This challenge starts with a little confusion. After watching the programme and going on the BBC website I can see that there are some big differences in the recipes. I know that the contestants are given very simple and basic recipes but the one on the BBC site is clearly different. For starters it seems to have three stages of proving not the regular two, and the first stage stakes 6 hours! As one of my rules with the technical challenges is to try and copy exactly the same recipe that the contestants I need to find the recipe that they have used. The first thing I do is check the Paul Hollywood How to Bake book that I have sitting on my shelf in the kitchen. There is one recipe for ciabatta, that looks similar, but I don’t remember the bakers using oil in the recipe. I realised that there was only one thing for it, so I decided to re-watch the programme again and try to catch a glimpse of the recipe.

Luckily there were a few moments where the recipe is in shot and after a few rewinds, I’ve managed to get the same recipe as on the show

500g strong white bread flour
10g salt
10g yeast (fast action)
440ml warm water
Semolina for dusting

The second thing to do is to get the retro Kenwood Chef down from the cupboard. I say retro because it isn’t as fancy as the new ones, but it works just as well. I bought it from my aunt a few years back when I finally had a big enough kitchen that I could store it in. It came with so many attachments that I haven’t yet been able to use them, let alone understand them all! Anyway, out it comes and with the dough hook attached. The dry ingredients have to be mixed together before adding the warm water. It’s important to keep the salt and the yeast separate, as the salt will stop the yeast from activating. The next step was to add ¾ of the warm water, and mix until just combined. I was a little distracted at this point, because I was trying to take pictures at the same time. I’d let it combine a little too much before adding the last ¼ of the water. When I did add it, there was a bit of slopping and splashing from the bowl, leaving a bit of mess to dry up later!

After mixing it for 8 minutes the dough reached the right consistancy, smooth and stretchy. For the first prove of the dough the bakers on the show all had a tall clear square containers. I have many similar containers but none that were square, so this ending up being the item of equipment that I needed to buy for this challenge. The reason that it needs to be square container is unclear, but I think it is so that it encourages the dough to climb the sides, and create larger air bubbles which is a key characteristic in ciabatta. The dough needs the rise at room temperature, which is great because room temperature is something I can do with no need for a gadget!

The good thing about using the clear container is that you can tell when the dough is ready tip out. What was funny though is that the dough had just started to touch the lid of the container when I was about to open it, as soon as I unclicked the sides of the lid the dough instantly rose reacting to the release in the pressure. I love seeing these chemical reactions in cooking, it reminds me of the magic behind it all!

Emptying the container onto a pre prepped flour and semolina surface, it kept its shape, even though it looked like a blob from a sci-fi film. Unfortunately I don’t think I oiled my container enough, as the dough did not come away as smoothly as the ones on the show and I had to get my fingers messy and scrape the last few bits out. The dough definitely had a life of it own as it just spread out over the surface so I had to work quickly to try and keep as much air in it as possible and shape it into 4 loaves. Trying to avoid touching it as much as possible, the transfer of the loaves to the baking tray was really tricky. How exactly are you supposed to lift a near liquid dough onto a tray, without knocking out the air that you worked so hard to get into the dough? I used my dough scraper as much as possible to help in the transfer but its difficult to keep the shape.

Eventually they were on the tray, I left the loaves to rest another 10 minutes while the oven got to temperature. I placed the loaves in front of the warming oven for good measure. The heat coming from the door and the use of the giant plastic bag, would help the loaves to prove for the second time. They didn’t really rise much this time, instead they just spread out a little more. Dusting them one last time with the flour they were placed in the oven for 25- 30 minutes until golden brown. It was hard to tell when they were the right colour because of the flour, so it back to the old hollow knock on the bottom of the loaf that was the final decider as to whether they were cooked through enough.

I always find it hard to have to wait until bread has cooled down until you can test it. My mum is the same, and can never wait til a bake is cooled before trying it, always managing to pinch a biscuit when I’m not looking. Anyway I managed to distract myself enough with the prep for the next bake that when I did get to making the first cut to the loaves they were nicely cool.

As you can see from the pics, the dough has managed to keep most of the air bubbles as needed, without looking like the pitta texture that Chetna had. They had a good rise, but the shape on them could have been better and more even.

For a first attempt at these loaves, I’m pleased with the outcome and will be doing them again. If anything the flavour is better than shop bought and you have the added bonus of the aroma while your baking it…heavenly!