Chibatta

Since I have used the poolish method to start bread before while preparing the greek celebration bread. One goal that I am seeking during this bread journey, is a variety of ways to prepare the recipes.

Here are the dry ingredients dry ingredients safely in the kitchenaid awaiting kneading.

Here is the lovely mixer at work kneading together the wet and dry ingredients.

The biga is made. Put to rest in the bowl to rise for 2 hours until it's put into the refrigerator. The biga is more like bread dough and the poolish is very wet mixture.

After the rise and safely in the friggie to await rise over night.

Here are the ingredients for the mushroom style chibatta. I did leave out one ingredient. I fear this may turn into a theme. The missing ingredient is pictured in the shot 2 below this one.

No, it's not dried mushrooms. Although, these did get left out of the final bread. I had the fresh mushrroms and garlic in the bread. Which was very tasty.

That's right, I forgot the garlic cloves when I gathered my ingredients for the bread.

The lovely button mushrooms while they await cutting into 1/4 slices.

The mushrooms all sliced and ready for the pan.

The quarter cup of evoo. Seems like a lot in a teflon pan but love the taste.

Here are the shrooms and garlic with lovely eevo in the pan. Now time to cook them until they are soft.

The shrooms are all ready. Time to get back to the biga since it has warmed up while I prepared the mushrooms.

The biga has been sliced up into ten slices. Doesn't it look cute on the pink cutting mat.

The shrooms are chilling. At the point I should have combined the two types of shrooms and the dried ones wouldn't have gotten forgotten on the counter.

The chibatta is being kneaded in the mixer. It took a lot of extra flour for the bread. I don't know if I mistakenly added too much liquid. This was where I should have added the mushroom but didn't read the book closely enough. But, they did get used.

The dough after it's 2 minute rest to relax. Time to fold it like a letter.

I did not have the fancy dancy couche. I did buy some new kitchen towels from work recently and they did a great job for their cousin the couche. My lovely bratty sister told me that hers stuck to her pastry cloth and next time she was going to put the chibatta on parchment paper. I decided to learn from her experience. Thanks Tammy. Maybe mom didn't make a mistake having you after all. Wink.

After the loaves were rested and risen.

Here is the bread in the oven, on the stone. Loved how it baked up.

The first loaf is out of the oven and resting and awaiting it's brothers and sister.

The holes are small in the cut. But they are evenly distributed. There were some large holes elsewhere in the bread.

The mushrooms were folded into the bread with the letter method. Next time, they will be throughout.

My bratty little sister who likes to boss everyone around, told me that I could make 4 smaller loaves just fine with this recipe. Sounded good to me. Don't they look pretty?

I don't know if you can read the time, 9:47 a.m. I know you can't read it because my photo of the clock ran away. Which means it's time for me to gather my things and go to church and play with the babies. It's my week to do nursery duty.

I did take the bread to work to share. My co-workers loved the bread. One even suggested that making garlic bread with it would be good. I think take the garlic butter idea, add a good ham and cheese and grill it. Yummy.