Ever since first starting to make bread in January, I've been becoming increasingly addicted to making bread. Lately I've been making different kinds of breads at least once a month, sometimes even once a week. I think part of the reason I enjoy it so much is because it's a true challenge. Each time I make bread, there's nothing seriously wrong with it (meaning, it's edible), but there's always some small improvement I can make to it. One example is in making ciabatta bread. I've made it three times so far, two of which I've blogged about, and it's astonishing how much you can improve your bread making skills with each attempt.
My third attempt has been my best yet. Instead of the couple loaves I've done previously, I decided to make buns. One problem I had when making ciabatta bread before was that I never got the large holes that are characteristic of ciabatta. I always just got smaller holes. This time the bread came out holier, and I'm pretty sure I know how. First of all, my starter mix was left in the fridge much longer than the 12 hours it's supposed to be left for. As a result, it came out with lots of bubbles in it. Secondly, I left the dough for its first rising about a hour longer than the recipe said. I realized that the recipe mentioned the dough would be ready for the next step when there were bubbles dotting the surface, but there weren't any visible after the rising time, so I just waited until I could see them. As a result, my third attempt at ciabatta bread resulted in beautiful big holes.
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