Ciabatta and Challah

Well, I got confused on the order and ended up making the Ciabatta bread first and then made the Challah. Not sure why.

So, first with the Ciabatta. I made this when my mom was out to visit. It was record low temps so perfect weather to fire up the oven. We looked at the picture of the Ciabatta and our mouths watered. It would go perfect with the Baked Ziti the next night. So we were off to make our Ciabatta. Um, well we attempted to make the Ciabatta. Buffy, I had the same problem as you. Not a hole to be found in the bread. The taste was excellent but it tasted and looked like a dense Italian loaf. I think I know why. Humidity, or lack thereof. It is extremely dry in our house because we have the heater and fireplace on. I didn't compensate for this. For the first time in this whole bread baking venture, my dough passed the windowpane test. Unfortunately, it wasn't supposed to pass the windowpane test. The dough was too dry and not wet enough especially when he says "when dealing with wet dough..." I needed to add more of the liquid. My suggestion would be to use all the liquid that it asks for and maybe then some? Especially if we are doing this bread in the winter. The summer when the humidity is 90% may be another story. I am even tempted to make it again and see if it would work out since I did it so far in advance. Teacher's pet? ;)

My "slippers" proofing on my floured dish towels:

My trusty sous chef (my mom) waving a towel at the smoke alarm for every time I had to open the oven to spray the oven walls with water. Not a bread to make at naptime or late at night!

The finished product (doesn't look a bit like the picture in the book):

The Challah experience was pretty uneventful. We liked the bread and it reminded me a bit of Brioche, maybe because of the amount of eggs in it. We had it for dinner one night with soup and then the kids and I had French Toast the other night. For French toast is was excellent. Nice and dense...it held up to the eggs in the French Toast. As for bread alone it was o.k. Dan said it kind of left him hanging. When he bit into the bread it was like great things were going to happen and then nothing. The bread was dense but the flavor was too light. It was just so-so.

Alright, so there you have the Plain Life's attempt at some Ciabatta and Challah, both of which left me wishing for some Brioche. Mmmm, now that was some good bread!

Holla for Challah!