Good morning, bakers. This is our home base for today. 🔥 Two versions, same bread, same 80% hydration, no shaping, no scoring, all flavor: 👉 Yeasted with Poolish: pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/rustic-italian-ciabatta 👉 Sourdough with Levain: pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/sourdough-italian-ciabatta (Swap these for the trackable community links from the recipe card share button.) 🧭 How to use this thread: 📸 Post your poolish or levain photo first thing. Show me what you woke up to. 💬 Drop questions in the comments as you go. Mixing, fermentolyse, coil folds, bulk rise, divide and cut, final proof, bake. Every stage. I’ll be in here all day. 🏷️ Tag your photos with the stage so we can all follow along.“Poolish ready,” “Coil fold #2,” “Just divided,” “In the oven,” “Crumb shot.” ⚠️ A few reminders before you start: 👀 Watch the dough, not the clock. 50 to 70% rise on bulk, not doubled. Doubled means overproofed, and ciabatta will go flat on you. 💧 Wet hands and a wet bench scraper are your best friends today. Don’t add flour to a wet dough. Trust it. 🎥 The coil fold video I posted yesterday is pinned. Watch it once before your first fold if you’ve never done one. 🔥 Steam matters. Cast iron skillet of hot water on the bottom rack, or a Brod & Taylor dome — either works. Don’t skip it. 💡 If your bake doesn’t come out picture-perfect, post it anyway. We learn more from honest bakes than from highlight reels. 🚀 Let’s go. Drop your starting photos below. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥

Good Morning Bakers!!! I finally baked a Sourdough Pretzel Loaf and it's awesome!!! The outside tastes like a pretzel and the inside is even better! My one inclusion is mild cheddar cheese. I may make a cheese sauce for dipping. I thought I had over proofed it but looks like the crumb is nice and even, it shaped well by keeping its form and it had good oven spring. I encourage you to bake one too. My tip is to use a low hydration dough. @Donna Angelo @Sandy Chong @Henry Hunter Recipe: 165g Active Bubbly Starter 400g water 325g KA bread flour 325g Kirkland all purpose flour 15g Salt Mix together starter & water, mix until water is milky and starter is dissolved . Add all of the flour and mix together for 7 minutes, start mixing with a with a whisk and finish with your hands using a clawing motion. Cover and rest dough for 1 hour. After the 1 hour fermentolyse uncover dough and add the salt. Wet hands slightly and dimple the salt in for 1 minute. At this point you can use the Rubaud method but if you’re unable to do that you can do stretch and folds to incorporate the salt thoroughly. Rest dough for 30 minutes . Complete 10 slap & folds. Cover and rest 30 minutes . Complete 2 sets stretch and folds. Cover and rest 30 minutes. Complete 2 sets of stretch and folds. Cover and let rest undisturbed for 3-6 hours at 78*F or until your dough has proofed to 75%.Turn dough out onto a floured surface, pre shape dough, cover and let rest 15 minutes. Uncover and laminate dough and shape into a boule. Flip dough upside down into a Banneton. Cover well and cold retard for up to 16 hours. In a large stock pot, boil 5 quarts of water. Once water starts boiling turn dough onto a round bread sling and score. Pour 1/2 cup of baking soda into water. Let the baking soda fizz settle then CAREFULLY place bread on sling into the water and spoon water over the whole top of the loaf. Boil loaf for 30 seconds total. Remove from water and QUICKLY place loaf into your baking vessel. Bake 450*F for 30 covered. Rotate pan 180 degrees and bake 25 minutes covered depending on your oven. (It takes 55m in mine). Remove from oven at 190*F and immediately butter the entire outside of loaf and sprinkle Maldon Sea Salt Flakes . Allow loaf to cool COMPLETELY before slicing.

I love baking with freeze dried strawberries! I’ve made this white chocolate strawberry sourdough with fresh strawberries numerous times by adding them in during stretch and folds, and it’s always delicious. I wanted to do something different with this loaf, so I laminated crushed freeze dried strawberries just prior to shaping. Everything about this loaf is amazing!

You all were more impressive today than I've ever seen. Every week the bar moves up, and today you cleared it again. Poolish, levain, 80% hydration, no shape, no score, real ciabatta from real bakers in real kitchens. That's not nothing. Quick one before bed — give me a sentence or two: What was your biggest takeaway from this bake? Maybe it was the poolish and what slow fermentation actually does. Maybe it was learning to trust a wet dough and stop adding flour. Maybe it was the coil folds, or the couche, or finally understanding what 50 to 70% rise feels like in your hands. Drop yours below. Reading every one. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥

Same recipe with a small hydration increase and I extended bulk fermentation a little. FORMULA: 100/73/2/25 RECIPE = 2 loaves 945g bread flour 105g WW flour 726g warm water at approximately 105°f if your flour/salt/starter temperature is near 70°f before mixing. Desired dough temperature after the slap and folds and bench rest are completed… 84°f. 300g Hank/levain… 100% hydration / 50% bread flour/25% whole wheat flour/25% dark rye flour. 24g salt Total dough weight = 2100g I’m testing to see if I can move my hydration up to 73% to determine if beginners could handle the slight difference in the dough. Lower hydration dough is easier for beginners. Plus I wanted to see how my new High Gluten flour would handle the rise to 40% rise instead of my 30% rise I used with King Arthur flour. The gluten structure held up nicely. I got good oven spring, nice ears and pretty blisters. I have to wait to inspect the crumb.