Sourdough Ciabatta Recipe (High-Hydration, Slipper Shape)

Ciabatta is the loaf that looks impossibly hard but is actually just impossibly wet. The technique isn't complicated; you just need to commit to a much wetter dough than you're used to and trust that it'll come good. The reward is one of the most distinctive Italian breads — open-crumbed, holey, with that signature slipper shape and crackling crust. This recipe scales for a UK domestic oven and uses flours you can find in any supermarket.

The recipe

Ingredient	Weight	Baker's %
Strong white bread flour	500g	100%
Water	425g	85%
Active sourdough starter	100g	20%
Olive oil	20g	4%
Fine sea salt	12g	2.4%

Yields 2 ciabatte (slipper-shaped loaves), each around 500g.

What makes ciabatta different

Ciabatta is defined by three things:

1. Very high hydration (85%). The dough is so wet that you can't shape it conventionally — you pour it.
2. The slipper shape. Long and flat, with a deeply rustic, irregular surface.
3. The open crumb. Massive irregular holes throughout — far more dramatic than any other bread.

The high hydration is what creates the open crumb. The slipper shape is what allows the high hydration to bake without collapsing. They go together.

The 24-hour timeline

Day 1, 6pm — Mix the dough

In a large bowl, combine the flour and 350g of the water (hold back 75g for later). Mix to a shaggy dough. Cover and rest 30 minutes.

Day 1, 6:30pm — Add starter, salt, and remaining water

Sprinkle the salt over the dough and add the starter. Pinch through to incorporate. Now slowly add the remaining 75g of water in two additions, pinching it through between each. The dough should be very sticky — almost batter-like. That's correct.

Drizzle the olive oil over the dough and pinch through.

Day 1, 7pm to 9pm — Stretch and folds

Four sets of stretch-and-folds, 30 minutes apart. The dough is wet, so use a wet hand and a bowl scraper. Each stretch-and-fold strengthens the gluten gradually.

• 7:30pm — Set 1 (gentle, dough is delicate)
• 8:00pm — Set 2 (slightly firmer)
• 8:30pm — Set 3 (dough now elastic)
• 9:00pm — Set 4 (smooth and bouncy)

By the fourth fold, the dough should pass a windowpane test — pinch off a small piece and stretch; if it stretches thin without tearing, the gluten is developed enough.

Day 1, 9pm — Bulk ferment in a rectangular container

Lightly oil a rectangular container (a Tupperware around 25cm × 18cm × 8cm is perfect). Tip the dough in. Cover and bulk for another 90 minutes at room temperature, then into the fridge for 12–14 hours.

Day 2, 8am — Tip and divide

Take the container out of the fridge. The dough should have grown by 50–70%, full of bubbles you can see through the sides.

Heavily flour your counter — really heavily. Generous flour means the dough won't stick. Tip the dough out gently — it should slide out as a single piece, holding the rectangular shape of the container.

With a bench scraper, cut the rectangle into 2 pieces. Each piece is one ciabatta.

Day 2, 8:15am — Stretch into slipper shapes

Carefully lift each piece and stretch slightly into elongated slippers. Don't degas. Place onto a heavily floured tea towel or piece of parchment, with folds in the cloth/parchment between them to keep them separate.

Cover loosely with another tea towel. Rest 60 minutes at room temperature for final proof.

Day 2, 9:15am — Bake

Preheat the oven to 240°C with a baking stone or upturned baking tray on the middle rack. Place a roasting tin on the bottom rack to be filled with boiling water for steam.

Just before baking, pour 200ml of boiling water into the roasting tin to create steam. Carefully lift the ciabatte onto a piece of parchment and slide them onto the hot stone (or upturned tray).

Bake at 240°C for 18 minutes, then drop to 220°C and bake for another 8–10 minutes until deeply golden. Don't open the oven during the first 18 minutes — losing steam ruins the crust.

Cool on a rack for at least 60 minutes before cutting.

What a great ciabatta looks like

• Crust: golden, crisp, audibly crackly when squeezed.
• Crumb: dramatically open, with holes ranging from pea-sized to thumb-sized. Glossy interior surfaces.
• Shape: long, slightly flat, with an irregular rustic surface. The classic 'slipper' silhouette.
• Texture: light and chewy, with the holes giving lots of texture variation.
• Flavour: mild olive oil, slight tang from the sourdough, a slightly sweet wheat character.

The handling secret: don't fight the wetness

Most ciabatta failures come from cooks trying to make the dough behave like a country loaf — adding more flour, trying to shape it, fighting the high hydration. Don't. Embrace it.

• Wet hand for every interaction.
• Bowl scraper, not your hand, for moving the dough.
• Heavy flour on the counter when tipping out.
• Don't try to make it round — accept the rectangular form.
• Don't try to make it neat — ciabatta is supposed to be irregular.

Common ciabatta problems

Crumb is too tight, no big holes: degassed during shaping. Be more gentle next time. The whole point of ciabatta is to keep the gas in.

Loaves spread out flat with no rise: over-proofed. Reduce final proof to 45 minutes.

Crust pale and soft: not enough steam, or oven not hot enough. Make sure the steam pan has plenty of water.

Loaves stuck to the parchment/cloth: not enough flour. Be very generous when laying them out.

Loaves dense: not enough hydration in the actual dough (you may have added too much flour during handling), or under-bulked. The dough must look full of bubbles before tipping out.

The Italian context

Ciabatta is a relatively modern invention — created in 1982 by Italian baker Arnaldo Cavallari in Veneto, partly as a response to the rise of French baguettes in the Italian market. The shape and high hydration were specifically designed to be the polar opposite of a baguette: rustic, irregular, deeply holey, where baguette is uniform and tight-crumbed.

The original Italian ciabatta is made with commercial yeast and a poolish (50% hydration pre-ferment). The sourdough version we make here is closer to a traditional rustic Italian country loaf adapted to the ciabatta shape — a hybrid that gives more flavour than the original.

Variations

Olive ciabatta

Add 100g halved Kalamata olives at the second stretch-and-fold. Reduce salt to 10g. Add 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary.

Garlic and herb ciabatta

Add 3 grated garlic cloves and 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary at the third stretch-and-fold.

Wholewheat ciabatta

Replace 100g of strong white with strong wholemeal. Increase water to 440g. The crumb is slightly less open but more flavourful.

What to do with ciabatta

Ciabatta is the perfect bread for Italian and Mediterranean uses:

• Bruschetta: the classic. Toasted ciabatta rubbed with garlic, topped with tomato, basil, olive oil, sea salt.
• Sandwiches: caprese (mozzarella, tomato, basil), porchetta, or a Friday lunchtime classic with mortadella and pickle.
• Crostini: sliced thin, toasted, topped with anything from chicken liver paté to ricotta and broad beans.
• Soup-dipper: for tomato soup, minestrone, ribollita.
• Antipasti: torn into chunks, dunked in good olive oil and balsamic.

Storage

Ciabatta has a much shorter shelf life than country bread because of the high hydration — the crumb dries out faster. Eat day one if possible. By day two it needs reheating; by day three it should be repurposed (croutons, panzanella, bread soup).

Slice and freeze unused portions on day one. Reheat from frozen in a 200°C oven for 5 minutes — comes back almost to fresh.

FAQ

Why is ciabatta so wet?

The high hydration is what creates the dramatic open crumb. Without 80%+ hydration, you can't get that texture. The wetness is the recipe — embrace it.

Why is mine flat?

Ciabatta is supposed to be flat (or rather, flat-ish). It's not a tall loaf — it's a slipper. If yours is markedly flat, it might be over-proofed; if it's puffed up like a baguette, you've under-fermented.

Why doesn't my crumb have big holes?

Either insufficient hydration, insufficient bulk fermentation, or you degassed during shaping. The whole point of ciabatta is to keep the gas in — minimal handling.

Can I make this without a baking stone?

Yes — bake on an upturned baking tray. The result is slightly less crispy on the base but otherwise identical.

Why olive oil in the dough?

Tradition — Italian breads often include olive oil. It contributes a slight richness and helps the crumb stay tender. You can omit it; the loaf still works.

What's the lowest hydration that still gives me a real ciabatta?

About 78%. Below that, you've got a country loaf in a slipper shape, not a true ciabatta.

Can I make this with commercial yeast?

Yes — substitute the starter with 5g of dried yeast and reduce the cold ferment to 12 hours. The flavour is less complex.

Why bake ciabatta at home

Supermarket ciabatta is almost always disappointing — too soft, too tight a crumb, often spongy from added improvers. A good independent bakery ciabatta is genuinely good, but it costs £3–5 a loaf. The home version costs about 70p in ingredients and, with the right technique, beats almost anything you'd buy.

And the technique transfers. Once you can handle 85% hydration dough, your country loaves get easier, your focaccia gets better, and your pizza dough handling becomes second nature. Ciabatta is the loaf that levels you up.

The Italian-restaurant-bread-basket recipe

This is the bread that posh Italian restaurants serve in a basket with olive oil and balsamic. If you've ever wondered how to make bread that good at home, this is the recipe. Bake on a Saturday morning. Serve at lunch with a slow-cooked tomato sauce, a green salad, a glass of Chianti. The kind of meal that makes home dinner feel like a holiday.

The skill ladder for sourdough

If you're new to sourdough, ciabatta isn't where you start. The skill order:

1. Country loaf at 70% (foundation).
2. Country loaf at 75% (open-crumb introduction).
3. Wholemeal country loaf (handling fragile gluten).
4. Olive sourdough (handling inclusions).
5. Ciabatta at 85% (the high-hydration leap).
6. Pizza dough (the pivot to flat breads).
7. Baguette (precision shaping).

Don't try ciabatta until country loaves at 75% feel routine. The skill jump from 75% to 85% is significant, and tackling it without the foundation produces frustrating results.

Same-day ciabatta (when you don't want to wait)

If you don't have time for the cold ferment, the same-day version works too. Skip the overnight fridge step. Instead, after the four stretch-and-folds (around 9pm if you started at 7pm), let the dough bulk at room temperature for another 90 minutes. Then tip out, divide, shape, proof for 60 minutes, bake.

The flavour is markedly less developed — closer to a fresh-baked Italian rosetta than a properly fermented ciabatta. Workable when you need bread tonight, but the cold-fermented version is genuinely better and worth the planning.

The Italian connection

If you're ever in Italy, eating ciabatta in its native context is illuminating. The Italian versions are usually slightly tighter-crumbed than the romanticised idea of ciabatta — bakers don't always chase the dramatic open crumb. They prioritise reliable rise, good chew, and a workable bread for sandwiches and bruschetta. The home version we make in the UK, optimised for show-stopping holes, is in some ways less practical than what you'd find in a Veneto bakery — but more satisfying as a baking project.

Pairings beyond the obvious

Ciabatta with mortadella and pickle. Ciabatta with prosciutto and figs. Ciabatta dipped in golden olive oil and aged balsamic. Ciabatta torn into a salad of tomato and onion (panzanella) so it absorbs the dressing. Ciabatta as the bread for an Italian-style chicken sandwich — chicken, pesto, mozzarella, sun-dried tomato. The format suits everything Mediterranean, summery, slightly indulgent.