Italian Ciabatta Bread Paul Hollywood Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What kind of flour does Paul Hollywood use? ›

Plain and self-raising flour.

The main difference between these two loaves of bread comes down to the hydration levels. Ciabatta is baked with a much higher hydration level, making the holes within the dough much bigger than a baguette. Ciabatta is also baked with a much stronger flour, which has a more delicate and sweet taste.

No.

“Ciabatta bread is relatively high in carbohydrates and has nearly zero grams of fiber,” Richards cautioned. Mowrer added some other red flags, which include “higher carbs, calories and sodium per slice compared to other bread.”

Butter in bread dough tenderizes the dough, making the soft, pull-apart texture of bakes like brioche, dinner rolls, and Pullman loaves.

Either cake flour or pastry flour can be used as a 1:1 substitute for all-purpose flour in most baking recipes. Steer away from cake flour for chewy bread baking, though, and opt instead for bread or whole-wheat flour for your no-knead and sourdough loaves.

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

In 2008, Hollywood created an almond and Roquefort sourdough bread that was sold at London's famed department store, Harrods, for £15 per loaf, or about $19 American dollars in 2024 terms.

Strong flour tastes similar to other flours, but it's slightly off-white and feels more coarse and dense. Strong flour is made from hard wheat kernels. It's high in protein and used for baked goods that require structure. It's coarser and denser than other varieties of flour.

In Italy, ciabatta is eaten in many ways. Popular variations with the Italians are to sprinkle a slice of the bread with good-quality olive oil, dip pieces broken off the loaf in pasta or salad sauce, or treat themselves to a panini filled with salami, mozzarella or Parma ham.

There are striking similarities between the baguette and ciabatta, but the biggest difference is in the level of moisture in the dough. The wet dough used in ciabatta creates alveolar holes in the bread during the baking process, which changes the texture of the bread.

What does ciabatta mean in Italian? ›

Ciabatta (/tʃəˈbɑːtə, -ˈbæt-/, Italian: [tʃaˈbatta]; lit. 'slipper') is an Italian white bread created in 1982 by a baker in Adria, province of Rovigo, Veneto, in response to the popularity of French baguettes.

It is because the fibre in the whole grain slows down the breakdown of starch into glucose, leading to steady blood sugar levels. Therefore, whole-grain foods like ciabatta bread can help prevent type-II diabetes.

The whole wheat, calcium, and fiber found in ciabatta bread can aid in proper digestion, prevent type 2 diabetes, and promote bone health (although not all ciabatta is made from whole wheat).

All of our flour is 100% whole grain because we believe in keeping the nutrients in! Keep in mind that whole grain flour is much denser than processed flour. You will find that it absorbs moisture and you may have to add a little more moisture than what your recipe calls for.

Because our pastry flour has less protein than all purpose flour, it's ideal for many lighter baking purposes. In addition to making pastry, it can be used in place of cake flour in your favorite cake recipes. It's also a wonderful flour for biscuits, scones, cookies, muffins, pound cake and more.

A regional all-purpose artisan bread flour milled in California characterized by moderate protein and higher-than-average absorption. Ideal for a full selection of artisan breads, pizza, and pastries.

Bakers often use the term patent flour to refer to baking flour. However, most flour sold today, whether bread, cake or pastry, is patent flour. It is high quality, commercial grade white flour. It's the milled product of the innermost part of the endosperm of the wheat grain.