Sourdough Ciabatta - Step by Step (with video!)

Light and soft, this sourdough ciabatta bread is easy to make at home, without a mixer.

The dough for this ciabatta is fun to work with and if you've got a well-maintained sourdough starter and strong bread flour, it'll be a breeze!

Jump to:

• What is a ciabatta?
• The sourdough ciabatta process
• The sourdough starter
• The dough
• Method
• Baking the dough
• Related recipes
• Full Recipe

What is a ciabatta?

The word ciabatta means 'slipper' in Italian, and I see why. Ciabatta is made with a very wet dough. The high hydration means the dough spreads out a little more, into a long slipper shape.

This sourdough ciabatta has a hydration of around 83%. It's a fair bit wetter than my standard sourdough loaf recipe. I still make this by hand though, without a mixer.

The sourdough ciabatta process

It's a two-day process to make this ciabatta (surprise, surprise!) That's the time needed to strengthen the dough and ferment it well, so your bread is airy, light, and delicious.

The sourdough starter

First up, feed your sourdough starter. With all my sourdough (unless it's sourdough discard recipes), I use a nice and active starter with low acid content. This means I keep my starter refreshed often, so the acid build-up stays low.

I use it when it has at least doubled, if not tripled, but before it passes its peak and collapses.

The dough

The dough consists of strong bread flour (with a protein level of at least 11.5%), water, a little olive oil, salt, and of course, the sourdough starter.

Method

In a large bowl mix together the flour and water into a sticky and shaggy dough. Cover the bowl and leave this dough to hydrate for around 30 minutes. This step is called the autolyze.

After the autolyze, add the salt, starter, and oil and squish it together with wet hands until well combined.

Tip the dough into a shallow dish, and coil it every 30 minutes for 3 hours until the dough is elastic and strong.

A coil fold is when you lift the dough up and coil it over itself. Do this on all sides until you create a dough ball.

Even though it's a wet dough, if your starter is good, you're going to notice the incredible changes in the dough as it strengthens and the gluten is worked.

After the last coil fold, let the dough ferment further on the bench until it has bulked out by around 50%. Transfer to the fridge overnight (or up to 24 hours)

Shaping

After the fridge rest, the dough will have stretched out and filled the dish but there should be plenty of signs of bubbles and fermentation.

Tip the dough onto a well-floured bench and dust the top of the dough generously with flour. Use a bench scraper to push the dough into a rectangle.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper and dust the parchment paper with flour.

Use the bench scraper to cut the dough rectangle, width-wise into 2 even pieces.

Using floured hands, take one piece and lay it on the parchment paper. Stretch it out just a little as you lay it down. Repeat with the second piece.

Cover the dough with a floured kitchen towel and let the dough sit at room temperature for around an hour. If your kitchen is on the cooler side, increase this to one and a half hours.

Baking the dough

Preheat an oven to 230 °C (450 °F).

Bake the loaves for around 25 minutes in the oven alongside a tray with a few inches of water to create some steam while the sourdough ciabatta bakes.

Once baked it should be a deep golden brown and sound hollow when tapped. Let the bread cool for at least an hour before slicing to avoid a gummy texture.

These sourdough dinner rolls or sourdough burger buns are another great way to use your starter!

You can make sourdough ciabatta rolls too!

Related recipes

What have you filled your ciabatta with? Try it with this egg salad!