Ciabatta Means Slipper
By Andris Lagsdin
I just wrapped a class with 100+ people making ciabatta together. Same dough I've been teaching for 13 years, just bumped up to 75% hydration, wetter, slacker, more bubbles, more chaos.
Here's something most people don't know: ciabatta isn't ancient.
It was invented in 1982 by an Italian baker named Arnaldo Cavallari in the Veneto region. He was sick of watching French baguettes win the sandwich market in Italy, so he created an Italian alternative that could hold up to fillings without going soggy.
He named it after his wife's worn-out house slipper.
Ciabatta means slipper in Italian. The bread is shaped like one, long, flat, irregular, slightly floppy. So when you pull it out of the oven and it looks ugly and uneven? That's not a mistake. That's the bread.
What 75% hydration gets you
If you've made my 72-hour pizza dough, you know it's around 65% hydration. For ciabatta, we go higher, 75%. More water means more bubbles, more open crumb, more crackle in the crust.
It's also stickier. Wet hands, bench scraper, don't try to knead it like normal bread. Let the dough do the work.
The result is what you see in the photo above, irregular shapes, wild holes, golden crust. That's a real long-fermented ciabatta. That's the slipper.
The recipe
Same long-fermentation method as my pizza dough, just more water:
- 500g organic flour (High Mountain from Central Milling)
- 375g water (up from 325g)
- 16g salt
- 1g instant yeast
Mix, rest at room temp for 1 hour, then 72 hours in the fridge.
On bake day: gently divide the dough into rough rectangles (don't ball, don't degas), bench rest 30-60 minutes, dimple the tops, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with flaky salt, and launch onto a screaming hot Baking Steel.
The bubbles you trapped during fermentation? They're the entire point. Be gentle. Handle the dough like you'd handle a sleeping baby.
Skip the measuring
If you'd rather not weigh out organic flour and instant yeast on a Sunday, I package this exact ratio in our 72-Hour Pizza Dough Mix. Same organic flour I use at home. Just add water and time. For ciabatta, bump the water up to get to 75% hydration and follow the same steps.
The class
We made these together on a Wednesday at noon. 100+ people on Zoom. Free, live, no script. Just me, the dough, and a lot of "look how alive this is" moments.
Next class is coming soon. Keep an eye on your inbox.
Andris
About the Author
Andris Lagsdin invented the Baking Steel in 2012 using steel from his family's Stoughton Steel Company in Hanover, MA, a shop his family has run since the 1970s. What started as a Kickstarter project (backed after an endorsement from Kenji López-Alt on Serious Eats) has grown into the go-to tool for hundreds of thousands of home pizza makers. Every Baking Steel is still made there today.
Before launching Baking Steel, Andris trained under renowned chef Todd English and spent 15 years in the family steel business. He's the co-author of Baking with Steel with Jesse Olson Moore.
Today he teaches thousands of students how to make pizzeria-quality pizza at home through his free online classes and recipes.
In 2026, Andris launched the 72-Hour Pizza Dough Mix, the same recipe he's been teaching for over a decade, now in a bag. Just add water.
