INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

NOTE (see below), made 12 hrs before  By coincidence, my sister just
gave me a recipe for ciabatta, a  slipper-shaped bread from Lake Como,
which she recommended highly.  It's from an Italian cookbook, the name
of which I didn't copy down.  I made it last week, and it was very
good, but it takes a long time  to make!:  Stir yeast into milk; let
stand until creamy, about ten min. Add  water, oil and biga, mix until
blended. Mix flour and salt, add to  the bowl, mix for 2 or 3 min.
Knead. Let rise until doubled. Cut  dough into 4 pieces. Roll each
piece into a cylinder, then shape into  a rectangle, about 10x4 inches.
Place on floured baking sheets.  Dimple with knuckles so they won't
rise too much -- dough will look  heavily pockmarked. Cover with
dampened towels, let rise 1 1/2 - 2  hours, till puffy but not doubled
-- the loaves will look flat, but  will rise in the oven. Heat oven to
425 F, sprinkle loaves with  cornmeal. Bake 20-25 min., spraying 3
times with water in the first  10 minutes. Cool on racks.  Biga starter
for Ciabatta: Stir yeast into warm water, let stand 10  min. Stir in
remaining water and flour. Mix for 3 or 4 minutes. Let  rise at cool
room temp 6-24 hours - -- the starter will triple in  volume and be wet
and sticky. Refrigerate until ready to use. It  freezes well, needs 3
hours at room temperature to re-activate. Can  be refrigerated for
about a week.  makes about 2 1/3 cups  >From: Nancy Gandhi
<gandhi@giasmd01.vsnl.net.in> Posted to MC-Recipe  Digest V1 #833 by
Nancy Berry <nlberry@prodigy.net> on Oct 09, 1997

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Nutrition (calculated from recipe ingredients)
----------------------------------------------
Calories: 3120
Calories From Fat: 206
Total Fat: 23.8g
Cholesterol: 4.9mg
Sodium: 7048.6mg
Potassium: 1063mg
Carbohydrates: 624.6g
Fiber: 24.7g
Sugar: 5.4g
Protein: 87.2g