Ciabatta and Focaccia with Biga

This recipe is for two breads; both can be made from one batch. The Biga (pronounced bee-gah, and also beejh) is the starter, and is made in advance. Biga means "chariot," so you can think of this starter as the vehicle for the bread's flavor, texture and its ability to rise. Focaccia is a bubbly crusty flatbread. Ciabatta means "slipper," which indicates the rustic shape the bread takes. Ciabatta also has a lot of bubbles inside. Both breads can be used for sandwiches, if first sliced lengthwise, so that you have two sheets of bread from one whole loaf.

Biga
1 cup Sir Galahad Flour
6 ounces of water

Final Dough
16 ounces of water
4 cups of Sir Galahad Flour
2 teaspoons of salt
3 teaspoons of yeast
Biga

Day 1
Mix Biga ingredients. It will be a medium soft dough. Cover and let rest over night at 70° for 13-15 hours. A tall plastic container with a lid works best for the biga. The biga will come out of your mixer (or mixing bowl) as a ball, then as it rests, it will pool out into the bottom of the container.

Day 2
1. Mix final dough ingredients, water first. Let everything start to incorporate before you add the biga last. If using a mixer, 3-5 minutes at 1st speed, and then 3-6 minutes on 2nd speed. If mixing by hand, knead until smooth and fully incorporated, about 120 turns. Dough will be very slack, almost pourable.

2. Bulk fermentation for 2 hours, with a punch (a push with a balled fist) after the first hour. For this bulk fermentation, the same plastic container with lid should work great, and the dough should triple in size.

3. At the end of hour 2, spread dough onto work table without degassing dough, which means handle gently. To remove your dough from the container, turn the container upside down onto a clean, floured surface, and let gravity pull it onto the table. Then, scrape any remaining dough out of the bowl, and place it underneath the mass of dough.

4. Divide dough in half.
-For ciabatta, place pieces on floured baking sheet. You can gently pull in the directions you wish the loaf to take form.
-For focaccia, place pieces on olive oiled pans, brush with olive oil, and tamp down with fingertips.

5. Proof for 60-90 minutes at 75°, a warm room-temperature. Find a high shelf in a sunny room, and be sure to cover dough. Once fully proofed, ciabatta can be baked at 435° for 32-36 minutes, with steam. Take care not to under bake, and don't be afraid of a good and dark crust!

6. Once the focaccia is fully proofed, tamp down with fingertips again, and top as desired (see below). Bake at 435° for 26-30 minutes.

- toppings to add before baking: sea salt, fresh basil, parmesan cheese, rosemary, currants, spinach, apples, olives, pine nuts, black pepper, lemon slices, sesame oil, eggplant, pepperoni, fresh tomato slices...

- topping to add after baking: fresh basil, mozzarella cheese, marinated sun dried tomatos (foods that don't have to be cooked; add to the hot bread so they stick.) Experiment! We haven't found a bad topping!

- Focaccia topped with a scattering of herbs is also great simply dipped in olive oil.

- final tip: since focaccia is best crusty, feel free to toast in a hot oven multiple times as you make your way through the loaf. Brushing with more olive oil at each bake makes it even better.

Prepared for Your Day by Irby and Lisa Rentz of Eat Good Bread Bakery in Beaufort, SC.