Ciabatta al Formaggio

Another foray into pre-fermentation! The recipe I used for ciabatta al formaggio called for poolish: a flour, water, yeast starter with the consistency of very thick pancake batter.

This sits in the refrigerator overnight bubbling away and fermenting slowly and, then is added to the ciabatta dough recipe the next day. I added cheddar, provolone and romano cheese to the dough first by layering it on top of the dough.

Then by folding it in. (The dough can actually be wetter than this and still work).

Here's the dough ready for its second to last rise (before it's shaped and ready to go in the oven.

The shape of this bread is supposed to resemble a dancer's slipper. I need some practice...but here's the dough ready to pop into the oven.

And...here are the finished loaves of ciabatta.

I think I worked the dough a little too much when I was getting it ready for the oven...This bread, characteristically, has large holes in it and I'm sure I popped some of the bubbles when I was shaping it, but, still I'm happy with the final outcome...a tasty addition to tonight's dinner. The cheese filled in some of the air pockets for a nice little burst of flavor. Definitely going to try this recipe again.

Enjoy!--Janyce

BTW, you can find the recipe I used in Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice." This is the second recipe I've tried from the book...loving it so far! The instructions are clear and the illustrations make it easy to know what the bread's supposed to look like at various stages.