easy ciabatta bread recipe

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homemade bread is irresistible, and this ciabatta bread recipe is so easy you’ll be baking a loaf weekly (or maybe that’s just me)

as much as i love baking cookies ^[4] and brownies ^[5], bread is where it’s at for me. if i had my way i would be baking loaf after loaf, day after day. i get excited just watching my sourdough starter ^[6]each morning.

our summer temperatures in northern california can be pretty extreme, so we tend to eat a lot of salad for dinner. i could eat this grilled caesar ^[7] pretty much every night. ian and the kids don’t get quite as excited as i do about salad for dinner, but they do love homemade bread. and i love baking bread so much that it is the one thing i am willing to heat up my kitchen for.

ciabatta bread has been on my must bake list for a long time. trouble is most recipes call for starter made the day ahead. some day i’ll make it this way, but usually i decide at the last minute to bake a loaf. so while this is not a classic ciabatta bread recipe, it is just as delicious and so amazingly simple to make.

Print Recipe ^[8]

Yield: 1 loaf

easy ciabatta bread recipe

Prep Time: 20 minutes plus 3 hour to rise

Cook Time: 30-40 minutes

Total Time: 4 hours

Ingredients:

• 3 cups AP flour
• 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp honey
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (100 – 110 degrees)
• olive oil and flour for shaping dough

Directions:

• in a large bowl whisk together the flour, yeast, and salt
• using a larger wood spoon beat in honey and water, and continue to mix for 5 minutes
• drizzle a little olive oil on your hands and scoop up the dough, turning to coat the dough on all sides, place dough back in the bowl and cover
• let dough rise for 3 hours
• preheat oven to 425 degrees
• line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and dust well with flour
• scrape the dough onto the parchment paper, flour your hands, and shape the dough into a rectangular/oval shape
• dust the surface of the bread with flour and bake 30 – 40 minutes until golden brown
• allow bread to cool before slicing

  

unlike many bread recipes, this ciabatta bread dough is very wet. so wet you may have a feeling you are doing it wrong, but trust me, it works. i didn’t even use my mixer just a big bowl and a large wooden spoon. get those arm muscles working.

because the dough is so wet, make sure you scrape the dough directly onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet that is very well floured. making sure your hands are floured also helps when shaping the loaf. dusting the top with flour before baking gives the finished loaf that distinctive ciabatta look. most importantly, this ciabatta bread recipe tastes like your favorite bakery loaf.

enjoy!