Yah, yah, yah! I know. Another darn bread recipe. But first and foremost, this is my blog. So I get to choose which preparations I plan to develop and then if they work out, which recipes I want to share with all of you. So for those of you who are bread lovers and bakers, please keep reading. Those of you who follow my blog just to keep track of any new trouble I’ve gotten myself into, you may be excused. (I’ve been terribly boring lately, so you will have missed nothing exciting if you read no further.)

But for those of you for whom bread truly is the staff of life, start getting excited. This sourdough ciabatta bread really is easy to prepare, and absolutely delicious. And you get to use more of your sourdough discard. Yea team!

So a couple days ago, I wanted to bake a nice versatile bread to serve with dinner that really didn’t need to be buttered, but most definitely could be dunked into a hearty bowl of soup. And be substantial enough in both flavor and texture to hold its own against all the other flavorful ingredients in the soup. And a bread that was flavorful enough to be enjoyed all by itself. (Not asking too much, right?!) Plus, the shape of the bread was also a consideration. I wanted to be able to dunk the bread, and then be able to get the entire dunked end in my mouth without having to go through multiple napkins to stay presentable throughout the meal. (I tend to be kind of messy, so I have to plan ahead.) So I thought about the lovely flat shape, and nice thin pieces you can cut from a loaf of ciabatta bread.

So when I decided ciabatta was the right bread for the occasion, I knew just what additives I wanted to use. And yes, I have other bread recipes (Rustic Sourdough Bread with Garlic, Rosemary, Black Pepper, and Kalamata Olives and Rosemary Olive Bread) on this site that include rosemary and Kalamata olives. And they too are wonderful. But remember the dunked bread to mouth requirement I mentioned above, well the other two recipes just didn’t quite fill the bill in that regard. Plus I absolutely adore the texture of ciabatta bread.

So having bored you almost senseless with the reasons I chose to prepare this ciabatta bread, let me switch to some scintillating repartee to describe how delicious it is. It is YUM! Enough said.

As always, start thinking about cold weather food (soup, stew, chowder, chili, pot roast, etc.), keep remembering how wonderful home baked bread smells as it’s baking, and how comforting it is to your family members to know that someone who loves them is in the kitchen building food for their sustenance and enjoyment. And as the cook, how good it feels to provide that comfort. Peace and love to all.

¾ c. sourdough starter discard

1½ tsp. active dry yeast

¾ c. lukewarm water

1 T. extra virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing the bowl and the unbaked dough   

1 tsp. kosher salt

½ tsp. granulated garlic

1 T. finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 c. Kalamata olives cut in thirds

2½ – 3 c. unbleached all-purpose flour

flaky or coarse salt

Mix the sourdough starter, yeast, and water in the bowl of your stand mixer. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. (However long it takes you to chop the fresh rosemary and cut the Kalamata olives in thirds.)

Add the olive oil, salt, granulated garlic, 2 cups of the flour, chopped rosemary, and sliced olives. Using your dough hook, knead the dough, adding enough more of the flour to make a slightly tacky, smooth, and elastic dough. 

Pour a bit of olive oil along the edge of the mixing bowl. And using a stiff rubber spatula and your hands, form the dough into a ball lightly covered with oil. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rise for about 90 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Lightly punch down the dough and turn it onto a lightly floured parchment paper lined baking sheet. The baking sheet needs to be large enough to accommodate an approximately 8 x 14-inch rectangle. I use my 13 x 18-inch half sheet cookie pan (also referred to as a jelly roll pan) for this purpose. Pat the dough into a rounded rectangle about 8 x 14-inches. Use additional flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking to both your hands and the parchment paper.     

Cover the formed dough with a lightly greased piece of plastic wrap and let rise for 60-70  minutes or until slightly puffy.

Toward the end of the rising time, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Just before placing in the oven, brush the ciabatta dough liberally with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt.

Bake the bread for 10 minutes at 425 degrees. Then lower the oven temperature to 375 and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until the bread is a very light brown and the internal temperature has reached at least 200 degrees. 

Turn off the oven, open the door, and allow bread to stay in the cooling oven for about 30 minutes. Then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store in an airtight container or bag in your refrigerator. This recipe can easily be doubled. Lovely lightly toasted just before serving.