Faux Ciabatta

      I started out with the good intention of replicating a recipe from the "Farine" blog for Pain Pave.

http://www.farine-mc.com/2010/01/pave-au-levain.html

 Traditionally, the loaf is minimally shaped to look something like a paving stone. After looking at the formula, I thought I'd end up with a loaf that would be somewhere between focaccia and ciabatta due to the hydration, which I guessed is somewhere near 80%.

I didn't quite stay within the guidelines but did end up with a tasty bread. High extraction flour is called for but that's one that I don't have around the house so I used King Artur AP and Heartland Mill Bolted Turkey Red flour instead.

Starter
150g at 95% hydration, fed with 80% AP, 20% bolted Turkey Red flour in a two stage build.

Main Dough
304g AP flour
74g bolted Turkey Red flour
287g water at 73F
9g kosher salt
All of starter
Attention to detail, patience, and time

Farine called for some different procedures than my usual methods. There are details provided in the linked blog post. The late addition of salt is one that I found particularly interesting because of the effect on the slack dough.

Authenticity wasn't a priority on this first attempt at this style of bread. I was close but not to the letter and still got a good bread. The formula yields two ciabatta type loaves, half of the original yield.

A straggling hummingbird stopped at the neighbors' feeder today.
There might have been some more migrating Monarch butterflies in the yard this year, but I don't recall seeing more than a few. It's really too late in the year to expect others.
While I'm trying to clean out the garden and flower beds for the winter, I did take some time today to plant a couple short rows leaf lettuce for a late crop. Fresh lettuce is simply so superior due to freshness that the store bought pales in comparison.
There's an attractive, simple sourdough with whole wheat cooling off in the kitchen this evening that seems to be asking for some kind of chili, soup, or stew to be matched with the autumnal weather. The equinox is almost here and the great migrations of waterfowl should be starting soon. The garlic will be planted around election day as usual because one stinker deserves another.

Visitors to the blog lately include page views from Argentina, Czech Republic, and Singapore.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.