Second Attempt at Ciabatta Bread

 

I made ciabatta bread again last week, and I think it turned out better than the first time. It's always good when you can make improvements on your execution of a recipe, and I think a single factor went into making better bread. 

The yeast I used the first time was almost a year old. It didn't occur to me before that the yeast was a bit too old, but Jennifer and I made bread a few times since then and noticed that it always needed a longer rising time than usual. I bought new yeast this time, and I don't know if you can notice it in the picture above, but the bread had those delicate holes that ciabatta is supposed to have.  

The loaves ended up much better looking too. Not that it matters that much when it comes to bread, but these loaves turned out a lot smoother and less wrinkled like my last batch did.

Above all, they had that delicious mature flavour that you get as a result of using a biga mixture in the bread dough, and a thick crust, brown crust that you get from creating steam in the oven.