Ciabatta Bread with Sour Dough

Overnight, acidify the starter with the indicated quantity (in this case 150 g of flour and 150 ml of warm water).

The next morning, mix the flour with the salt, olive oil and the acidified starter. Now slowly add the water. Be careful because you may not need all the water. Now knead the dough until it is smooth and soft. It remains very soft.

Coat a bowl with oil and put the dough in, cover and let it rest for 2 hours, folding the dough at 30, 60 and 120 minutes. Since it is very soft, you can also do it in the bowl, using a dough scraper. Or put the dough on a surface well sprinkled with semolina flour, stretch it slightly from north to south and put one third from top to bottom, then put one third from bottom to top. Now stretch the dough slightly from east to west and also fold it again in thirds.

Then place the bowl in the refrigerator overnight (or at least 7 hours). Remove from the refrigerator and allow to warm up for at least 1.5 hours.

Now place the dough mixture in a greased and floured baking dish, I used a cake pan. Be careful not to move the dough too much so that you don’t squeeze the air out.

Preheat the oven to 250°. Bake the dough at 250° with a gush of water (for steam) for 10 minutes, then open the door to release the steam and bake at 220° for another 30 minutes. I let off steam after the 10 minutes were up, but wet the crust of the bread, so it gets browner.