Homemade Bread - Ciabatta Bread Recipe

Homemade ciabatta bread is delicious. Light textured, crunchy-crusted and gobbled up before it has chance to go stale.

But it's tricky to get right. There are a few potential stumbling blocks in the process.

\"Pizza Recipe\"

Don't let that put you off, though. I'm here to help.

Homemade Bread - Ciabatta Bread Recipe

This ciabatta recipe gives you all the insight you need to make your own, homemade ciabatta and get it right, first time.

So, what is ciabatta?

Ciabatta (Italian for 'slipper') is a square, flattish bread, designed to be loaded with toppings. Usually made with white flour, it has an open texture, with large air-bubbles.

The dough is extra-fermented, for a slightly sour flavour and is often coated in cornmeal (although in this recipe I substitute semolina because it's easier to obtain) to make the crust extra crunchy.

It's tricky but I'll show you how.

It's tricky to make because of the extra fermentation needed to achieve the authentic ciabatta flavour. Also, it is awkward to work with the wet dough necessary to achieve the open texture. At the same time, you want the crust to be crunchy without letting the thin bread become too dry. A lot to think about, but perfectly easy to achieve, when you know how.

Here goes...

Ciabatta Recipe

You will need:
250g plain flour
3g dried instant yeast
A large pinch salt
Approximately 180ml hand-hot water to mix
Semolina to coat (optional)

Mix your dough well in advance. I suggest doing this the night before you want to eat the bread.

1. Combine the flour and instant yeast in a large bowl.

2. Add the water, little by little, until you have made a slack dough.

3. Leave the dough to ferment overnight. The longer you ferment the dough, the sourer the bread will taste. If you prefer a milder flavour, shorten this stage to an hour.

4. When you return to the dough, mix in the salt. I usually do this by hand as it's easier to squeeze and knead the dough, rather than using a spoon.

5. Tip the dough onto a floured surface and knead for a few minutes, until your dough has a smooth, stretchy texture. It should still be quite wet, which makes it tricky to handle. It will stick to the work surface and to your hands. Try not to add too much extra flour as you need the wetness in order to achieve the characteristic open-crumb texture.

6. Divide your dough into four pieces. Stretch each piece to a long, thin strip and fold it into three. The folding helps to incorporate extra air into the dough, for that all-important texture. Try to not squash the air out of the dough at this stage. Repeat the stretch and fold process if necessary, to create an oblong bread about 3cm thick.

7. Gently coat the bread in semolina and place it on a greased baking tray.

8. Leave it to rise again for about half an hour before baking at 200oC for 20 minutes.

Now, to achieve that crunchy crust

There is one further stage to this process.

Use a (clean) plant mister to lightly spray the bread with water before you put it in the oven. Repeat this spraying process a couple of times in the first few minutes of baking.

Your bread is cooked when it can be lifted off the tray easily and sounds hollow when you knock on its bottom.

Serve immediately - ciabatta doesn't keep well, which is another good reason to bake it yourself.

Homemade Bread - Ciabatta Bread Recipe

There are more bread recipes on my site, including my guide to Fresh Bread In 20 Minutes which is the quickest way I know to bake homemade bread for lunch.

How to Make Your Own Homemade Spaghetti Sauce For Canning

During the summer months, I like to make my own homemade spaghetti sauce. Once I have it made, I will freeze or can it for future use. This particular sauce is great for spaghetti, lasagna, rigatoni, ravioli and manicotti.

Italian Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

\"Pizza Recipe\"

6 lbs. lean ground beef
2 (8 ounce) packages of pepperoni
2 (12 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (15 ounce) cans Italian tomato sauce
5 (29 ounce) cans tomato puree
2 1/2 teaspoons seasoning salt
1 teaspoon onion salt
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons table salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2 tablespoons oregano leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons red pepper
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 tablespoons dried onion
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1/2 teaspoon thyme

How to Make Your Own Homemade Spaghetti Sauce For Canning

Brown the lean ground beef in a large frying pan, drain off burger grease. In a large stock pot, combine cooked beef, pepperoni, tomato paste, tomato sauce and tomato puree. Cook for 10 minutes on medium heat. Turn heat down to simmer and stir in all of the spices. Simmer the sauce for 45 to 60 minutes to allow all of the spices to infuse into the sauce mixture.

How to can your spaghetti sauce:

Sterilize and clean your canning jars. (I prefer using quart-sized wide mouth jars). Ladle hot mixture into hot jars. Clean the rims of jars with a clean cotton towel. Seal jars and then process in a water bath canner for 30 minutes. Remove jars from canner and allow them to cool down in a non-drafty area of your kitchen.

Note: You can also freeze the spaghetti sauce in freezer safe airtight container for up to 1 year.

How to Make Your Own Homemade Spaghetti Sauce For Canning

Shelly Hill has been working from home in Direct Sales since 1989. Shelly is a Manager with Tupperware. Shelly enjoys cooking and baking for her friends and family. You can visit Shelly online at http://www.workathomebusinessoptions.com or her Shakin 'N Bakin recipe blog at http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com

Making Homemade Salsa - Recipes The Fast and Easy Way!

A good homemade salsa can spice up a meal and add a little life to your party and as well as your party trays. While it is easy to find salsa at any grocery store, it's just not the same as one which you make yourself. Making a salsa from scratch is actually quite easy. With the right salsa recipe and just a little preparation time, you can create a good homemade salsa that will have people coming back for more.

There are some things you can do so that the process of making a salsa recipe will be as quick and effortless as possible. For example a food processor or a food chopper can cut down on the time it takes and is much less messy when you have to clean up.

\"Pizza Recipe\"

You can also add your own 'personality into your salsa recipe. You can take it and make slight tweaks here and there to suit your taste. You can add more tomatoes or reduce the peppers to create a more mild version of your salsa. Alternatively, you can add other types of peppers such as jalapenos to give your salsa some extra kick.

Making Homemade Salsa - Recipes The Fast and Easy Way!

To make a thicker and full bodied salsa, extract the seeds and the juice of the tomatoes before preparing. Also any extra liquid can be extracted when boiling for an extra measure of thickness. You will have to experiment a little bit to get the consistency of your unique salsa recipe just right.

You can start to creatively come up with new ways to use your homemade salsa - you don't have to use it only with chips. For example you can add some salsa to your nachos or bean dips. You can also take your fried or grilled meat and serve that with your salsa as well. Don't limit yourself.

You can take your salsa and use it to make quite a healthy snack. You can bake tortillas in order to make tortilla chips for a low fat snack and serve your salsa with it.

Don't be surprised if you keep getting asked to make it over and over. If that is the case you may want to make larger batches - maybe twice or three times the amount the recipe calls for. You can put the extra salsa into containers and put it into your freezer. You will always be ready whenever guests arrive.

Keep experimenting and tweaking your homemade salsa recipes and you will find those recipes that have that perfect taste for you and your guests. And those compliments will keep coming!

Making Homemade Salsa - Recipes The Fast and Easy Way!

Author: Tony Buel

http://www.Homemade-Salsa-Recipes.com

Secrets to Great Homemade Pizza

A pizza is the sum of its parts; namely, the pizza crust, the pizza toppings and the pizza sauce. Make each one as wonderful as you can make it and you'll be assured of turning out the best homemade pizza possible. Try out the following secrets when you make your homemade pizza.

Pizza Crust Secrets

\"Pizza Recipe\"

Bake your pizza crust separately: It would be best if you can bake your pizza crust first before you add on the toppings and sauce. There's one good reason for doing this. If you bake the lot at one and the same time, you may end up with a pizza that has overcooked toppings, burnt cheese and an undercooked, flat crust. Of course, you should not bake your crust fully the first time so that you won't end up with a pizza that has a burnt crust after your final baking stage.

Secrets to Great Homemade Pizza

Mixing pizza dough ingredients: Begin by putting in a bowl at least one-tenth of the warm water specified in your homemade pizza recipe. Add yeast gradually to the water, stir and let it stand for a few minutes. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, put the remaining warm water, stir in the sugar and salt (if your recipe calls for these ingredients) and the other dry ingredients except the flour, add the water and yeast mixture, stir the lot then immediately add the rest of the ingredients.

Kneading the pizza mixture: Kneading will let air mix with your pizza dough mixture. You should knead the pizza dough only until it reaches the proper consistency: the dough doesn't stick to the container and individual portions can be stretched without breaking. Over-kneading will result in brittle pizza dough. While kneading the dough, use flour to prevent the mixture from sticking to your hands and the bowl, but use as little flour as possible.

Let your pizza dough rise before using it: After kneading your pizza dough, you must give it enough time to rise to your desired thickness. Generally, the longer the fermentation time you allow your pizza, the better the taste of the pizza crust. However, be careful not to use too much yeast if you are going to let the dough rise for hours (say you prepared the dough in the morning and let it relax for the rest of the day in preparation for baking by day end).

If speed is of the essence: If you need the pizza dough as quickly as possible, you can let it rise faster by adding more yeast to the mixture or by increasing the temperature of the dough. To do the latter, you can heat your oven for a few minutes, turn it off, cool the oven off a bit by leaving the oven door open for a few seconds, put the dough in a covered bowl, put the bowl in the oven and close the door. Let the mixture stay in the warm oven for at least 30 minutes, take it out, softly press the dough down then repeat the "rising" exercise for another 30 minutes. Another technique that you can apply for a faster fermentation period is to use warm water. The higher the water temperature, the faster yeast action will be. Just a note of caution, however, the pizza dough which has been allowed to ferment longer using minimum amount of yeast generally results into a better-tasting pizza crust so it's best that you mix and knead your dough hours before you actually need it.

Frozen homemade pizza dough preparation: If you have prepared pizza dough the night before and left it in the refrigerator for next day's baking, take it out in the morning and let it rise for at least several hours before you use it. Again, the less the yeast used, the longer the rising period required.

To make a thin pizza crust: If you are aiming for a thin crust pizza, you will want to use less dough per pan. You can also just stretch your pizza dough more on the pan. Doing this will naturally reduce the crust thickness.

To get a thick pizza crust: For a thicker crust, you need to use a pizza pan with a smaller circumference, use more pizza dough per pan or stretch out the dough less. The result would be increased crust thickness.

To get a crispy pizza crust: For a crispy pizza crust, it would be best if you reduce the amount of water. Drier pizza dough usually means a crispier pizza crust. Stiffer pizza dough also means crispier crust so it would be best to use flour with high gluten content if you want a crispy crust.

For a soft and gooey crust: To get a soft and chewy crust, you need to add more water to your dough mixture or use less flour. More moist pizza dough means softer pizza crust. To achieve better results, use flour with low gluten content. You may make gluten-free pizza dough by using gluten-free flour

If you live in a high-altitude location: Be mindful of the effect of high altitude on pizza dough. A higher altitude means less air pressure so the dough will rise faster, and it means a faster rate of evaporation so the dough will dry out faster. Thus, if you are in a high-altitude location, it is generally advisable to use more water and less yeast in your pizza dough mixture than you would normally use if you were in a low-altitude location.

Pizza Toppings

Simply speaking, the pizza toppings you should use depend on the type of pizza that you want. Fresh mozzarella cheese is necessary if you want to make a New York pizza. New York style pizza is typically minimalist; that is to say, they use as few toppings as possible. On the other hand, a Chicago deep dish pizza is usually loaded with meaty toppings: pepperoni, beef sausage, pork sausage, ground beef, bacon, ham, etc. You will also see bell peppers, mushrooms, and different kinds of cheese on a typical Chicago pizza. Tomatoes, cheese, anchovies, garlic, and herbs like basil and oregano, on the other hand, are typical of Italian pizza. California pizza, on the other hand, is characterized by seasonal vegetable toppings, fruit toppings, chicken pizza toppings, smoked salmon toppings, and other unusual toppings.

For great economy: Use pizza toppings that you already have on hand. Bacon, ham and sausages left over from breakfast, for instance, will make great toppings. Innovate depending on what ingredients you have. Naturally, cooked toppings will require less time in the oven so be sure to take this into account when baking your pizza.

Fresh toppings: It is recommended that you use fresh ingredients for your pizza toppings. Use fresh mozzarella cheese, if possible.

Finger crush herbs: To release the flavor of dried herbs, it is best to finger crush them before you add them to your pizza.

Drain and dry toppings: To avoid getting a soggy pizza, especially if you are using lots of canned and moist ingredients, you should drain your toppings of excess moisture before you arrange them on your pizza base.

Pizza Sauce

Your pizza sauce will give your pizza its distinctive flavor. In the web, you can find a lot of easy pizza sauce recipes to follow. You can even try making your own trademark pizza sauce.

Easy pizza sauce recipe: There should be canned, pre-mixed pizza sauces available in your local supermarket. On the other hand, you can use spaghetti sauce as your pizza sauce. Another easy alternative would be to sauté some onions and garlic in extra virgin olive oil, add tomato sauce (chunky tomato sauce is fine or tomato paste/puree diluted with some water), add salt (and crushed pepper if preferred), let the sauce simmer then add basil and oregano. You can even add some balsamic vinegar if you wish. You can also add some cooked ground meat to your sauce if you prefer.

Thicker sauce is better: Use thick pizza sauce on your pizza. Too watery pizza sauce means a soggy pizza. If you are using canned pizza sauce, evaluate the thickness. If too thin, let the sauce simmer before using it on your pizza.

Pizza sauce on top: When cooking your pizza, it is advisable to put the sauce on top. This will prevent your cheese and other ingredients from burning.

Secrets to Great Homemade Pizza

Sean Lannin

[http://www.homemade-pizza-made-easy.com/]

Secrets to Great Homemade Pizza

A pizza is the sum of its parts; namely, the pizza crust, the pizza toppings and the pizza sauce. Make each one as wonderful as you can make it and you'll be assured of turning out the best homemade pizza possible. Try out the following secrets when you make your homemade pizza.

Pizza Crust Secrets

\"homemade Pizza\"

Bake your pizza crust separately: It would be best if you can bake your pizza crust first before you add on the toppings and sauce. There's one good reason for doing this. If you bake the lot at one and the same time, you may end up with a pizza that has overcooked toppings, burnt cheese and an undercooked, flat crust. Of course, you should not bake your crust fully the first time so that you won't end up with a pizza that has a burnt crust after your final baking stage.

Mixing pizza dough ingredients: Begin by putting in a bowl at least one-tenth of the warm water specified in your homemade pizza recipe. Add yeast gradually to the water, stir and let it stand for a few minutes. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, put the remaining warm water, stir in the sugar and salt (if your recipe calls for these ingredients) and the other dry ingredients except the flour, add the water and yeast mixture, stir the lot then immediately add the rest of the ingredients.

Kneading the pizza mixture: Kneading will let air mix with your pizza dough mixture. You should knead the pizza dough only until it reaches the proper consistency: the dough doesn't stick to the container and individual portions can be stretched without breaking. Over-kneading will result in brittle pizza dough. While kneading the dough, use flour to prevent the mixture from sticking to your hands and the bowl, but use as little flour as possible.

Let your pizza dough rise before using it: After kneading your pizza dough, you must give it enough time to rise to your desired thickness. Generally, the longer the fermentation time you allow your pizza, the better the taste of the pizza crust. However, be careful not to use too much yeast if you are going to let the dough rise for hours (say you prepared the dough in the morning and let it relax for the rest of the day in preparation for baking by day end).

If speed is of the essence: If you need the pizza dough as quickly as possible, you can let it rise faster by adding more yeast to the mixture or by increasing the temperature of the dough. To do the latter, you can heat your oven for a few minutes, turn it off, cool the oven off a bit by leaving the oven door open for a few seconds, put the dough in a covered bowl, put the bowl in the oven and close the door. Let the mixture stay in the warm oven for at least 30 minutes, take it out, softly press the dough down then repeat the "rising" exercise for another 30 minutes. Another technique that you can apply for a faster fermentation period is to use warm water. The higher the water temperature, the faster yeast action will be. Just a note of caution, however, the pizza dough which has been allowed to ferment longer using minimum amount of yeast generally results into a better-tasting pizza crust so it's best that you mix and knead your dough hours before you actually need it.

Frozen homemade pizza dough preparation: If you have prepared pizza dough the night before and left it in the refrigerator for next day's baking, take it out in the morning and let it rise for at least several hours before you use it. Again, the less the yeast used, the longer the rising period required.

To make a thin pizza crust: If you are aiming for a thin crust pizza, you will want to use less dough per pan. You can also just stretch your pizza dough more on the pan. Doing this will naturally reduce the crust thickness.

To get a thick pizza crust: For a thicker crust, you need to use a pizza pan with a smaller circumference, use more pizza dough per pan or stretch out the dough less. The result would be increased crust thickness.

To get a crispy pizza crust: For a crispy pizza crust, it would be best if you reduce the amount of water. Drier pizza dough usually means a crispier pizza crust. Stiffer pizza dough also means crispier crust so it would be best to use flour with high gluten content if you want a crispy crust.

For a soft and gooey crust: To get a soft and chewy crust, you need to add more water to your dough mixture or use less flour. More moist pizza dough means softer pizza crust. To achieve better results, use flour with low gluten content. You may make gluten-free pizza dough by using gluten-free flour

If you live in a high-altitude location: Be mindful of the effect of high altitude on pizza dough. A higher altitude means less air pressure so the dough will rise faster, and it means a faster rate of evaporation so the dough will dry out faster. Thus, if you are in a high-altitude location, it is generally advisable to use more water and less yeast in your pizza dough mixture than you would normally use if you were in a low-altitude location.

Pizza Toppings

Simply speaking, the pizza toppings you should use depend on the type of pizza that you want. Fresh mozzarella cheese is necessary if you want to make a New York pizza. New York style pizza is typically minimalist; that is to say, they use as few toppings as possible. On the other hand, a Chicago deep dish pizza is usually loaded with meaty toppings: pepperoni, beef sausage, pork sausage, ground beef, bacon, ham, etc. You will also see bell peppers, mushrooms, and different kinds of cheese on a typical Chicago pizza. Tomatoes, cheese, anchovies, garlic, and herbs like basil and oregano, on the other hand, are typical of Italian pizza. California pizza, on the other hand, is characterized by seasonal vegetable toppings, fruit toppings, chicken pizza toppings, smoked salmon toppings, and other unusual toppings.

For great economy: Use pizza toppings that you already have on hand. Bacon, ham and sausages left over from breakfast, for instance, will make great toppings. Innovate depending on what ingredients you have. Naturally, cooked toppings will require less time in the oven so be sure to take this into account when baking your pizza.

Fresh toppings: It is recommended that you use fresh ingredients for your pizza toppings. Use fresh mozzarella cheese, if possible.

Finger crush herbs: To release the flavor of dried herbs, it is best to finger crush them before you add them to your pizza.

Drain and dry toppings: To avoid getting a soggy pizza, especially if you are using lots of canned and moist ingredients, you should drain your toppings of excess moisture before you arrange them on your pizza base.

Pizza Sauce

Your pizza sauce will give your pizza its distinctive flavor. In the web, you can find a lot of easy pizza sauce recipes to follow. You can even try making your own trademark pizza sauce.

Easy pizza sauce recipe: There should be canned, pre-mixed pizza sauces available in your local supermarket. On the other hand, you can use spaghetti sauce as your pizza sauce. Another easy alternative would be to sauté some onions and garlic in extra virgin olive oil, add tomato sauce (chunky tomato sauce is fine or tomato paste/puree diluted with some water), add salt (and crushed pepper if preferred), let the sauce simmer then add basil and oregano. You can even add some balsamic vinegar if you wish. You can also add some cooked ground meat to your sauce if you prefer.

Thicker sauce is better: Use thick pizza sauce on your pizza. Too watery pizza sauce means a soggy pizza. If you are using canned pizza sauce, evaluate the thickness. If too thin, let the sauce simmer before using it on your pizza.

Pizza sauce on top: When cooking your pizza, it is advisable to put the sauce on top. This will prevent your cheese and other ingredients from burning.

Secrets to Great Homemade Pizza

Sean Lannin
http://www.homemade-pizza-made-easy.com/

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