Khorasan flour ciabatta

Mix your pre-ferment the night before you want to make the ciabatta. Mix the strong bread flour with the water and yeast. Leave out for an hour before refrigerating overnight. The pre-ferment is ready when its doubled in size, is full of bubbles and smells like ripe fruit. The length of time it takes to be ready depends on the temperature of the water, the kitchen, the fridge etc. If it is not bubbly and ripe the next day, leave it somewhere warm until it is

When ready to mix your dough, add 200g of the lukewarm water to your pre-ferment and mix until it looks milky and most of the lumps have dissolved. To this, add the strong bread flour and khorasan flour and mix until you see no more dry flour. Leave this to rest for 20 minutes – this technique is called ‘autolyse’, and and enables the flour to fully hydrate before adding the rest of the ingredients, making it easier to work with

Once your dough has rested for 20 minutes, you’ll notice it has become a cohesive, springy mass. Now add your yeast, salt and remaining 30g lukewarm water, making sure the yeast and salt don’t come into direct contact with one another. If using a stand mixer, you’ll want to mix this for about 1–2 minutes. If mixing by hand it may take a little longer to incorporate the salt, yeast and water, but shouldn’t take more than 3–4 minutes

Your dough will be quite wet at this point. Transfer it to an oiled square container, where it has enough space to double in size (a lunch box will work well for this). Set aside for 30 minutes

After 30 minutes, you need to fold your dough. With wet hands, take one side of the dough and, lifting it up, fold it to the opposite side. Repeat this with the other three sides. Set aside for another 30 minutes, then repeat this process again

After the second set of folds, leave your dough to rise. At room temperature it should take another 1–2 hours. You’ll know when your dough is ready to shape as it’ll have doubled in size, will be aerated and feel spongy to the touch

Heavily flour your work surface with khorasan flour and turn out your dough. Be careful not to knock any air out of the dough at this stage. Cover the top in more khorasan flour and, using a dough cutter or sharp knife, cut the dough into four pieces

Transfer the ciabattas carefully onto a parchment-lined baking tray trying to avoid knocking any air out – using a spatula for this will help. You may need to use 2 baking trays, as you want some room between each ciabatta to allow for growth when baking

Preheat the oven to 220°C (fan)

Leave the ciabattas on the baking trays for 1 hour at room temperature for a final proof. Bake for 20 minutes until the rolls are golden and the bottoms sound hollow when you tap them. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool