Quick video for anyone baking ciabatta tomorrow. Coil folds are how we build strength in a high-hydration dough without deflating it. Four of them, 30 minutes apart, wet hands, gentle lift from the middle and let the dough tuck under itself. If you’ve never done one, watch this once before you mix. If you have, watch it anyway — the rhythm matters more than the motion. Both recipes are live in the Pantry: Yeasted with poolish: pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/rustic-italian-ciabatta Sourdough with levain: pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/sourdough-italian-ciabatta Remember: start your poolish or levain tonight. Questions in the thread. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥

Two versions, same bread family: Yeasted with poolish. Big open crumb, ready to bake tomorrow afternoon. Mix the poolish tonight: 150g flour, 150g water, a pinch (0.5g) of instant yeast. Whisk, cover, leave on the counter. 12 to 16 hours at room temp and you’ll wake up to a bubbly, domed preferment. Sourdough with levain. Deeper flavor, better keeping, adds 2–3 hours tomorrow. Feed your starter tonight, or build a small levain before bed: 10g ripe starter, 50g flour, 50g water. Float test in the morning confirms it. Both one-sheets are live in the Pantry now. Same structure, same 80% hydration, same no-shape, no-score slipper loaves. Pick your path. I’m back from being out of town this morning, so I’m here. Questions about timing, flour, starter strength, whether your kitchen is too cold, whether to do both — drop them below. I’ll be in the thread all afternoon. Recipe: https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/rustic-italian-ciabatta Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥

🍞 THIS SATURDAY: Rustic Italian Ciabatta After babka week nearly broke the comment counter and marbling bread had everyone turning dough into art, we're going back to basics. Sort of. This Saturday we're baking a proper Rustic Italian Ciabatta. Lean dough, 80% hydration, built on an overnight poolish. No shaping. No scoring. Just a wet, bubbly dough that gets poured onto a floured counter, cut in half, and baked into two crackly-crusted slippers with the kind of open, honeycomb crumb that makes olive oil sing. Here's why this one matters: It teaches hydration confidence. If 80% hydration makes you nervous, this is exactly the dough you need to bake. You can't hurt it by treating it gently. You can only hurt it by over-handling. It teaches preferments. The poolish is 5 minutes of work Friday night and it does 80% of the flavor work while you sleep. Once you understand what a poolish does for ciabatta, you'll start using them in other breads too. It teaches minimal intervention. Every week we've been talking about building tension, scoring, shaping, stretching. Ciabatta is the counterpoint. Sometimes the best shaping is no shaping at all. Three paths to pick from: (check the toggle in the recipe) 🥖 Yeasted with Poolish (classic, beginner-friendly) 🌾 Sourdough with Levain (for my starter folks) 🧀 Inclusions welcome (olives, roasted garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, rosemary, whatever you've got) Recipe is in the Recipe Pantry now. Friday night we mix the poolish. Saturday morning we bake. https://skoo.ly/rustic-ciabatta I'll be in the kitchen and in the thread all day. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥

This is where flavor starts. Equal parts flour and water. A pinch of yeast. Let it sit overnight. By morning, it’s alive. Bubbly. Ready to go. That’s fermentation already working before your dough even comes together. If your bread feels like it’s missing something, this is usually it.