Every couple weeks or so, we send out a little roundup of new recipes, techniques, and tutorials that we’ve recently posted on the site. Occasionally we announce exclusive giveaways to newsletter subscribers as well. We won’t spam you with ads or share or sell your email address. Every email we send has a 1-click unsubscribe link if you decide it’s not for you.
Kernza® Sourdough Ciabatta
Ciabatta is an airy, crusty bread that usually calls for high gluten flour and a relatively wet dough. It was developed in Italy in the early 1980s to compete with the growing popularity of the French baguette. Nowadays ciabatta has regional variations in Italy, and actually the very open-crumb version of it may be more of a U.S. ciabatta trend (Wikipedia). Long before I knew its lineage or how to bake it myself, ciabatta was one of my favorite breads. I love the thick, crispy crust and a chewy, airy interior. These characteristics make ciabatta perfect for sopping up olive oil, being inundated with tomatoes, and generally holding a diverse array of drippy sandwich contents. Once I started baking it myself, I found that sourdough leavening and using whole grain flour for 20% of the total flour adds much more flavor and aroma to the bread and still lets you achieve the crispy crust and open crumb.
In this recipe, I put the idea of getting a “white flour crumb” with 20% whole grain flour to the test by using Kernza for the whole grain component. This perennial grain is relatively low in gluten strength. You can see comparative tests with it and other wheats in this article: Baking Bread with Kernza Perennial Grain. These Kernza ciabattas came out great. They have the distinctive color and herbal-nutty flavor of Kernza, and they’re airy, with a lovely chewy texture. The dough seemed to gain a lot of strength by being refrigerated overnight during the bulk fermention. This made the dough manageable for shaping, but still more floppy than, for example, the dough in this Sprouted Wheat Ciabatta with only 14% whole wheat flour and a high-gluten one at that.
See the Photo Gallery after the recipe for step-by-step photos, including the oven set-up. Note the recipe is doubled in the photos. Ingredient amounts as written make 2-4 ciabattas. If you’d like to try another recipe with Kernza, here is an Artisan Bread.
Kernza Sourdough Ciabatta
Kernza perennial grain gives this sourdough ciabatta a delicious herbal and nutty flavor. This crusty bread is fantastic for sandwiches and for dipping in soups, stews, or olive oil.
Ingredients
For 2-4 Ciabattas
Ingredient Baker's Percentages
Instructions
See the Photo Gallery for dough expansion, oven set-up and more.
Mixing, Gluten Development, Bulk Fermentation
Shaping
Oven Prep, Proofing
Baking
Notes
• 1 cup Kernza whole grain flour, vigorously tamped down after milling, weighs 110-115 grams.
•• I fed my sourdough starter all purpose flour for this recipe, and then added it to the Kernza whole grain flour and Breadtopia bread flour, which has 13.5% protein. If you have bread flour with a lower protein level, you can compensate by using bread flour when you build your sourdough starter.
••• The salt and oil amounts in this recipe may seem high, but the flour in the starter bring the percentage down (see: Ingredient Baker's Percentages).
Shopping List
Kernza Perennial Grain
High Protein Bread Flour
Mockmill 100 Grain Mill
Sourdough Starter (Dry)
Danish Dough Whisk — Large
Dough Rising and Storage Bucket w/Lid – 6 qt. Round
Bench Knife by Lamson — Walnut Handle
Flax Linen Baker’s Couche
FibraMent Oven Baking Stones
Parchment Paper Sheets — 200 Sheets
$19.00The Baker’s Board Cherrywood Pizza Peel
Kernza® Sourdough Ciabatta