven to 475°F / 245°C with a baking stone or steel and a cast-iron skillet for steam. Give it at least 45 minutes — a stone needs the full preheat to fully saturate with thermal mass and deliver good oven spring.
06

Bake

22–25 minutes475°F / 245°C with steam
  1. 1.Flip the ciabattas onto a parchment-lined (the floured side is now down) and slide onto the stone.
  2. 2.Pour about 1 cup of boiling water into the skillet, shut the oven fast, and bake 12 minutes with steam.
  3. 3.Remove the skillet and bake another 10–13 minutes until deep golden-brown and hollow-sounding underneath.
  4. 4.Cool on a rack at least 30 minutes. Ciabatta needs the rest to set its open crumb.

Frequently asked

Questions about this recipe.

  • How do I scale this Ciabatta recipe to make more or fewer loaves?

    Use the calculator on this page. Adjust the output count or per-loaf weight; every ingredient amount updates automatically. You can also enter a total dough weight and the calculator works backwards. The Ciabatta recipe is written in baker's percentages, so it scales proportionally without changing the bread's character.

More general questions about ratios, hydration, and the calculator on the FAQ page.

Background concepts

More Lean breads