Japanese Honey Castella Cake

"Ah-ah-ah-choo!" Pardon me. I think I have caught the latest "Castella-cake flu bugs" too :p

I can't stop admiring how Biren from Roti and Rice and Ann from Anncoo Journal bake their Castella cakes. Biren is always clever and detailed with her baking and I enjoy reading all her detailed explanations of the origins and procedures of her baked goods. Ann is always brilliant and perfect with all her baking and her Castella cake is a spot-on! 

A few years back before I started blogging, I always remember a particular Castella cake post that had enchanted me for years! It was the one from The Little Teochew that captured all the "sparkling" angles of her Castella cake. Her post mentioned that she used the recipe from Just Hungry which uses a technique of whisking the cake batter while holding the bowl over a pan of hot water. I did tried baking Castella Cake using Just Hungry recipe for not just once but for more than three times but failed very badly in all my attempts. I thought I was hopeless in Castella cake baking and wouldn't be able to bake a Castella cake in my life. LOL!

Until recently, I saw how Cheah from No-Frills Recipes did all her interesting research to bake her Castella cake and how Sonia from Nasi Lemak Lover finally succeed baking her Castella cake after five attempts. I am very inspired by Sonia's perseverance, and didn't want live my life regretting not baking a Castella cake...LOL! And, here I am baking my own honey Castella cake! And, I'm glad that I did it!

The Castella cake recipe that I using is from Roti and Rice. With so many recipes to choose, why am I choosing this recipe?

All mainly because Biren's recipe doesn't contain any cake stabiliser. I have used Ovalette (a cake stabiliser) before to bake my sponge cakes but didn't like the idea of having an emulsifier in my cake because I reckon that it creates an over-"bouncy" texture. I must admit that the cakes with added stabilisers does stay in their shape very well with the least amount of shrinkage but I think Biren has designed her recipe in the way that the eggs in her cake has been cleverly treated to create a fabulous Castella cake texture. Thanks Biren. This cake is so light and beautiful!

I didn't have a traditional Castella wooden cake pan and so I improvised mine according to Biren's instructions.

Making the cake

Admiring every angle of the cake when it was freshly baked

Thanks Biren! This cake is so light and beautiful!

Here's the recipe from Roti and Rice

(with my modification in blue in order to bake the cake in 11 cm x 21 cm loaf pan)

2 egg whites at room temperature (increase to 3)

2 egg yolks at room temperature (increase to 3)

5 tbsp (70g) sugar (remain unchanged)

1/3 cup (50g) bread flour, sifted (increase to 75g) 

1 tbsp (25g) honey diluted with 1 tbsp hot water  

(increase to 40g with 1 1/3 tbsp water)

Line a 9 cm x 19 cm (mine is 11 cm x 21 cm) loaf pan with aluminum foil followed by parchment paper. Preheat oven to 325°F (165°C) (or 150°C fan forced).

Place egg whites in mixing bowl and beat at high speed (speed 10*) for 30 sec until slightly foamy. Add sugar in 2 to 3 batches until firm peaks form, about 4 min.

Add yolks one at a time at medium low speed (speed 4*) until well combined, about 1 min. Add sifted bread flour and beat until just combined.

Pour in honey mixture and continue to beat for 1 min.

Pour batter through a sieve into cake pan. Press with a spatula to help batter go through sieve. Tap pan lightly to remove air bubbles. Using a spatula, smoothen the top of batter to remove any remaining bubbles.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 min or until top is evenly browned. Toothpick inserted into cake should come out clean. Remove pan from oven and drop it from a one foot height onto the counter to prevent shrinkage.

When cake is cool enough to handle, remove from pan. Peel off parchment paper and turn it upside down onto a fresh piece of parchment paper. Wrap with plastic wrap and leave overnight at room temperature to preserve moisture in the cake and for flavor to develop.

To serve, cut off edges on three sides except the browned top with a very sharp knife. Cut into thick slices using a sawing motion and serve with a cup of tea.

*These are the Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer speed numbers.

Happy Baking

Fresh Strawberry Cake with White Chocolate Chips

We love eating fresh strawberries and usually finish all strawberries so quickly that I wouldn't have any left for my baking. I know that I had to set aside a punnet of strawberry to bake this cake and I'm happy that I baked this. 

This cake is very easy to bake and "so cute" to eat. So cute?...LOL! My son couldn't wait to eat a slice of this fresh strawberry cake when I was taking photographs of it. He was jumping up and down behind me and was extremely excited with this cake and so I asked why...All because he thinks that it looks like Peppa pig's strawberry cake!

My son was thinking of a Peppa pig episode titled "Picnic". This episode is about the family going to a picnic. Peppa and George (Peppa's little brother) find a little pond and feed bread to the ducks. Mummy Pig's delicious strawberry cake attracts a wasp that chases Daddy Pig all around the picnic site. Eventually, Daddy pig is kind enough to allow Peppa to feed the ducks with his last slice of strawberry cake.

A week after this bake, we saw ducks while walking toward the local supermarket at Lorne, seaside town along Great Ocean Road. Funny that my son got very excited again saying..."Mummy! Mummy! I think the ducks need to eat our strawberry cake!"

"Strawberry cake?" I was confused initially. Then, I realised... My son remembers this strawberry cake and wants to be like Peppa feeding the duck with our strawberry cake. What a cute imagination!

This is the cake that I was baking for our bake-along with my two baking buddies, Lena, from Frozen wings and Joyce from Kitchen Flavours. For our next bake-along, we are baking crème brûlée which is to be posted on 10 Apr 2012. Please join us and blog hop with us on 10 Apr 2012 or within the next 7 days.

This is how fresh strawberries become a slice of fresh strawberry cake...

This cake really looks like Peppa's strawberry cake!

Here's the recipe from the book, Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman.
(with my modification and notes in blue)

Serve 9

1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
2tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda (replaced by baking powder)
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
8 ounces strawberries, stemmed and sliced
1 cup white chocolate chips or chunks (I use the chips)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan and dust it with flour, knocking out any extra (Instead, I just lined my baking pan with baking paper). Combine the egg, egg yolk, sour cream, lemon zest, and vanilla in a large glass measuring cup and lightly beat. Combine 1 1/4 cup flour, the baking powder, baking soda (I didn't add this), and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

2. Combine the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 min, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice as necessary.

3. With the mixer on medium-low speed, pour the egg mixture into the bowl in a slow stream, stopping the mixer once or twice to scrape down the bowl.

4. Turn the mixer n low speed and add the flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. After the last addition, mix for 30 sec on medium speed.

5. Combine the strawberries and remaining 1/4 cup of flour in a medium bowl and toss to coat. Fold the flour-covered berries along with the chocolate chips into the batter with a rubber spatula.

6. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake the cake until it is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 45-50 min. let the cake cool in the pan for about 5 min, invert it onto a wire rack, and then turn it right side up on a rack to cool completely. Cut into 9 squares and serve.

7. Store uneaten squares in a cake keeper or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Note:
Using half of the recipe, I've baked this cake in 10cm x 20cm baking pan at 160°C (fan forced) for 35 min. After cooling, I've cut the cake into 8 pieces and serve it with fresh whipped cream and strawberries.

Happy Baking

Here are our baking friends that have joined us for this bake-along. Please visit their blogs for their Fresh Strawberry Cake with White Chocolate Chips.

 

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Angry Birds Cupcakes

My son is THREE! 

Looking at him now, I always recall the days when he was a baby, thinking that these 3 years seems to be more than 10 years to me. I can't believe too that he is three years old and feeling happy and sad too that he is not a baby anymore...

Being a big fan of Angry Birds, my son had requested for an Angry Birds theme birthday party. We sketched out pictures of Angry Birds together and planned this party all according to the way he wanted. For this party, we had Angry Birds colouring activities and used the coloured pictures to decorate the party hats. We decorated the party venue with my son's favourite colour which are mostly, BLUE balloons. LOL! And of course, not forgetting the most important thing of all, these Angry Birds Birthday Cupcakes.

Dear son, it has been three lovely years knowing and loving you. You always melt my heart saying "Mummy, I know that I'm your sweetie and you are my sweetie too". These cakes are my gifts to you. Happy Birthday, my sweetie!

Note - If you wish to blog hop or link your post with the event, Cook like a Star, please go to this.   

Angry Birds colouring activity and party hats decorations

Here are the recipes to make these Angry Birds Cupcakes.

(with my modification in blue)

Caramel Mud Cupcakes from The Australian Women's Weekly Mini Cookbook, Cupcakes and Cookies

Make 12

125g butter

100g white chocolate, chopped coarsely

2/3 cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup (90g) golden syrup

2/3 cup (160ml) milk

1 cup (150g) plain flour

1/3 cup (50g) self raising flour

1 egg

Preheat oven to 160°C / 140°C fan forced. Line 12 hole standard (1/3 cup / 80ml) muffin pan with paper cases.

Combine butter, chocolate, sugar, syrup and milk in a small saucepan; stir over low heat until smooth. Transfer mixture to medium bowl; cool 15 min.

Whisk sifted flours, then egg into chocolate mixture. Divide mixture among cases.

Bake for 30 min. Turn cakes, top side up onto wire rack to cool.

Note: Using double amount of this recipe, I have made 24 cupcakes and they are baked at 140°C fan forced for 35 min. 

Butter Cream from The Australian Women's Weekly Mini Cookbook, Cupcakes and Cookies

125g butter, softened, chopped (reduced to 100g to preserve better with higher content)

240g icing sugar

2 tbsp milk

Beat butter with electric mixer until as white as possible. Gradually beat in half the sifted icing sugar, milk then remaining icing sugar.

Note: I had lots of leftover with this amount of butter cream to spread 20 cupcakes and reckon that half of this amount will be enough if I have to make these cupcakes again. 

This is how I made these Angry Birds Cupcakes:

Planning - Each cupcake design is sketched with the actual measurements of each Angry Bird or pig in pieces if paper.

Then, I cut the shapes of the Angry Birds and pig so that I can cut the same shapes on the rolled colored fondant.

Using Wilton colouring gel, I coloured 1 and 1/3 to 1/2 pack (750g) of white rolled fondant into the amount required for these colours; red, pink, black, yellow, dark green, lime green, orange and light blue. Please note that this amount is sufficient enough to decorate 20-22 cupcakes and there will be excess of bits and pieces (about 300g-400g in total) of leftover.

Assembling the cupcakes:

Spread a smooth layer of butter cream on the top of each cupcake.

Roll out the fondant with a non-stick rolling pin with spacing rods to maintain a uniform thickness of about 4mm.

Cut the rolled fondant into:

1) 6.8 cm diameter circles as faces of the Angry Birds and pig and carefully place the circles on top each cupcake.

2) 1.5 cm diameter circles as eyes of the Angry Birds and pig

3) eyebrow shapes

4) feather shapes

5) beaks shapes

Assemble the Angry Birds' and pig's faces onto each cupcake using a paint brush to apply small amount of water onto the bottom of each cut-out shapes to adhere the shapes onto other fondant surfaces.

You may wish to refer to my pictures or any Angry Birds or pigs pictures for assembly of the cupcakes.

Use an edible black food pen (Americolor) to give each angry bird a finishing touch.

Happy "Angry Birds" Birthday and Happy Baking

Caramelised Chicken Wings

These chicken wings are super easy to cook. All I have to do is to marinate the wings and bake it! That's all! LOL!

Marinating and baking are not all that I learn from cooking this dish. It is all about vinegar that I learn the most from cooking this dish. It is Sherry vinegar that I used to marinate the chicken that started my curiosity, wanting to know different interesting vinegars that can be used to create great flavours in different food.

My son and I love eating vinegars! I am curious to know why is there so many different types of vinegar and what are them. What is Sherry vinegar? How does it taste? Mostly likely sour...LOL! But...why are they special?

Typically, vinegar is a liquid containing acetic acid and water. The acetic acid is produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria.  Most commonly, I can find malt vinegar, red and white wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar being easily available in our local supermarkets but not the exotic ones which are only available in gourmet specialty shops or some supermarket deli section.

At last. I did managed to buy a bottle of Sherry vinegar. According to Wikipedia, Sherry vinegar is a gourmet wine vinegar made from sherry and in order to be named as Sherry vinegar, it has to undergo aging in American oak for a minimum of six months with a minimum of 7 degrees acidity... Nice to know these facts because the bottle of Sherry virngar that I bought is actually quite expensive! LOL!

Using Sherry vinegar as marinate is really interesting. Unlike Teriyaki sauce, soy sauce or any tenderizing marinades, this marinade didn't darken or change the colour of the chicken even after more than 24 hrs of marinating. Yet, the marinade still produce a nice browning colour and lots of flavours after roasting.

 

Before and after roasting

The sour cream dressing to eat with the chicken wings

Here's the recipe from Donna Hay magazine (Aug/Sep 2011 issue)

(with my modification in blue)

1.5kg chicken wings, wing tip removed

1/4 cup (60ml) sherry vinegar

1 tsp caster sugar

sea salt flakes
(I pre-marinated these wings for more than 24 hrs)

Sour cream dressing

1/2 cup (120g) sour cream

1/4 cup chopped chives

2tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp shredded lemon zest

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Preheat oven to 220°C (or 200°C fan forced). Place the chicken wing, vinegar, sugar and salt in a baking dish and toss to combine. Roast for 40-45 min or until golden. Place sour cream, chives, lemon juice and zest, and paprika in a bowl and mix until well combined. Serve chicken wings with the sour cream dressing. Serve 4-6

Happy Baking and Cooking!

I can't believe that there is so many different types of vinegars to eat and to cook! And these are a few that I've learned and you may wish to know...

From the recent potato lemon thyme frittata that I cooked, I came to know what the existence of white balsamic vinegar. Originated from Italy, this white version of balsamic vinegar has a sweet and delicate flavour. White balsamic vinegar is milder and less sweet than regular balsamic vinegar and is often considered more suitable for use with salad dressings, since it does not have a strong flavour that can be overpowering when used on salad greens.  White balsamic vinegar can be substitute with white wine vinegar but it is a still little nicer to eat with its extra sweetness which is absent in most white wine vinegar.

Verjuice? I heard a lot of "verjuice" on the Australian MasterChef and came to know about verjuice mainly from Maggie Beer, a South Australian cook who has popularised the use of verjuice in her cooking. In fact, she loves verjuice so much that she even wrote Maggie's Verjuice Cookbook. Verjuice is a very acidic juice made by pressing unripe grapes and is widely used as an ingredient in sauces and deglazing preparations. I have not tried cooking with verjuice yet but would love to try cooking with it one day.

Being a vinegar lover, these are two interesting vinegars that I have used in my food and cooking. My number-one favourite is always Chinkiang Chinese Black vinegar. I used this vinegar a lot as dipping sauce for our Shanghai dumplings and used it too to cook sticky Asian pork ribs recently for our Chinese new year. Both Chinese Black vinegar and Chinese red vinegar with a darker intense red colour are both commonly used to eat with a Chinese delicacy, shark fin's soup. Typically, the red one is preferred to use in some restaurants for its auspicious colour.

I had lots of fun exploring, learning and cooking with different vinegars and hope to gain more of these knowledge in the future :D

Different kind of interesting vinegars that I explore after cooking this recipe

This post is linked to the blog hop event, Cook like a Star, organised by me, Bake for Happy Kids. To join, simply cook or bake a Donna Hay recipe and blog hop with us. For more details, please see this.

Here are my blogging friends that have joined me cooking for this event. Please visit their blogs for more of their 5-stars cooking.

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Beer vs Milk

We don't have 2 1/2 men in our house but only 1 1/2 men... LOL!

I always like to associate men with beers and it seems to me that drinking beer is a MAN-ly thing to do for most occasions. I realised that there is a recent trend that many of my food blogging friends like to use beers for their cooking and baking especially during this St Patrick's Day season... Chelsea from A Duck's Oven baked Chocolate Stout Cupcakes and Beer Berry Muffins. Mary from Inside a British Mum's Kitchen made Beef Stew with Beer and Anna from Crunchy Creamy Sweet made Sweet Potato with Guinness Syrup. I would like to use beer for my baking too and here I am baking this loaf of Beer Bread.

In order to please both of my 1 1/2 men, I'm baking a Beer Bread for my full numbered man and a Milk Bread for my half-sized man. Both breads use muscovado sugar for extra flavours. We really love the contrasting flavours of both breads, the beer one has more robust flavours like a tough man while the other one is soft and fluffy just like a "baby". It was fun for me baking these breads to suit the tastes of two very different men in my house...

Note - If you wish to blog hop or link your post with the event, Cook like a Star, please go to this. 

Making the Beer Bread...

Making the Milk Bread

Here are the recipes both from the book, Bread Machine Easy by Sara Lewis

(with my modification in blue)

Milk and muscovado bread

Make one 750g loaf:

275ml water

2 tbsp milk powder

2 tbsp butter, at room temperature

1 tsp salt

475g bread flour

2 tsp light muscovado sugar

1 1/4 tsp fast action dried yeast

Beer and Brown Sugar Bread

Make one 750g loaf:

300ml pale beer or lager

2 tbsp sunflower oil (replaced with canola oil)

1 tsp salt

100g rye flour

375g strong granary flour (I've added gluten flour to strengthen my flour, see my note*)

2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar

1 1/4 tsp fast action dried yeast

To finish each of both loaves:

1 tbsp milk

1 tbsp poppy seed

Lift the bread pan, out of the bread machine and fit the kneader blade. Add the liquid ingredients, butter (milk bread only) and salt. Spoon in the flour, make dip in the center and add the sugar and yeast.

Insert the pan into the bread machine, shut the lid and set to 750g loaf on a basic white setting (for milk bread) or wholewheat setting (for beer bread) with the preferred crust setting. Press Start.

For the beer bread: just before baking begins, brush top of the bread with milk and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Gently and quickly shut the lid and continue the programme.

At the end of programme, lift the pan out of the machine using oven gloves. Loosen the bread with a plastic spatula, turn it out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

Note:

Using 2/3 of the recipe, I've made each loaf using a 10 cm x 20 cm loaf pan. I placed all the ingredients into the bread machine and use "dough" setting to knead and prove the dough.

At the end of programme, the bread dough is removed, shaped and further proved for 50-60 min. Both loaves were baked at 160°C fan forced for 40 min.

*To create a "stronger" wholemeal flour, I've added 25g of gluten flour into 330g of my wholemeal flour.

Happy Baking

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Like mother like son, my son is learning to bake like Donna Hay too. LOL!

The recipe of these low fat banana chocolate chip muffins are from the Donna Hay Kids' magazine. They are as easy as just step one, two and three and great for kids.

My going-to-three year old boy loves making and eating these muffins. Best of all, he really enjoy being the "star" of this post.

Pictures showing how my boy making these muffins.

Even the mini muffins are very moist and yummy.

Here's the recipe from Donna Hay Kids' magazine (Annual 8, 2011)

(with my slight modification in blue) 

2 cups (300g) plain flour, sifted
1tbsp baking powder, sifted
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup (60ml) vegetable oil
1 cup (250ml) buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup mashed banana
135g dark chocolate chips

icing sugar for dusting (I didn't do this)

Step 1 Preheat oven to 180°C (or 160 °C fan forced). Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, oil, buttermilk and vanilla in a bowl and mix until just combined.

Step 2 Gently fold through the banana and chocolate chips.

Step 3 Divide the mixture between 12 x 1/2 cup capacity (125 ml) muffin tins lined with paper patty cases and bake for 25-30 min or until golden or cooked when test with a skewer. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar to serve. Make 12.

Note: We made 4 mini muffins and 6 standard size (mummy-sized) muffins using half of the recipe.The mini muffins were baked for 15-18 min at 160 °C fan forced and the larger ones were baked for 20 min at 160°C fan forced and another 5 min at 180°C fan forced (for extra browning colour).

Happy Baking!

This post is linked to the blog hop event, Cook like a Star, organised by me, Bake for Happy Kids. To join, simply cook or bake a Donna Hay recipe and blog hop with us. For more details, please see this.

Here are my blogging friends that have joined me cooking for this event. Please visit their blogs for more of their 5-stars cooking.

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Two Ciabatta

I know that baking ciabatta can be very challenging. The bread dough can very wet and difficult to handle. For this bake-along, I'm excited that Lena, from Frozen wings, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and I are baking ciabatta and look forward for this challenge!

I had a few ciabatta recipes to choose and can't decide between two... So, I guess the decision is clear and have decided to bake two ciabatta recipes.

The first recipe that I chose is from the book, The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook by Jennie Shapter. To me, this recipe seems to be the most common way of making a ciabatta. Not surprising, the bread dough made from this recipe is really wet and difficult to handle. As instructed by the book, I wasn't tempted to add more flour into bread dough and the bread turned out being beautiful! It is crusty at its outside and soft, spongy and moist at its inside. I would highly recommend this recipe.

I chose the second recipe purely out of curiosity. Unlike the first recipe, this biga is firm and uses semolina flour. The recipe is designed in the way that the dough is actually made using fresh yeast. I didn't fresh yeast when I made this bread and took the risk of replace the fresh yeast with the dried ones and I'm very surprised that everything work well for me. Interestingly, this bread didn't need a final proving stage after shaping and I was susceptible initially and waited for 30 min after shaping to see if there is any difference. True enough, the bread dough didn't grow in size after the 30 min but to my surprise, it is the baking that puff up the bread the most. 

Comparing both breads, my first ciabatta has a more delicate bread texture while the second one has coarser bread texture with a thicker crust and I think this is due to the addition of semolina. Personally, I think that the first ciabatta tastes better than the second one but the second recipe is also good in the way that the bread can be easily made by hand and has a shorter fermentation time.

For our next bake-along, we are baking Fresh Strawberry Cake with White Chocolate Chips (Recipe is from the book, Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman) which is to be posted on 27 March 2012. Please join us! You can bake this cake using this recipe or any of your favourite fresh strawberry and white chocolate cake recipe and blog hop with us on this day or within the next 7 days.

Note - If you wish to blog hop or link your post with the event, Cook like a Star, please go to this.

Ciabatta One

Ciabatta One  - simply beautiful

A closer look of ciabatta One - dipping into olive oil

Ciabatta Two

Ciabatta Two's biga

Making ciabatta Two

A closer look of ciabatta Two

Here are the recipes (with my modifications in blue)

Ciabatta One from the book, The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook by Jennie Shapter



Make 2 loaves

For the biga:
200ml water
175g bread flour
1/2 tsp dried yeast

For Ciabatta dough:
200ml water
30ml (2 tsp) milk
30ml (2 tsp) extra virgin olive oil
325g (3 cup) bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp dried yeast

1. Pour the water for the biga into bread pan. If necessary, reverse the order in which you add the liquid and dry ingredients. Sprinkle over the flour, covering the water. Make an indent in the centre of the flour; add the yeast.

2. Set the bread machine to the dough setting (if available). Press start. Mix for 5 min, then switch off the machine.

3. Leave the biga in the machine, or place in a large mixing bowl covered with lightly oiled clear film, overnight or at least 12 hrs, until the dough has risen and is just starting to collapse.

4. Return the biga to the pan, if necessary. Add the water, milk and oil for the ciabatta dough. Sprinkle over the flour. Add the salt and sugar in separate corners. Make a small indent in the centre of the flour and add the yeast.

5. Set the bread machine to the dough setting. Press start.

6. When the cycle has finished, transfer the dough to a bowl and cover with oiled clear film. Leave it to rise for about 1 hr, until dough has triple in size. Sprinkle two baking sheets with flour.

7. Using a spoon or a dough scraper, divide the dough into 2 portions. Carefully tip one portion of the dough on to one of the prepared baking sheets, trying to avoid knocking the air out of the dough.
Using well floured hands, shape the dough into a rectangle loaf about 2.5 cm thick, pulling and stretching as necessary. Repeat with the remaining piece of dough.

8. Sprinkle two loaves with flour. Leave them uncovered in a warm place for about 20-30 min. The dough will spread and rise. Meanwhile preheat oven to 220°C.

9. Bake the ciabatta for 25-30 min or until both loaves has risen, are light golden in colour and sound hollow when tapped on the base. Transfer them to a wire rack to cool before serving with butter, olive oil for dipping.

Note: Using half the recipe, I've made one Ciabatta loaf and bake it at 200°C fan forced for 25 min. Instead of using the bread machine, I've made the biga by hand. I mixed all the biga ingredients together and kneaded the dough for about 5 min and followed the rest of the instructions (step 3 to 9) accordingly.

Ciabatta Two from Epicurious

For biga

1 cup plus 1 tbsp room-temperature water (75°F to 80°F)

1 1/4-ounce package dry yeast (can be replaced by 3 tsp instant dried yeast)

3 1/3 cup bread flour

For dough

Biga (starter dough; see above)

3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp room-temperature water (75°F to 80°F)

Pinch of dry yeast

1/2 cup plus 3 tbsp semolina flour

2 1/2 tsp salt

Additional semolina flour

Make biga:

Place water in processor. Sprinkle yeast over. Let stand until yeast dissolves, about 8 min. Add 1 cup flour; process until blended. Scrape down sides of work bowl. Add 1 cup flour; repeat processing and scraping. Add remaining 1 1/3 cups flour. Process until small moist clumps form. Gather dough into ball (dough will be firm); place in large bowl. Cover; chill overnight (biga will soften, resembling thick oatmeal in texture - mine didn't look like thick oatmeal, it just look more relaxed than when it was first made).

Make dough:

Pull biga into walnut-size pieces; place in a clean large bowl. Add water, yeast and 1/2 cup plus 3 tbsp semolina. Using 1 hand, squeeze ingredients together 2 min. Work dough 4 min by scooping sections from sides of bowl and pressing into center, blending into very soft, shaggy mass. Using spatula, scrape dough from sides of bowl into center. Let dough rest in bowl, uncovered, 10 min.

Sprinkle salt over dough. Using 1 hand, knead dough by rotating bowl 1/4 turn at a time, scooping dough from sides and folding down into center until dough starts to come away from sides of bowl, about 5 min. Scrape dough from hand and sides of bowl. Cover bowl with towel; let dough rest 20 min.

Rotating bowl 1/4 turn at a time, fold dough over onto itself 6 times; turn dough over in bowl. Cover with towel and let dough rest in bowl 20 min.

To bake bread:

Preheat oven to 425°F (or 200°C fan forced). Sprinkle work surface with additional semolina. Turn dough out onto semolina. Using pastry scraper or large knife, cut dough in half; keep halves separated. Let stand, uncovered, 20 min.

Sprinkle 2 large baking sheets with additional semolina. Transfer each dough half, semolina side up, to 1 sheet. Stretch each dough half to 16 x 4-inch rectangle. Press fingertips into dough in several places to dimple surface (characteristic of this bread). Bake until golden brown, about 25 min. Cool.

Note: Using half of the recipe, I've made one loaf of ciabatta.

Happy Baking 

Here are our baking friends that have joined us for this bake-along. Please visit their blogs for more of their Ciabatta baking.

 

Please submit your details if you wish to link your post with this bake-along. This linking tool is open from 12 Mar to 19 Mar 2012.

To blog hop with us, simply copy and paste this linky HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML view/mode when you paste in the code.

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