The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 17 No. 37 - June 28, 2017

FEATURE

Ted's breads

Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

submitted

Fresh baked ciabatta bread can be found
at the Sandbar, Beach House and Mar Vista restaurants.

Ciabatta is Italian for slipper, named by the baker who developed the dough due to its resemblance to a slipper once baked. Ciabatta bread was developed in response to the popularity of the French baguette. Its wet dough creates the characteristic crumb that is open and airy, with a crisp, thin crust. Fresh baked ciabatta is just one of the various breads you can find throughout the menus of the Sandbar, Beach House and Mar Vista restaurants today.

My desire to bake bread came about somewhat by accident. I grew up here in Bradenton/Anna Maria, where my family owned Zorba's Pizza. I was too young to work in the kitchens at that time, but I remember tossing dough around and burning my finger on the giant pizza oven. I really never intended on getting into the restaurant business, but after graduating from college I decided to head to California to obtain a formal culinary degree.

I needed a job while attending cooking school out West, and the bakery at school needed student workers. The smell of freshly baked bread coming out of the giant deck oven in the morning was enticing, and I felt encouraged to stick around. I could work in the bakery in the mornings and go to cooking class in the afternoon. It was a convenient schedule for me, and I would soon realize my new passion for bread baking.

Seven years later and I'm back home, running a bakery program for three restaurants that I started working at 15 years ago as a busser. We aren't baking out of range ovens anymore. The days of juggling cast iron combo cookers for whole loaves are over. We now have a rack oven, spiral dough mixer, and many other pieces of equipment that enable our bakery to run 24/7 with two shifts a day. I am proud to say that we now bake nearly 100 percent of our breads at the bakery which is located at the Beach House. The breads are then sent to our sister restaurants, the Sandbar and Mar Vista. I have sourced local organic grains from Carolina Ground and we mix them in with just about all of our doughs.

Some of our baked goods include baguettes, brioche, ciabatta, Pullman loaves, croissants, burger buns, Cuban loaves, scones, pies, tarts, flat breads, dinner rolls, muffins, cheesecakes, slider buns, hoagie rolls and sticky buns. We are planning to offer more rustic breads along side our farms produce at markets in the near future. So I hope you will come in and try some of the menu items that feature our house made breads. The following recipe is for ciabatta, one of my favorites.

Ciabatta

Ingredients:

2 1/3 c. flour

1 to 1 ¾ c. cool water

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. yeast

Method:

1. Mix – preheat oven to 450º. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, salt and yeast. Add the water. Stir with a wooden spoon for 2 or 3 minutes. It should be pretty wet and sticky and look more like a batter. Use a rubber spatula and scrape the wooden spoon and around the sides of the bowl back into the bulk mix. Cover and rest for 20 minutes.

2. First fold – get your hands wet, dive into the dough with both hands and turn the dough onto itself from the top, bottom, left, and right – one time each. Try to grab the bottom each time. Cover and rest 20 minutes.

3. Second fold – repeat step two.

4. Third and final fold – repeat step two one last time. You should notice the dough has slightly more strength now. Cover and let the dough rest for two hours at room temperature.

5. Divide – the dough should have at least doubled in size at this point. Use a bit of semolina or cornmeal mixed with flour to avoid sticking and to give the dough that extra depth of flavor when it's baking. Generously flour your work surface with the flour mixture. Scrape out the dough with a rubber spatula and flour the top and sides. Nudge the dough into a square. Fold the dough over itself a few times until it has some structure.

6. Shape – spread the flour mixture over a tea towel or linen. Keep the dough whole or divide into smaller units. Let it rest for one more hour on the towel, covered. The dough is ready when it holds the impression from a gentle poke. If it springs back, give it another 10-15 minutes of rest. You can also place the dough into the refrigerator at this point and bake within a day.

7. Bake – dust some corn meal or semolina on a tray, place the dough on top and apply a bit of olive oil. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy by soaking up your favorite sauce or just simply with some olive oil and herbs.


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