banner image

Mike’s Seeded Ciabatta Loaf Recipe

This is for an approx. 650 gram loaf including added seeds:

Three Malts & Sunflower flour (Shipton Mill) 280g
Ciabatta flour (Shipton Mill) or strong white flour of your choice 280g (but suggest you do NOT try Canadian flour as it would probably produce a very close textured bread, the opposite of that which this recipe makes.)
Extra Virgin Olive oil (I use ‘Waitrose’ brand in 1 litre bottles 4 tbsp (Tablespoons full) And yes, it really does need this amount!)
Sugar 1½ tsp (teaspoons full)
Five Seed Blend (Shipton Mill) 25g
Pumpkin seed 40g
Sunflower seed 25g
Dried semolina granules/powder 15g (optional)
Water (preferably filtered) 330ml
Dried yeast (I use Doves Farm) 1½ tsp (place in the small lid dispenser)

I use a Panasonic SD-ZB2502 breadmaker on “Menu 9 (Italian bread)”. Please note that the raisin dispenser in the lid of this breadmaker does not function on program 9 & any additional seeds etc. must be added to the main bread pan at the start.
I have tried a range of variations of this recipe, usually on Menu 9, and get good results every time. I usually put it on the previous evening with additional time added so it’s ready for breakfast
If you do not have this specific method on your bread-maker, it runs as follows, (although I do not understand how they arrive at the total times for each stage)……

1) Rest (30-60mins)
2) Knead (10-15 mins)
3) Rise (2hr 25 mins-3hrs)
4) Bake (50 mins)

Total is 4 hrs 30 mins. The above bread-maker on this program will allow for adding a delay overnight as above if you put the recipe together in the evening but want the bread to be lovely & hot for breakfast the next morning. I have tried the recipe with a few other methods on this bread-maker. Whilst they have generally turned out OK, method 9 (Italian bread) gives consistently by far the best and what I have found to be failsafe results. It keeps for up to a week or more in the fridge.
It gives a consistently lovely flavoured very light textured loaf, light in colour with a slight extra crunch to the crust if the optional semolina is added. The loaf gives square slices with this method and bread-maker, so great for sandwiches. If I had to pick a favourite recipe then it would be this one.