Recipe: How to bake crusty ciabatta at home

This flattish crusty bread means ‘slipper’ in Italian, a reference to its shape. Its hole-filled structure is excellent for soaking up delicious juices on a plate without falling apart.Recipe: Extract from All You Need to Know to Make Beautiful Breads Bread profile: made from a soft, wet dough; flavoured with olive oil; crisp crust; big, shiny holes in the crumb.Fermentation time: overnight.Ciabatta is quite a ‘flat’ dough. It’s wetter than most. It’s generally one of the softest ones around – that’s why it’s a little bit more difficult to work with, says Kāpiti Artisan Bakery owner David Winterbottom.“If you’ve done it correctly (the dough) will still hold its shape. It won’t flow like a big mass, like a cake mixture. If you fold it over and tuck it like an envelope, it will hold its shape.“You’d probably put in about two-thirds of the water at the beginning and get a nice dough. Once it’s smooth, work in the rest of the water.”TIPS FOR KNEADING CIABATTA DOUGHThis is a sticky dough. E...