Delicious Ciabatta Rolls

Do you love a sandwich on a nice Ciabatta Roll?  I do, and making them yourself can be easy and a fun!

The primary bread recipe that I use can make many different breads.  I use it most for my Baguettes but also for:

• Italian Loaves – I just shape each loaf shorter and fatter, so the loaf has a diameter about double that of a baguette.
• Dinner rolls – in a future blog post I will talk about all the different kinds of interesting dinner rolls you can make with this dough.  If you don’t want to wait, get the Bakers Companion book from King Arthur Flour and look at pages 222=223.
• Ciabatta loaves or rolls – see below.

My basic bread recipe and lots of notes and suggestions can be found on my Blog Post Baking Delicious Baguettes –http://- https://billwinetravelfood.com/2024/05/04/baking-delicious-baguettes/

I will jump on my soapbox one more time about what has made all the difference for me in bread baking – using pasta water!  When we make pasta, we leave the pan of cloudy water that that is left when we take the pasta up so that it cools while we are eating.  What makes that water cloudy is lots of starch that the pasta gives off when put in the boiling water.  Yeast love that starch!  I measure out two healthy cups of that water and chill it in the refrigerator and then put it in a zip lock bag and freeze it.  When I am making any bread, I put that large clump of frozen water in a ceramic bowl and into the microwave at a low setting for 3-4 minutes until it is completely melted.  I then use one cup for my starter and the second cup for making the dough as spelled out in the above recipe.  Your bread will rise much better and faster using that starchy water, especially the final oven rise. 

For Ciabatta loaves I just shape the loaves a little flatter and wider than baguettes for the final rise so the slices come out in a flat oval. 

For my Ciabatta rolls I divide the dough into 8 equal sized pieces.  Getting each piece pretty much the same size is important so they are all fully cooked at the same time.  To do this I use my digital scale with a sheet of wax paper on it.  I divide the dough into two pieces and weigh each piece.  I move pinches of the dough from one to the other until they are both very close to the same weight.  I then repeat that process two more times, splitting each of the halves into two so I have four pieces that I get to equal weights, and then split each of those so I have eight pieces of equal weight.  When I say equal, plus or minus 0.1 lb. is good enough.  It takes me about 10 minutes to do this, a lot faster than it might seem from the above description. I shape each of the rolls to be about 4”x4” which I think is great for sandwiches.  You can use a La Cloche to help maintain that size for the final rising and have each roll on a small piece of parchment to go on your baking stones.  Just as a reminder, the baking stones I use are covered in my Blog Post Pizza Stone Alternative which you can find at https://billwinetravelfood.com/2023/02/14/pizza-stone-alternative/

I use the baking stones, but I put each of my loaves into a small cast iron baking pan for the final rise and the baking.  The baking stones get the cast iron up to speed faster and the cast iron pan holds the shape during baking.  You can see the pans I use in the picture above.  The ones I use are the WINCO Cast Iron Server 10 oz.  A link to get them from Amazon is below.  We also use them to make several individual cornbreads, which is great since there are just two of us, so we can freeze the others for a later dinner. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YLD3SD8?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

I spritz the rolls with water and use a lame slashing tool to score the top of each roll with three slices in each direction just before putting them in the oven so I have a pattern of small squares in the finished rolls.  I cook them for 20 minutes in a 425° oven and they come out with nice color.  They will freeze well for a few months if you are not serving all eight right away. 

In addition to using them for sandwiches, I also defrost one, warm it in the oven, and slice it when we want bread to accompany the meal.  One roll sliced is great for the two of us instead of using 1/3 of a baguette and having the rest left over. 

If you give this a try, I’d love to hear how it works out for you.  I hope you enjoy your Ciabatta Rolls as much as we do.