I tried baking my high hydration ciabatta dough in my new bannetons.
It was a fiddly process – the ciabatta dough was almost too wet to shape – but the end result was quite pleasing nonetheless. I rose both loaves in my oval bannetons, and slashed one with three long vertical cuts, and the other with diagonal horizontal slashes.
The dough stuck a little to the cane baskets – I suspect I’ve reached the maximum hydration that I can prove in the bannetons – but the excess brushed off quite easily.
I managed to get a crumb shot this time before the wolves descended!
. . . . .
My lovely friend Joanna recently posted her recipe for 100% Russian rye sourdough loaves.
Both the recipe and the process were intriguing – the dough is mixed in two stages without kneading, and then left to rise for an extended time.
I didn’t bother bulk proving the dough, and instead scraped the batter into two long loaf tins as soon as it was mixed. These were covered and then left to rise on top of the fish tank for about seven hours, until the dough appeared over-inflated and on the verge of collapse.
After baking, we wrapped the loaves in paper and left them overnight (as instructed). They were quite nice the following day, and delicious the day after that – the crumb softened and the flavour developed as the loaves matured.
It’s a tasty and very interesting bread to bake, especially if you’re partial to rye loaves. Joanna’s original post is here!
Edit: here’s a photo of the risen, unbaked rye loaf – as you can see, it really didn’t rise at all after it went in the oven. Having said that, several hours before this photo, it was only an inch high in the pan.
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Those loaves look beautiful Celia, and I love the crumb shot of the high hydration loaf. What do the family make of the loaves being baked in the bannetons?
The rye loaf looks good too, very different to a standard white loaf!
C, thank you! There’s quite a lot of bread happenings in the kitchen at the moment, and the boys are feasting! :)
Your loaves look so pretty! The first time I used my bannetons, I used flour and I believe the dough quickly absorbed much of the flour which resulted the loaf sticking somewhat to the banneton. Then I tried semolina flour, which worked much, much better.
Frieda, thank you! I always flour with rye flour – I tried using regular bread flour on my tea towels when I was proving early on, and everything stuck terribly! I find the rye works really well, although I am still flouring very heavy-handedly – I’m still nervous some of the wetter doughs are going to stick like glue! :)
Mmm, is there really anything better than fresh baked home-made bread? Looks awesome!
Casey, thanks for stopping by! Agree completely – homemade bread is one of the nicest things in the world! :)
Thanks for trying this one out Celia! You really did hold on there with the final prove, what great aeration you got – just beautiful!
I too have experimented with wet doughs in bannetons, it can certainly be done! I think Dan demonstrated a shaping technique that used lots of flour even before the loaves went into the banneton, but it was a long time ago now. Maybe he will write something about it one day in one of his books. Anyway you are a great baker, and I blow flourdusty kisses in your general Antipodean direction x whoosh x whoosh x
Darling, it’s a brilliant recipe! Thanks for sharing it with us. I did exactly as you said, waited and waited, until I was sure it was going to fall in a heap, then put it straight in the oven, and as always, your advice was spot on. I wish I’d risen it in a slightly smaller tin and then it would have been a bit higher, but the taste and texture were perfect!
The ciabatta was really wet – about 77% hydration – but it still came out of the bannetons ok, although there was a couple of tense seconds there when it resisted just a little…
Really Celia, you are truly inspirational. I love your site and have put my sister onto it to. I look at it so often I could be accused of stalking!!! but I am always so interested in what is going to appear next. I am sitting in a qantas lounge ready to travel to Brisbane to be with my dear sis. I am hoping to make lovely pizza with her. One day I think you should run a lite weight not too fancy bread making class in your home, I am sure you would have lots of people come along to share the experience with you. I would even fly in from Melbourne! Thanks for this great blog
Claire, stalk away, and thank you for your kind comments! Hope you have fun making pizza with your sister! :)
Beautiful bread. I have not tried rye bread, I should give it a go.
Deb, it’s quite delicious with stronger flavoured food – Pete was eating it with pickles, and kept saying we needed to go out and buy cream cheese (but we ate the loaf before we got around to it!). :)
Hi Celia,
I’ve only recently found your blog and have been enjoying going through the archives – lots of great stuff here – thanks! I just had one question for you – I couldn’t find any info as to how your started your sourdough culture? Do you have a link or post as to how you got started on sourdough?
Thanks also for all the great Sydney links – will have to check some of those places out when I’m back.
Cheers,
Hannah
Hannah, I didn’t start my sourdough starter – I bought it! I ordered it from a place in the US called Northwest Sourdough – I wrote about it very early on here:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/03/07/sourdough/
Lots of friends of mine have created their own SD starters – I only managed to grow purple mould. :)
If you’re interested, check out Dan Lepard’s book The Handmade Loaf – it has great instructions on how to start your own!
Thanks so much Celia – that’s great help. I just end up with a stinky mess everytime I’ve tried!
Cheers,
Hannah
Celia they look delicious as usual. I saw some loaves at a bakery in Sydney on the weekend that must have been made in the same baskets and I thought of you. Yours look just as good!
Thanks love, you’re very kind! Hope you enjoyed your trip down! It’s been bucketing down rain since yesterday, hopefully you missed the downpour!
The loaves look great, Celia. I can’t see any evidence of sticking to the bannetons. With such high hydration dough, that’s really impressive.
I’m impressed with your rye. I don’t seem to have the knack for a good high % rye–probably becaused I’m a terror for not trusting the recipe.
Liz, thank you – do check out Joanna’s rye recipe, because it’s really interesting. I’ve never made a rye with holes before, so I was pretty astonished how this one turned out!
Wonderful Baking skills, Oh how I would love a slice with a smear of homemade Fig,Ginger and Brandy jam….Time for an enjoyable coffee break! Care to join me…x
Thanks Yvette, I’d love to! :)
Hi Celia, That 100% sourdough rye looks fantastic. It’s the most bread-like rye I’ve seen. The ciabatta is such a handy bread isn’t it. I usually prefer not to shape the ciabatta – simply a long bulk ferment and then tip the dough out and cut it, rest it for 15 min and load into the oven.
Namaste,
Craig
Craig, interestingly the rye got better and better over the course of a couple of days. It was at its best on the fourth day (I baked it in the evening, wrapped it and left it until the following day, so it was at its peak two days after that).
I don’t like shaping ciabatta either, but I was curious to see how well the bannetons would handle a wet dough. I don’t even bother to rest it usually – I turn the bulk dough out, cut it up, and shovel it straight into the oven! Hope everything’s going well and you’re having a wonderful time! :)
Now I’m really going to have to buy some more rye flour, I’m dying to give this one a crack. The high hydation loaves drive me mental. Each time I think, no, I can do it. They end up a very ‘free form’ loaf. Lovely banneton loaves though :-)
Brydie, most of my doughs are very high hydration, and what drives me nuts is that I can’t get them to hold any slashes well! Having said that though, I now find them easier to work and easier kneading on sore wrists and elbows! :)
i admire your baking skills and looking at your nice bread pictures i wonderfully think that beauty lies here in the simplicity of material and in the intrinsically artistic skills of yours! we thank you! :)
Gina, you’re lovely, thank you! I hope you’re enjoying some wonderful weather in Greece – it’s just turning cold over here now! :)
Celia, how wonderful that you are trying your different recipes in your bannetons, with wonderful results!
Joanna’s loaf really does sound very intriguing with the rising without kneading.
:-) Mandy
Mandy, thank you – I’m having great fun with the bannetons! Today I went to the hardware store to try and find a brush to clean them with – I settled on a very cheap and quite stiff paint brush (a dish brush is too hard on the cane!). Jo’s loaf is really fun to make, I’ll definitely be making it again!
They’re two very different but very beautiful loaves Celia! And hehe I can only imagine the smell of them baking would have made the wolves ravenous! :P
Lorraine, they wouldn’t go near the rye one, but they certainly made short work of the ciabattas! :)
Those rye loaves look so yummy! I bet the boys could smell them cooking all the way down the street.
Thanks Becca! The house did smell wonderful.. :)
Your breads are a work of art as usual.
I am more than a little tempted to make that rye!
Between you and Joanna I have developed a real hankering for a good strong rye. Do you have a pullman loaf pan as well? It looks perfectly square.
Heidi, thank you – I don’t have a pullman tin, but the dough rose very very flat and didn’t rise at all in the oven. Joanna’s advice is to leave it until you think it just can’t rise any more, then to bake it. Do try it – it’s a very interesting process and bread – resist the urge to knead it! :)
If you are unfamiliar with rye rising, mark the side of the tin, and just let it rise till it has at least doubled in height and you can see little bubbles breaking the surface, or if you have floured the top or put seeds on it then you should see the surface cracking. It’s about being patient because it doesn’t seem to move very much at all for the first hour or two. It also likes to be warm….
A warm fish tank lid was the perfect spot for it! :) It was so flat when it went into the tins – only about an inch high…
The loaves look beautiful – and how fantastically evenly textured! I’ve been looking for a starter in the shops but shall mail order and soon be able to try out my new banneton!
Fiona, thank you! I hope you have as much fun with your bannetons as I’ve been having with mine! :)
THANK YOU so much for your recent email reply!!! You’re so awesome Celia!! :)
Thanks so SO much for your kind words, made me smile!!! It’s so nice that people appreciate what I do. My favorite thing about blogging is interacting with other cool people. :) Thanks again.
Thanks for the compliments about my photos. I’m in the process of making some original print cards of my work. Signed at dated with edition numbers. Can’t wait to release it on the blog!!!!
Hope the rest of your week will be amazing.
Bisou,
Dakota
p.s Thanks for linking me in your international section :) Would you mind if I link you back? :)
Dakota, I’d be honoured! :) Absolutely love your photos, I think they’re some of the best I’ve seen on the blogosphere! Have a great week too!
THANK YOU Celia, you’re awesome and having comments like yours really is encouraging. Thank you thank you thank you.
p.s I’ll be organizing a proper link page tomorrow, and yours is going under my FAVORITE Australia food blogs. HAVE AN AMAZING WEEK!
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