Smeg Baking Stone Recipe: Easy Ciabatta

Most ciabatta recipes begin with a biga which is the Italian term for a starter.  That requires thinking about your bread the day before you want it - which I frequently dont do! . This recipe is for a loaf prepared and cooked on the same day. It has a fairly long prove done at room temperature which helps give the bread some of the flavour it is missing out on by not using the biga. It doesnt though have a long second prove. It just needs a little rest between shaping and cooking. 

This is a very wet high hydration dough which makes it very sticky. The kneading is much easier done with a stand mixer for this reason. This makes 2 loaves.

METHOD

1. Add the flour, salt and yeast to the bowl of  a stand mixer ( if you use the active yeast that is little round balls you will need to dissolve it first in some of the water and wait for it to bubble up a bit but if you use the very fine instant active yeast you can just add it directly to the flour as long as you know its still active and alive)
2. Add the water to the bowl
3. Knead using a dough hook for 10 minutes or until the dough is very shiny smooth and elastic 
4. Turn the dough out into an oiled container with a lid  . I use a Sistema cake tin . Put the lid on. If you dont have a lid, cover the container with oiled plastic wrap.
5. Leave for 2- 2.5 hours or until it has risen to 3x its volume and is bubbly 
6. At least 45 minutes before you want to bake your bread, put the baking stone on a rack near the bottom of the oven and set the oven to OTHER FUNCTIONS>BAKING STONE 250C .  If you do not have a Smeg Galileo oven, put a baking stone on the bottom rack of the oven and set the oven to bottom and fan forced, or similar function 250C 
7. Let the stone heat up for 45 minutes 
8. Sprinkle a board liberally with flour and carefully turn out the dough trying to keep as much of the aeration as possible.
9. Using a floured knife or dough scraper, cut the dough in half into 2 rectangles.
10. Lightly use floured hands to shape the dough into puffy rectangle shapes. 
11. I find it easier to transfer the dough into the oven on baking paper so carefully transfer your loaves onto sheets of floured baking paper
12. Transfer the dough onto the baking stone and cook for 18-20 minutes or until the loaf is puffed and golden.  Remove the baking paper by pulling it out from under the loaf after about 5 minutes 
13. Cool on a wire rack .