This is one of our favorite family recipes. It wasn’t the recipe I planned on posting this week, but my daughter Kelly said it was time. “This is the best recipe you make, Mom. You’ve got to post it.” So here it is. Don’t be surprised if this easy ciabatta bread recipe quickly become your favorite too.

Why You’ll Love It:

This ciabatta bread is a delicious loaf of bread. Crusty on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. And it’s perfect for all your sandwich needs, paninis, or as a side for soup or pasta. If you are going to learn how to make one kind of bread, make it ciabatta bread.

It’s also super easy to make. I make ciabatta bread, and all bread dough, in my dough maker. I never use the dough maker to make bread. Just no. But I do enjoy the short cut for making the dough. It takes a little bit of time to make homemade bread, but this loaf comes in just under three hours. And most of that time is hands-off time. So it really is easy to make.

How to Make Ciabatta Bread:

Ciabatta bread on cutting board with towel

This ciabatta bread is a piece of cake to make. especially of you have a bread machine. But you don’t need a brad maker to make this recipe. I’ll include alternate directions for how to make the dough below.

Place water, olive oil, bread flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in the pan of your bread machine. Follow the order suggested by your bread machine manufacturer. My current bread maker, and every bread maker I’ve ever had, calls for the wet ingredients first, and the yeast last. So that’s always what I do.

Unless I forge something. Which happens. More than I care to admit. But this blog is all about real food and real living. And when I’m trying to juggle fifteen things at once sometimes I forget an ingredient.When that happens I just toss it in on the top. No harm done.

I do always warm up water. I usually stick it in the microwave for between 45-90 seconds depending on how much water I’m using. For this recipe I would do one minute. I also try to bring the other ingredients to room temperature, if necessary. It’s not necessary in this ciabatta bread recipe. All the other ingredients are at room temperature. But if your using butter or eggs or milk, it helps to let them come to room temperature first. Everything just mixes up nicer.

Once all the ingredients are in the pan, select the dough cycle and hit start. That’s it. I do like to check on the dough about fifteen to twenty minutes in to make sure it’s mixing up okay. 95% of the time it is. The rest of the time user error caused a mishap. If I catch it early enough I can correct it without having to pitch all the ingredients and start over.

When the cycle is complete the dough will be sticky and wet. you might even say watery. Resist the urge to add more flour. You hardly ever need it. The wet texture is what makes the ciabatta bread light and airy. Transfer the dough to a cutting board covered with flour, cover it with a towel, and let it rest for about 15 minutes.

I usually coat my hands in cooking spray, baking spray is even better, before handling the dough. It keeps the dough from sticking to my hands. When the 15 minutes are up, divide the dough in half. A serrated knife makes it easy to do. Place each half on its own parchment covered baking sheet. Try these parchment sheets to make things easy.

Shape into oval loaves. Or any shape you want. Cover with a towel and let rest for about 45 minutes.

Place a bowl of water into the bottom of your oven. Make sure it’s an oven safe dish. Preheat the oven to 425degrees F. Just before you bake the ciabatta bread, sprinkle the loaves with some water. Then place in preheated oven and back for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Enjoy!

I don’t think I have to even tell you how to enjoy this ciabatta bread. I’d just sit down with the entire loaf and a stick of butter.

JK. Maybe.

This bread is fantastic with pasta. It’s delicious dipped in red sauce.

It’s also terrific with soup or chili. Again, ciabatta bread is made for dipping.

It’s the perfect addition to a hearty salad, like my roasted red pepper and portobello salad.

This is he perfect bread for sandwiches. Try slicing it into quarters and then slicing in half and you have a great surface area for fresh mozzarella and tomato or chicken, bacon, ranch sandwiches. It’s also amazing with a fried egg and some Swiss cheese. And if you just want some amazing toast, this is your recipe.

Basically, you can’t go wrong. This ciabatta bread works for any meal you can imagine.

Oh, and if you don’t have a bread maker, no worries. You can still enjoy ciabatta bread. Just use your stand mixer or hand mixer instead. I recommend a stand mixer, because your arm will get tired. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

Heat the water in a measuring cup until warm. Add the yeast and sugar and allow to sit for five minutes until the yeast begins to bubble. Combine dry ingredients in the mixing bowl. Mix on low speed using the dough hook. Add water mixtures, scraping the dough down occasionally, and mix for 10 minutes. Add olive oil and mix for an additional 5 minutes. Transfer the dough to a floured board and proceed with the recipe instructions.