I first came across ciabatta bread like many Americans, through Jack in the Box. Then Costco. These are much better because you know exactly what is in them. I did not have regular milk powder, only malted milk powder, and they turned out fine. I also did not have a spray nozzle to mist water on the top surfaces, but simply used my fingers to sprinkle water on top of each roll, and they seem fine. It makes 12 rolls. If that seems like a lot, you can always freeze them tightly wrapped. They reheat well in a 350 degree F. oven for about 8-10 minutes. Even though they are amazing for sandwiches, I like eating one sliced and toasted with butter and jam, as part of my breakfast in the morning.

ciabatta rolls (from King Arthur Flour’s recipe for ciabatta rolls)

ingredients

starter dough: 

1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup cool water

1/16 teaspoon active dry yeast

dough:

2 and 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 and 1/4 teaspoons salt

2 Tablespoons dry milk powder

2/3 cup lukewarm water

3 Tablespoons olive oil

-the whole starter dough from above

method

First make the starter dough. In a container with a lid, add the water, yeast, and flour and stir gently until all the flour is moistened. Cover with a lid and leave overnight at room temperature. Can be left at room temperature for up to 15 hours before use.

In a bowl of a stand mixer, add the active dry yeast and lukewarm water, plus a pinch of granulated sugar and stir gently, then leave undisturbed for about 5 minutes. If it doesn’t get frothy, start over with new yeast and make sure water is lukewarm, not hot.

Add the starter dough plus the rest of the dough ingredients–all-purpose flour, salt, dry milk powder and olive oil–to the bowl with the yeast water mixture.

Turn on the stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment to medium speed and let it go for about 7 minutes. If dough seems to be sticking too much to the paddle, you can switch to a dough hook attachment. After 7 minutes, dough should be smooth, soft, shiny and elastic.

Stop the mixer and transfer all contents of the bowl to a greased container and cover with a greased lid or a greased piece of plastic and leave it to sit for 2 hours to double in size.

After two hours, pour the dough onto a floured work surface and fold like a letter, in thirds, then turn the dough 90 degrees and fold like a letter again, in thirds.

Place back into the same container and let sit again another hour.

After another hour, grease 2 baking sheets and instead of a floured work surface, grease a work surface. 

Pour the dough onto the greased work surface and shape it so that it is roughly an 8” by 10” rectangle of dough. Cut into 12 rolls that are roughly about 2.5” square pieces of dough. It may be difficult to shape into perfect squares, but if that is important, really shape them into squares before sitting and baking.

Place 6 of these square pieces of dough to each greased baking sheet. Cover with greased pieces of plastic and let sit to get puffy, about 2-3 hours. Towards the end of rising time, heat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Spritz the tops of each roll with water. I did not have a spray bottle, so just used my fingers to sprinkle a little water on each roll. Immediately place in the oven and bake for about 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Switch or rotate baking sheets after about 10 minutes to ensure even baking.

Remove from oven and let cool at least 20 minutes before slicing in half and using to make sandwiches. Can be reheated for about 8 minutes in an oven at 350 degrees F.