ångel food

We got a grill pan and panini press set for Christmas and have experimented with a few different kinds of bread and filling combinations. Inspired by this recipe from Food Network, my husband even tried a croissant panini one afternoon; despite the fact that he accidentally let it cook too long, after he peeled off the burned exterior he said it was pretty good. We found a brand of ciabatta sold in our grocery store’s bakery that worked out really well, but it was sold out when I went back to pick up a second loaf.

I’m generally not a fan of baking. For some reason, it seems like it’s so much easier to muck things up when making a baked good as opposed to just cooking a meal. I also don’t like having to work on a recipe in spurts; I’d rather spend an hour or two in the kitchen doing active work than have to check in on the progress of my rising dough every so often, punch it down, and wait for it to rise again. Despite all of this, I decided I needed to try making my own ciabatta loaf.

The recipe is pretty simple, but it requires a stand mixer and needs to be made about a day or two in advance of when you’d want to use it. It’s the first baking recipe I’ve tried that uses an Italian starter called a biga. You might be able to hand knead the dough, but it was very sticky when I made it and you’re not supposed to add in a lot of extra flour. I had thought that shaping the dough into the loaf would be a bit of a production, but it took less than five minutes, and the illustrations were really easy to follow.

(more…)