Authentic Ciabatta

I was in the mood to bake some bread that I had not baked before. The article "Discovering Authentic Ciabatta" in the March & April 2009 issue of Cook's Illustrated caught my interest. As is the norm with their recipes, it was reviewed, tested and retested until it was possible to successfully be created by the home cook. The article by Keith Dresser is well written and there is extra support from a video on the Cook's Illustrated website. You can check it out and give it a try. Preparing the biga is an easy task. I left it stand overnight and it was bubbly and ready to go the next morning. Yes, the dough is sticky, but following the directions, I was able to knead in my stand mixer and then shape into loaves. I used a pizza stone in the lower part of my oven set at 450 degrees to bake, spraying with water 3 times in the first part of the baking as instructed. The loafs turned a lovely golden brown. The author spoke about trying to eliminate the "too airy" look. I mostly succeeded, although, I had a couple of large air pockets at one end of the loaf. Gosh, it is yummy and the crust is crispy with the loaf maintaining an airy texture. This was well worth the effort. Please let me know if you try this recipe and how it turns out. Happy baking! lola

NOTE: I had a difficult time arranging the photos and text for this post. I cannot seem to manipulate the photos properly. I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks, this is fairly new to me.