Such features of this bread – great porosity and hard crust – gave rise to a funny name for the variety. Translated from Italian “ciabatta” means “carpet slippers”, which, according to Italian chefs, look like a loaf of this bread.
In general, the composition of the products that are included in the recipe for making ciabatta is the same as for any other type of bread: flour, salt, water, yeast or sourdough. In most cases, cream or milk is added to the recipe for Italian bread, sometimes herbs, olives and spices.
It is important that truly porous, baked and tasty Italian ciabatta bread will be when using special flour, which allows you not only to bake Italian bread in its original form, but also to achieve increased usefulness of such baked goods.
Flour for ciabatta
The original Italian ciabatta recipe indicates the use of a special high-protein flour. The protein content in it should be 12-14%. This will contribute to both a more dietary bread (the more protein, the less carbohydrates and, therefore, a threat to the figure and metabolism), and the creation of the desired structure of the ciabatta. Partly due to this flour, the number and volume of pores in the bread increases and a hard crust forms.
However, all of the above is not a dogma. The Italian ciabatta cultivar includes many varieties, sometimes quite different from each other.
Types of ciabatta
Ciabatta composition of which may have different properties depending on the ingredients included in it, may have different names. For example:
- como slippermade in towns around Lake Como and known for its lightness, porosity and crisp crust;
- Tuscan ciabatta, denser and softer crust;
- milk ciabatta obtained by using milk in a recipe (and this is translated as “ciabatta in milk”);
- integral slippermade from whole wheat flour.
Which Italian ciabatta will be cooked in your kitchen is up to you. We wish you a good experiment, try different types and choose exactly the Italian ciabatta bread that suits you the most. And remember: flour rich in protein is delicious and healthy!
