Learn how to make homemade ciabatta bread with this thorough step-by-step recipe as your guide. Rustic-looking and flavorful, with a flour-dusted crusty exterior and extra-chewy interior pockmarked by air bubbles, this classic Italian-style bread is made from just 4 ingredients: flour, yeast, water, and salt. Making this bread is a 2-day process, but the first step on day one takes just 5 minutes.
Ciabatta is a uniquely crusty, chewy bread that’s perfect for dipping in olive oil or homemade Italian dressing or soaking up soup or sauce. Today I’m showing you how to make both ciabatta bread AND ciabatta rolls, both from the same dough. The rolls, when sliced horizontally, make a perfect base for a hearty sandwich or panini. Tuna melt, BLT, caprese pesto chicken burger, eggs and avocado, you name it—it’s a sturdy sandwich roll that stands up to it all.
Bonus: As it stales, day-old ciabatta makes for delicious crostini, or a fantastic breakfast casserole or strata. (I used it in our Christmas brunch sausage & egg casserole!) Fresh or 1-day-old ciabatta bread is also perfect for making homemade garlic bread or homemade croutons.
What Is Ciabatta?
Ciabatta (pronounced chuh-bah-tuh) is the Italian word for slipper, and this type of bread was given its moniker in reference to its characteristic flat, broad, elongated shape. A rustic Italian white bread similar to my homemade artisan bread, ciabatta dough is made from the simplest of ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast.
The key difference between today’s recipe and my artisan bread lies in the ciabatta’s enhanced flavor, crispier crust, and irresistibly airy interior. These three standout qualities are achieved through extended fermentation and a precise series of dough-folding steps between rests.
If you’re looking for something easier, start with my artisan bread!
Ciabatta Bread Success Tips
Between developing, testing, and photographing this recipe, there have been at least 15 batches of ciabatta bread going through my kitchen the past few months. I’ve learned a lot through the process and I’m thrilled to share it all with you… both the wins and the fails.
This is not a true ciabatta recipe, meaning we aren’t making it using the *exact traditional method* you would learn in a bread class at an Italian culinary school. But this slightly simplified method yields results that are pretty darn close.
Overall, today’s recipe is a good introduction to making preferment breads, and a home baking project that you’ll feel proud to accomplish.
Before we get started, I want to call out two key aspects of making ciabatta bread from scratch:
- Make a preferment the day before. The first step is to make a preferment (aka biga)—a simple mixture of flour, water, and a pinch of yeast, which needs to sit overnight before using in the ciabatta dough. The biga assists in both flavor and structure. It helps strengthen the gluten, making for a chewier texture, and provides a more complex flavor as well.
- Expect an extra-sticky dough. This type of bread uses a high hydration (aka very wet) dough, typically at least 80% hydration. The higher the hydration (and the longer you let the dough rest), the more flexible the gluten becomes, and the chewier the final bread will be. Because it’s so wet and sticky, this dough is impossible to knead by hand, and instead requires a gentle “stretch and fold” method for building strength in the dough. Pay attention to the wording in the instructions; at times I instruct you to handle the dough with oiled hands or tools, and at other times with generously floured hands or tools. These specific directions are there to help make this sticky, highly hydrated dough easier to work with.
Helpful Tools for Making Ciabatta Bread
- Kitchen Scale: If you have one, use a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients by weight (in grams). You want to avoid adding too much flour to this dough—the wetter and stickier it is, the better. Measuring by weight is most accurate, and will put you on the path to homemade ciabatta success. If you don’t have a scale, make sure to use the spoon & level method rather than scooping the flour out of the container with the measuring cup.
- Bench Scraper: With this sticky dough, a bench scraper is basically an extension of your hands. It helps you shape and neatly straighten the dough, without your fingers getting covered in slick, wet dough.
- Instant-Read Thermometer: An instant-read thermometer is also helpful to use here. Both for checking the water temperature before mixing it with the other ingredients, and to check the baked rolls for doneness. While not required, a thermometer simply takes away the guesswork.
And if you’re new to yeast, reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
Only 4 Ingredients in the Dough
The crustier and chewier the bread, the less fat in the dough—also known as a “lean dough.” We’re using a lean dough for these ciabatta rolls today.
- Bread Flour: While you can use all-purpose flour in this recipe, I strongly recommend using bread flour. Just like when we make olive bread, pizza bread, and asiago-crusted skillet bread, bread flour produces a stronger, chewier crumb, and that makes a big difference in a recipe with only 3 other ingredients.
- Instant or Active-Dry Yeast: You can use either (see recipe Note below). Take note that you will not use an entire standard packet of yeast.
- Salt: You just can’t make good bread without salt—it’s essential for flavor. Regular table salt is what you need for this recipe.
- Water: Some yeasted bread recipes, like my soft dinner rolls, call for warm liquid because it helps the yeast work faster. On the other end of the spectrum, bread recipes with a long rest time, like this no-knead honey oat bread, call for cool or room-temperature water. The cooler the water, the longer the dough takes to rise and, usually, the better the bread’s flavor. (This is important because there are so few ingredients to add substantial flavor!) In this recipe, we’re using BOTH. You’ll use cool or room-temperature water in the biga, or preferment, on day 1; then you’ll use warm water in the dough on day 2, to increase and speed up the yeast’s activity.
- Olive Oil: While not in the dough itself, olive oil is helpful for coating your hands or spatula during the stretch-and-fold process, preventing sticking and making handling the dough much easier.
Plus, an invisible ingredient: time. Time is the superior flavor enhancer. The preferment, allowing the dough to rest between stretches and folds, and finally proofing the dough after shaping all work together to develop flavor.
Overview: How to Make Ciabatta Bread & Ciabatta Rolls
It may seem like a long process, but keep in mind that most of the time is hands-off, while the dough rests.
Day 1:
- Mix together the preferment. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 8–24 hours.
Day 2:
- Dissolve yeast in water. Add the preferment, flour, and salt. Mix to form a sticky, uniform dough. I usually do this by hand with a silicone spatula, but you can use a stand mixer and dough hook attachment. Do not use a handheld mixer—the sticky dough would get caught in the beaters.
- Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
- Stretch and fold the dough.
- Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
- Stretch and fold the dough.
- Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
- Stretch and fold the dough.
- Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
- Stretch and fold the dough for the 4th and final time.
- Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour, and up to 24 hours.
- Shape the rolls.
- Cover and let rest for 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven.
- Bake.
How to Stretch & Fold Sticky Dough
After you make the dough with the preferment/biga, let it rest for 30 minutes to help relax the gluten.
Have a little bowl of olive oil on hand. Lightly grease your hand or a silicone spatula with the oil. Using your greased hand or spatula, lift up one side of the dough and gently stretch it up and pull it toward the opposite side of the bowl, folding it down over the dough. I like to visualize a clock on top of the dough for this. You’ll be folding it at the 12 o’clock mark and pulling it down over the 6 o’clock mark. Then, turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat. Do this until you’ve gone around the bowl twice, for a total of 8 folds.
The stretch-and-fold method is similar to kneading dough but much gentler and more precise; it’s designed to handle the dough’s stickiness without overworking it.
After each stretch and fold, let the dough rest for 30 minutes. Repeat this process three more times, resting 30 minutes between each. With each round, you’re gradually building the dough’s strength and structure!
After the 4th round, refrigerate the dough for an hour and up to 1 day. Yes, you can stretch this process over 3 days if you want. I always appreciate a flexible baking recipe!
How to Shape Ciabatta Bread & Rolls
Generously flour your counter/work surface. Using lightly oiled hands or a lightly oiled spatula, gently scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto the floured surface. Sprinkle flour all over the top, then gently pat into a 10×7-inch rectangle, or anywhere close to that size.
With a floured bench scraper, cut in half down the center, and then cut each into 4 rectangles.
OR, for two loaves, cut in half once, horizontally, to make two 5×7-inch rectangles. (Or once vertically for two 10×3.5-inch loaves.)
With floured hands and using a floured bench scraper to assist, carefully transfer to parchment paper. Reshape the rolls/loaves as needed, but don’t go nuts over this. It’s totally fine if the shapes are all a little wonky and uneven—ciabatta bread is meant to look rustic!
Final nap before baking: Lightly flour the tops of the ciabatta rolls and then cover them with a clean kitchen towel. Let the rolls rest for 1 hour at room temperature.
For a Crispy Crust, Bake With Steam
Meanwhile, place a flat cookie sheet or a rimmed baking sheet on the center rack of your oven. Preheat to 450°F (232°C). You want your oven and baking surface to be heating for about an hour before the bread goes in.
When ready to bake, scatter several cups of ice cubes in a large shallow metal roasting pan, cast-iron skillet, or rimmed baking sheet. Why? You want to create steam in your oven. A humid, steamy environment is crucial for ciabatta to develop its signature golden-crisp crust. It also keeps the dough’s surface moist in the first few minutes of baking, which allows it to expand without cracking.
Uncover the rolls and lightly spray or flick them with a little water. Why? More steamy moisture. See above.
Working quickly, carefully pull out the oven rack with the preheated baking sheet and slide the parchment paper and proofed bread onto it. Slide the pan with the ice cubes onto the bottom oven rack and quickly close the oven door, trapping the steam from the melting ice inside.
Finally, your bread is baking. It will take about 20 to 22 minutes, or up to 25 minutes for a deeper golden color. All ovens are different, so use an instant-read thermometer if you have one to check the internal temperature of the bread. You’re looking for around 205°F (96°C) to 210°F (99°C).
Final Success Tip
To ensure the interior sets properly, cool the bread or rolls for at least 45 minutes before slicing and serving. Cutting too early will leave you with a gummy texture.
