How to Make a 100% Biga Ciabatta | Perfect Handmade Italian Bread Recipe

100% Biga Ciabatta. Those words alone make me curious. This slow fermented ciabatta is packed with flavour. Normally when we make bread, we preferment part of the total flour. This on the other hand is fully made of preferment giving it an extra flavour punch.
I came up with this when I was making a 100% biga pizza for which you can find a recipe on my channel too. And come to think of it many breads can be made this way. I will surely add some more to the 100% preferment recipe list in the future.
That is the beauty of bread making - there is always something interesting to discover. A lot of methods can be adapted to be used in different recipes.
I hope that it’s the reason you are here. We don’t concentrate only on recipes, but we try and understand the principles behind them.
The method for this recipe is super simple. Make the biga, proof it for up to 24 hours, add some water, yeast, salt & olive oil. Knead it to bring it all together. From there it’s just a regular ciabatta.
📖 Get the recipe ➡️ www.chainbaker.com/biga-ciaba...
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🥨 To learn more about bread making click here ⤵️
Principles of Baking bit.ly/principles-of-baking
The Steps of Baking bit.ly/steps-of-baking
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🔪 Find all the things I use here ⤵️
🇺🇸 www.amazon.com/shop/ChainBaker
🇬🇧 www.amazon.co.uk/shop/ChainBaker
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🌾 If you would like to support my work click here ⤵️
www.ko-fi.com/chainbaker
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Disclosure
I participate in the Amazon Influencer Program which will earn commissions from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
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CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:47 Ingredients & equipment
2:11 Making the biga
4:00 Final dough
5:37 Bulk fermentation & folding
6:42 Shaping & final fermentatin
9:33 Baking & final result
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#Bread #Baking #ChainBaker

[@ChainBaker]

📖 Find the written recipe in the link below the video ⤴️ 🌾 If you would like to support my work click here ⤵️ www.ko-fi.com/chainbaker 🔪 Find all the things I use here ⤵️ 🇺🇸 www.amazon.com/shop/ChainBaker 🇬🇧 www.amazon.co.uk/shop/ChainBaker 🥨 To learn more about bread making click here ⤵️ Principles of Baking bit.ly/principles-of-baking The Steps of Baking bit.ly/steps-of-baking

[@termlimits6395]

Your series of videos, for me, takes me to the next level in baking breads. A master class in bread making. Excellent production.

[@ChainBaker]

I'm glad you're finding them useful. Cheers! :)

[@brandoncyoung]

I'll have to try this out. Thanks for such a detailed demo

[@philip6502]

Great looking bake. On the list. 👍

[@Happy1heart48]

Oooh I so want to try this recipe! THANK YOU! You do such a great job explaining everything so well and in detail! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@ChainBaker]

🤩

[@user-mv5rh5wc2b]

I picked up some great tips here! I’ll be making ciabatta soon and your video really helped me! 👏🏻🙌

[@sidvicioux]

best bread channel on KZbin!

[@kylehealy]

dang, I have two of your breads proofing and now I need more bowls... This looks like a must. I miss Ciabatta bread!

[@janwest5627]

Thanks! I’ve used the recipe twice and used the baking paper for final proof which makes it easy to transfer to oven.

[@robinb6637]

Great recipe and demo!

[@ChainBaker]

Thank you, Robin! :)

[@vampirefox97]

Been binging your videos over the past week or so. I used to make pizza dough and baguettes at a pizzeria and have been missing baking bread and your videos have been super informative and enjoyable. Am going to try this recipe very soon, it looks delicious!

[@ChainBaker]

Thank you so much! :) Let me know how it turns out.

[@ajl8198]

I love your technique of using water on your hands for kneading a sticky dough that is so smart!!

[@bobaslah]

Splendid chef .. you are specifying things with a touch of pro and a vivid sense of humor .. grateful ⭐⭐⭐

[@ChainBaker]

Thank you so much! :) That is very kind of you.

[@americanrebel413]

Thank you.

[@anitaschvitz9749]

Making this tonight

[@NK-cd5lk]

Great Video! Am learning so much. I've never tried Ciabatta.... will do so now. This looks tempting. Thanks.

[@ChainBaker]

Let me know how it turns out :)

[@annchovy6]

Made a double batch of this for sandwiches and they were perfect.

[@krauz111]

Just did this one and it was great. Easy to knead and a great flavor. Thanks for the video

[@ChainBaker]

Glad you enjoyed it! :)

[@zapp442]

This is an amazing channel!

[@ChainBaker]

Thank you so much, Leon! :)

[@Simonagon]

♥️♥️♥️♥️ i am going to try It, i really LOVE all tour recipes, this look perfect.

[@ChainBaker]

Let me know how it turns out 😉

[@N9524Q]

I just watch this again. And it is a good video. When I do ciabatta, I do it differently. I believe is actually a lot less work and the flavor is good. I mix everything at 65 to 70% hydration in a stand mixer and 4g of IDY to 500g of flour ( yes a lot of yeast) and 2% salt. I now have a special fridge that is set at 50°F. I put it in the fridge until double in size generally 12 to 18 hours. It depends on the final temperature after mixing if you wanted to take longer cool the ingredients down before mixing. That gives Nice fragmented smell to the dough. I am now using your method of dividing and proofing with the parchment paper for the final proof. At home I have a Anova steam oven and on the island I have a German Rational oven also steam. I don't like baking bread on Stone as you have done, the bottom does not brown well, unless the stone is super hot. I prefer the first 12 minutes on a tray then I literally take them off of the tray and put them on a wire rack so that the underside will get brown also. I turn the oven way down during this final Browning to around 350 F.

[@sanc47]

It is very surprising how many different ways you can achieve excellent result as long as you are in control. Chain baker is quite a talent .

[@ranasen242]

Excellent bread🥖

[@ChainBaker]

Can't go wrong with ciabatta :))

[@Jeepy2-LoveToBake]

Just finshed baking this recipe - outstanding!! WIll share with family to try. Pain Rustique is next up.

[@ChainBaker]

I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

[@user-ru8uy9jr8t]

يا خباز يا فنان 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@ChainBaker]

🤩

[@ChainBaker]

Do you know of any other breads made of 100% pre-ferment?

[@charlessotis3499]

Mr. Charley, I have to tell you that I made this recipe about a week ago and was pleasantly surprised. I proofed it for 15 hours. The ambient temp in my kitchen, counter and equipment were all at 74°. I mixed solely by hand. The rolls came out with a decent flavor and crust but I was disappointed in that the crumb had too few holes and the ones that were produced were quite small. Undaunted, this past weekend I decided to make a double recipe (am I a nut or what?). Anyway, the result was a joy - a beautiful golden brown crust, much improved - but the holes for the crumb still need more work. Any suggestions? BTW, In preparation for cutting the roll pieces from the dough (after flattening out the dough), I laid my cooling rack on that slab of dough, pressed it into the dough and it marked the areas for cutting the pieces! Nice and easy. When I needed to cool down the water I had drawn from the tap, I used ice chips. I did 3 sets of 6 Stretch and Folds between 45 minute proofs. Thank you sharing your immense baking knowledge with me and for helping making me (and all the rest of us here) become much better bakers. I will support your work again today.

[@ChainBaker]

Nice technique with marking the dough! :) If you want larger holes, then try adding more water. And handle the dough gently to not deflate it too much. Cheers! :)

[@anitaschvitz9749]

Oh man. Still thinking about how tasty the ciabatta was, filled with ham, cheese, pastrami, butter crunch lettuce from my hydro garden and honey mustard. Goldrush potatoes from last years garden fried in butter (ghee). Mmmmm, I need a tums. Ciabatta was awesome

[@ChainBaker]

Ooh now I'm hungry! 😁

[@N9524Q]

Apparently my first comment was deleted. But I definitely learned something from you and you inspired me. I have baked literally thousands of loaves of bread and pizzas. I own a resort in the Bay of Panama and have a restaurant associated with that. I currently have a sourdough biga that's at 60% hydration. But I generally only use 10% inoculation when making bread. I am surprised how low the hydration you used and how many holes that you were able to achieve. I am going to try to reproduce your results. The Inspiration you gave me was to use this product for both hamburgers and sandwiches. 😀 Also thank you for the trick with the parchment paper. Keep up the good work

[@ChainBaker]

Hi Sonny! I have no idea what happened there, but this is not the first time a comment disappears for no reason. I'm glad you got some inspiration from this recipe. It is well worth a try even if just for the fun of it :) oh yes a ciabatta hamburger sounds awesome! Let me know how it goes. Cheers!

[@N9524Q]

@@ChainBaker holes are always a function of hydration extensibility kneading and handling. I have always did it by hand or with a KitchenAid but on the island I have it 10 quart that I use for pizza dough. I always under mix and then add a few stretch and folds. Since you have a Lotta holes at fairly low hydration it means that your dough was very extendable and you handled it very gently. I have ordered a small spiral mixer (famag 8S) Do you have any opinions of spiral mixers? I am hoping to get a more consistent mix to full window pane and therefore more holes

[@ChainBaker]

@@N9524Q you are right. I would also add that a proper fermentation adds to the open crumb too. That is a great way of doing it and I totally agree. I of course technically always under mix as I only use my hands. Never used a spiral mixer so I can't say, but they are widely used in bakeries so they must be effective. That being said you could probably get the same results with other mixers too.

[@kellyschroeder1329]

Hi Chain Baker, Im so glad I dound your channel. Ive been wondering about breads consistencies, yeast, and how to make what turn into what and this channel is perfect. Thanks. What type of tools would you say are a "must" for bread baking? -Kelly

[@ChainBaker]

Scales that can weigh down to 0.1g, a plastic dough scraper, and a digital temperature probe are a must in my opinion. Without those tools bread making would be a lot more difficult and unpredictable ✌️

[@johndcoffee632]

Thanks man, these videos are brilliant, i'm learning so much. Now my only problem is finding people to give bread to so i don't eat it all :P

[@ChainBaker]

😁👍

[@mantisbiker]

Thanks for all you videos. Do you know what is the equivalent French flour for your recipes using string bread flour? T55, T65? Thanks

[@ChainBaker]

T55 should be the one.

[@edithgravel9029]

By watching this video, it prevented me from buying a baker’s couche. Thank you for all the info presented in this video. I am no longer afraid to make ciabatta. I also love focaccia, do you have a complete recipe using the Biga as a preferment? Thank you.

[@ChainBaker]

Try this for a ciabatta kzbin.info/www/bejne/enTPi4F4oMeVh9U I've stopped using pre-ferments in favour of cold fermentation. Here's my latest focaccia kzbin.info/www/bejne/amOZpIeagNJ2mtU

[@susanohnhaus611]

Many years ago I saw an ethnographic article on American Indian bread that used this long ferment, very little yeast method. The woman was critical of other Indian women who "cheated" and used more yeast to speed up the process. The bread was baked in outdoor woodfired ovens. I cook with sourdough and use this method for all my breads. And pancakes too.

[@samodiva2011]

Very good recipe. I will definitely give it a try. I have one question. Can I use my Kitchen Aid stand mixer to do the needing, instead of hand needing you show? Am I going to achieve the same result? Thank you.

[@ChainBaker]

Yes, you can certainly use mixer for this or any other of my recipes. The only thing to look out for is the amount of dough. I usually make small batches which makes it easier for me to knead. If the bowl of your mixer is quite large, then you may need to double the amount of ingredients so that it can mix it effectively. Mix it on medium-low speed for about 5 - 7 minutes.

[@Pachurry14]

@@ChainBaker i cook for my family and have to knead larger amounts like 1kg of flour (not THAT much) is there a change in the kneading process for both low and high hydatrion? sometimes it gets kinda tiring hehe

[@ChainBaker]

For high hydration dough I can only recommend the stretch & fold method. And you can also use autolyse to help with gluten development before even kneading. Here are a couple of videos that may help. 1) kzbin.info/www/bejne/immpfGiXpdp_apI 2) kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZTcZZJ-fMtliac

[@Pachurry14]

@@ChainBaker thank you very much! i did watch those already but never tried autolyse i guess thats my next tecnique to try. ty again for your time you're an excellent teacher and baker im so glad i found your channel hope many people found it too!

[@ChainBaker]

🙏

[@ninonvanuytrecht661]

Hi, Nice video’s your making. I see you set your oven on the grill. Is this for a reason?

[@ChainBaker]

The only reason is that it is the only option on my crappy oven :)) It only has a heating element on the top and that is the grill. I would always suggest using both top and bottom heating elements if possible.

[@nitros1989]

I wonder If the extra yeast in the final dough is needed at all If one uses fresh yeast. From my understanding the yeast will proliferate in the biga and should be strong enough to rise the bread. At least this works for sour dough without any yeast from the shop.

[@ChainBaker]

The preferment is there to help reduce fermentation time. If you want to let the whole dough rise for even longer, then simply mix all ingredients from the beginning and use less yeast. Here is a video comparing the two methods - kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5nGimmuntmoq7c :)

[@natik2136]

Sorry, another question follow-up to my biga question on the other video. I'm making the ciabatta today and I had the biga in the fridge for two days after counter fermentation. It's really hard getting the lumps out. I have ropes running through the dough after I added the oil and the rest of the yeast and water, even after kneading for 10+ minutes. Did I ovenproof the biga?

[@ChainBaker]

Over proofing would have the opposite effect. The gluten breaks down and gets weaker. Perhaps your flour is just very strong. I would suggest switching to cold bulk fermentation instead. It simplifies the process - kzbin.info/www/bejne/rl6bhqJ7nNmnapo

[@natik2136]

​@ChainBaker it also smelled weird (bitter). All kinds of issues here. I started over with your earlier recipe using a poolish instead. The 100% biga ones are great, when I don't ruin them. Cheers.

[@nicosgeo]

Just remove the baking paper and you will have a crispiest bottom as well . It happens to me when I bake pizza on steel the absence of the baking paper makes the difference in the bottom crust. 10:45

[@ChainBaker]

Thank you. That is a great tip and it makes total sense. I never thought of it 😁 gonna try next time for sure. Cheers!

[@cher128bx]

Can you skip the wheat flour and use 100% stong flour in this ciabatta recipe without there being much of a difference?

[@ChainBaker]

Yeah it's such a small difference that you won't have to adjust anything 👍

[@garyh2831]

Can you please take the temperature of your bread after baking each time.

[@ChainBaker]

A fully baked bread should be over 94C (200F) in most cases. So, this ciabatta was at that temperature. Same goes with all the other breads I bake 👍

[@johncipolla8335]

Hey what is whole meal flour. is it like a rye or wheat?

[@ChainBaker]

Whole meal flour is what we call whole wheat flour in the UK.

[@johncipolla8335]

@@ChainBaker does that include like a dark rye?

[@ChainBaker]

Rye is rye and wheat is wheat. There can be wholemeal rye flour, but in this video it is wheat specifically.

[@Jeepy2-LoveToBake]

My biga is fermenting overnight - baking some Ciabatta tomorrow.

[@ChainBaker]

I'm planning to make a sourdough version of this too. Curious to see how it will work with a 100% biga. Although I guess it would not be 100% biga because I would have to add more starter on the following day. Damn I'm confused now 😂

[@Jeepy2-LoveToBake]

@@ChainBaker I'm sure you'll figure it out - I'll be sure to try this new sourdough version 🤩

[@satishdalvi7733]

Pl give exact ingredients in gms. I am surprised when you said overall hydration is 65% only. If I make it 70% overall hydration , we may get more open crumbs perhaps.

[@ChainBaker]

The written recipe is in the link below the video👍

[@Joesmith-fu4ps]

I'm going to try this recipe in a couple of days. What is the total amount of water in this recipe? You mention the final dough to be about 63 % hydration. 300 grams of total flour and 150 grams of water is 50 % hydration. Add the oil and it's still only 56%. Am I right? Should I add a bit more water to bring it up to about 63%? Update. I think I got it. 150 grams of water when you make the Biga. 40 more grams of water the next day when you mix the final dough. Don't count the 20 grams of oil in the hydration.

[@ChainBaker]

That's it 👍

[@bigonprivacy2708]

@@ChainBaker Ah, the oil is NOT included in the hydration. Okay, I thought you always had to. Thanks but a quick question...If you went with 70%, it would seem that the dough would not fully accept all that extra 7%. I tried this without wathing this video because I watched your 4 pre-ferments video. EVERYTHING looked the same as yours after the pre-forment. However, I used an even higher hydration recipe (~76%) but when I added the water, the pre-ferment did't absorb all of the water. Any thoughts on why? Or should I always shoot lower when using a 100% biga?

[@dkosmari]

You might want to fix the recipe on your page, step 8, instead of saying "fold", it's just blank.

[@ChainBaker]

Thanks for letting me know :)

[@sanc47]

it would be more interesting if you cut your bread open so that we can see the inside. IT IS EASY to bake good looking bread .

[@ChainBaker]

I cut it open in the first 30 seconds of the video. What do you mean?

[@sanc47]

@@ChainBaker I am sorry if I missed it. May be it is confusing for some people to see it first then observe the process of baking it later. As you know any body can bake bread following instructions but creating texture and flavour of the bread can only be achieved by knowledge and experience. I love seeing you bake but being a bread baker myself ( not professionally) for nearly 40 years I enjoy seeing how others bake bread. None I have seen follow my techniques which I learnt from my Sicilian grand mother as a child and have altered it a little during the years. As you know there are more than one way to bake first class bread. Without an exaggeration you are a master baker and I have only seen one more like you on KZbin . Interests me to see your way of baking . It is always lovely to see the bread cut open at the end for me any way as you know the texture tells you a lot of story about the bread.

[@ChainBaker]

Ah yes I like to show people what they will get before they watch the whole video :) thank you for the kind words! I still have so much to learn. And that is what I love about bread making - there is always something new to discover.

[@cloudtam9931]

I baked ciabatta too, but guess would never reach your level. 😢

[@ChainBaker]

I'm sure you could make much better ciabattas than mine ;)

[@termlimits6395]

Note that wholewheat refers to flour made from wheat, while the terms wholemeal and wholegrain can also refer to other varieties of grain e.g. rye, spelt or buckwheat. Wholewheat could therefore also be described as wholemeal made from 100% wheat. What's your version of wholemeal flour?

[@ChainBaker]

I use wholemeal wheat flour. Here in the UK it is commonly know as such. But I get what you are saying. I also have a bag of wholemeal rye flour in the cupboard. I'll be sure to clarity in the future. Thank you :)