Caramelized Onion and Herb Ciabatta - BBA Challenge #7

I've been dreading this bread since the beginning of this challange. The thought of working with a wet dough was a bit intimidating. However, it turns out that it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Isn't that the way it always is? Let's pretend you said yes. We fear the unknown but once we do it, we wonder what the big deal was.

I had the choice of two pre-ferments to use with this ciabatta recipe... a poolish or a biga. I've never made either one so I chose the first one that appeared in the book. The poolish is made a day in advance and cools it's heels in in the fridge overnight while it develops all that wonderful flavor.

My first poolish. Isn't it cute? It's smells wonderful. ...well, for poolish anyway.

While the poolish was warming up from it's over night stay in coolville, I sliced 4 cups of vidalia onions and put them over medium heat to caramelize.

Once the onions started turning brown, I added a couple of TB of sugar, let them carmalize a little more, than added the balsamic vinegar.

While the onions were carmelizing, I chopped up parsley and basil fresh from my herb garden. I tossed them in with the onions and balsamic vinegar until they wilted. I put the mixture to the side to cool while I mixed up the dough.

The dough was fast and easy to mix. Stir the flour, salt and yeast together, add the poolish and water. Mix for 7 minutes. I had to use the maximum amount of water plus 6 more TBs to get the dough to clear the sides but stick to the bottom as Peter describes in his book.

I poured the wet stretchy dough onto a generously floured table.

I pushed it out into a rectangle, floured the top and made the first stretch & fold. I let it rest for 30 minutes.

The book says to fold the onion mixture in at the second stretch & fold 1/4 at a time depending on how many loafs you were making... Ummm, so he's assuming the dough is divided into separate loaves already. Yet the instruction do not divide the dough into loaves until the shaping stage. What to do, what to do? I decided to divide the dough before the second fold and folded in the onion mixture. In the picture below, I have 1/4 of the onion mixture under the flap and 1/4 on top of the flap. I folded the last flap on top of the onions and let it rest 2 hours

Should I have waited to fold the other 1/4 of the onion mixture in at the last stretch and fold after the 2 hour rest? I have no idea.

One more stretch & folded and onto the couche they go. Don't they look cute?

It was a little tricky getting the dough to the pan after the proofing stage on the couche. Next time I will use parchment paper under the dough before putting them on the couche. Since they were so big I had to bake them separately. One loaf proofed for 45 minutes, the other for 65.

The finished loaf

A crumb shot

and another

This was very tasty and had a great chew.

What I learned:

• Use more water for bigger holes
• Use AP flour for bigger holes
• brush excess flour from dough before stretching & folding
• Use a parchment sheet before putting them on the couche
• Cut the recipe in half

For your viewing pleasure, here's someone demonstrating making ciabatta with a different recipe.