Thanks to all our subscribers and viewers for your support! We are so excited that we've reached 500 subscribers 100.000 video views, we know it's not that much compared to some YouTube people but it really means a lot to us. We remember the days whenever we got a new subscriber every two weeks or so, and now it's up to 50 a week. It can obviously change really quickly on YouTube, so we are enjoying the fact that more people are watching our videos and are trying our recipes. The feedback is also really great, we are so happy that all of your comments are really nice and that the recipes really work for you, that's our main goal after all!
And we also love the fact that so many of you are from far away countries, where we have never been to and quite honestly didn't even know that YouTube existed there. Shows how much we know about the rest of the world...but we truly love this international aspect of YouTube, to be in touch with so many different cultures and people that speak different languages is something that is close to our hearts because we ourselves are from an international background. So please spread the word and we hope that our cooking videos can help you experience the amazing world of homemade food :)
We also hope you enjoy our St Patrick's Day footage! A big thank you to Claude, Marie and Ryan who came along and supported us during the parade, we couldn't have done it without you guys! It was really so much fun, as you can probably tell from all the nonsense on camera, and we will never forget that experience!
This episode was so much fun to make! Ciabatta is such an amazing bread and this particular version with olives, pine nuts and semolina, really reminds us of Italy and the great holidays we had there. Hence also our Italian intro, and our bad attempts at Italian gestures and body language! It was also great to have our friend Claude over for a visit and to do some filming with him, and to hear his very discerning taste critique. But in the end, what made this episode so much fun was the bread itself!
Ciabatta is a really easy bread to make as long as you remember a few steps. Your dough has to rise a lot longer to create those air bubbles. You also don't want to properly deflate your dough as you would with other breads. Ciabatta dough is also a lot wetter than most breads, and wet doughs usually tend to make a lighter bread with more air holes and they also tend to have a better crust. Although it's obviously great to have those nice air bubbles for looks and texture, too many recipes tend to focus on that aspect of Ciabatta only, whereas we think it is vital not to forget flavour! That is what makes this recipe different, because the ingredients we use are just great and work so well with each other and just give loads of flavour to the bread, making it a feast of classic Italian ingredients!
Pretty much all of the ingredients used in this recipe have something to do with Italy. White Spelt flour is not the most obvious one, especially when it's not grown in Italy, but Spelt was actually one of the most important grain crops in the Roman empire. Also, the bread that the Romans made with spelt flour was very similar to a Ciabatta, quite flat and either round or oval shaped. I truly love Spelt flour for breadmaking, it makes the lightest and stretchiest dough, even when using wholemeal flour. And the taste is also outstanding. So if you can, get some Spelt flour for this recipe. In the UK and Ireland it's available in a few supermarkets, but you can also find it in many health food and organic food stores. Otherwise just use 'strong' white bread flour.
Then we have semolina which is a classic Italian ingredient for baking and pasta. Semolina juts gives the bread a rustic texture and flavour, making it taste proper Italian. We didn't do this in the video, but often we also coat our Ciabatta in semolina before baking and it gives the bread an even more rustic flavour and texture.
The combination of olives and pine nuts works so well in bread, and many other foods! In Liguria so many dishes are made with pine nuts and olives, which are two main crops of the region. And this version of Ciabatta really reminds us of our holidays on the Ligurian coast. Also, using good quality extra virgin olive oil adds to that Ligurian feel and again just makes such a difference flavour-wise.
The bread itself is very simple to make, it's an almost no-knead, no-shape bread, it requires very little work especially if you're using a food mixer. If you're kneading by hand we suggest you use a fork for the initial mixing, and then a spatula to fold the dough as shown in the video. And use lots of oil, that makes it less sticky!
And do try this bread as suggested in the video, by rubbing a clove of garlic on the bread and eating it with a selection of nice cheeses and Italian antipasti. Simply delicious! And it's such a good example of how bread can be the main star of a meal. Obviously other savoury foods such a prosciutto, salamis and even patés and terrines are great with this bread. If you're having an Italian dinner party this bread is a must for a starter, but it's also great for those midweek meals when you don't want to cook much but simply eat some bread and something nice on the side. That's what we like :)
