Right. What you see here is the biga, a starter dough, which is now sitting in the fridge and will stay there for 16 hours. It's basically 100g flour, 1/3cup water, 1/2tsp instant yeast, kneaded for 1-2mins, left to sit for an hour at room temperature before going into the fridge to slow the yeast down.
The biga is then softened with 7/4 cups tepid water before adding 500g flour, 10g yeast, 10g salt until a dough forms. The dough is kneaded by machine at high power for 15 mins rather than by hand due to the stickiness of the dough. That's chucked into a well-oiled bowl to ferment to at least 3 times its size. Some authors recommend 3-4 hours fermentation, though I've heard of people who've left it in the fridge for 48 hours. The longer you leave it, the more bubbles you will have in the crumb.
Once fermented, scrape the dough out onto a well dusted surface and roughly shape into a 10'x12' rectangle. Shape into either mini loaves or into two large loaves. Mini loaves can go onto the baking paper straight away, whilst the full loaves need to have a pleat to keep the two loaves from joining while they proof for 30-40 mins. Don't forget to dimple the dough with you fingertips before proofing!
The loaves go into a pre-heated oven at 250°c or 475°f for 20-35mins until light and golden-crusted. If you have an baking stone at your disposal, that goes into the oven an hour before the bread does. Put a baking tray or iron skillet into the oven's lower rack together with your baking stone. This will be used to create steam by throwing a 1/2 cup of ice cubes onto the tray as your loaves go in. The steam helps the crust expand nicely without cracking.
Voila! There you have it. Nice soft ciabatta loaves. All you need now is some ham, cheese and lettuce.
