coil folds

With a chewy golden crust and soft, airy interior, these homemade ciabatta breadsticks are the perfect combination of textures. The twisted shape doesn&#039;t just look pretty — it also creates nooks and crannies inside the breadsticks that make them perfect for soaking up your favorite spaghetti sauce or seasoned olive oil bread dip.

Twisted Ciabatta Breadsticks

all purpose flour ((plus more for dusting during shaping))

diamond crystal kosher salt

instant yeast ((1 teaspoon))

warm water ((80°F))

extra virgin olive oil

Mix. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and instant yeast. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients; pour the warm water and olive oil into it. Mix the dough until it comes together in a messy ball with no dry patches of flour hiding inside. Scrape down the walls of the bowl, gathering the dough together.

Bulk Fermentation. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 1 hour, with folds every 15 minutes. Then let the dough rest for 45 minutes.

Towards the end of the 45 minutes, preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and set it aside.

Stretch. Dust your counter well with flour, then dust the top of the dough with flour too. Tip the dough out of the bowl and onto the counter. Dust the top side of the dough with flour and use flat fingers with gentle pressure to stretch and smooth the dough into a rectangle approximately 10&quot; tall and 15&quot; wide. Use a bench scraper to get more flour underneath and lift the dough to stretch it if it&#39;s sticking.

Cut. Dust the sticky top side of the dough lightly with flour again. Cut the dough into one inch strips (you should get about 10 of them!). Cut in in an up and down motion so the dough doesn&#39;t stick to your blade. Dust in more flour or wipe the blade as needed to prevent sticking.

Twist. Twist each dough strip on the counter by rolling each end in opposite directions. Use gentle pressure to avoid flattening them. Transfer the breadsticks to the parchment lined sheet pan. TIP: Support each breadstick from the middle when you lift or move them so they don&#39;t stretch out!

Bake for 11-13 minutes for soft breadsticks or 14-16 minutes for crispy breadsticks. They will be lightly golden brown in the spaces between the floury stripes. Even soft-baked ciabatta breadsticks will seem very hard and crusty when they first come out of the oven, but they will soften as they cool

This soft-baked ciabatta bread has a beautiful open crumb and an airy, tender texture. Clocking in at just three hours start to finish (most of it hands-off resting time), this easy ciabatta recipe is a perfect option for a lazy weekend or evening baking project!

3-Hour Soft-Baked Ciabatta Bread

all purpose flour

instant yeast ((2 teaspoons))

Mix. In a large bowl (or a square dough container if you have one), whisk together flour, salt, and instant yeast. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients; pour the warm water and olive oil into it. Mix the dough until it comes together in a messy ball with no dry patches of flour hiding inside. Scrape down the walls of the bowl, gathering the dough into a loose ball in the bottom of the bowl.

Bulk Fermentation. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 1 hour, performing a set of coil folds every 15 minutes. After the final set of folds, cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 1 hour.One set of coil folds consists of four coil folds. To perform one coil fold, slide damp hands under opposite sides of the dough and lift straight up from the center, allowing the two ends to fold under the center of the dough. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and repeat.

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and set it aside.

Stretch. Dust your counter well with flour, then dust the top of the dough with flour too. Flip the bowl upside down over the floured countertop and let gravity pull the dough down. Gently lift the bowl off the dough, using your fingers or a bowl scraper to help any stuck pieces of dough release cleanly. NOTE: If you&#39;re baking one large ciabatta loaf or 16 pull apart dinner rolls, do this step directly onto the parchment lined baking sheet and skip flipping them later.

Cut. Dust the sticky top side of the dough lightly with flour. Cut the dough into two, four, eight, or 16 rolls. Cut in in an up and down motion so the dough doesn&#39;t stick to your blade. Dust the newly cut sides with additional flour as needed to prevent sticking. This is a very soft, sticky dough — be patient, and don&#39;t worry about them being perfect. Cover with a clean dish towel and let the dough rest for about 30 minutes.

Flip (Optional!). Dust any excess flour off the top of the dough, then slide a bench scraper under the ciabatta loaves in one quick movement. Lift and gently flip them over onto the sheet pan so the underside is now facing up. For a less floury ciabatta, gently dust any excess flour off the top. If you don&#39;t have a bench scraper, use your hands to flip it, it&#39;ll be fine.

Bake for 17-19 minutes until puffed up and light golden brown around the edges. If you want to be precise, you&#39;re looking for an internal temperature of at least 200°F. Even soft-baked ciabatta will seem very hard and crusty when it first comes out of the oven, but will become soft and fluffy as it cools. Let cool before slicing!

Excellent recipe! Worked wonderfully the first time, no problems.

I love you. So soft. So fluffy. So easy. So quick. Might be my new go-to bread recipe tbh.

Best recipe ever!  So easy and it works beautifully at high altitude!

I have made this on repeat since I first tried it and it is a HIT! Love this site and your easy to follow instructions!

I am planning to make this recipe, it sounds so delicious. My question is can I use my sourdough starter and if so how do I convert into this recipe?

Love this recipe, made the 1 cup quick version first and immediately knew it would be the perfect fancy sandwich bread! The explanation of the coil method is one of the clearest I've seen before, really appreciate the time put into communicating each part of the process.

I have been both successful and unsuccessful with bread-making the past few years (mostly the latter) and also it has been a long time since I started again! Saw this recipe and decided to give baking bread one more shot and this was so good! My confidence is definitely boosted after this, thank you for the recipe and clear instructions (especially the coil folding)!! 

One question, my oven isn't large so I'm not able to put the whole batch at once, in this case, do I leave the rest of the dough at room temperature or should I store them in the fridge?

PERFECT following the recommendation to hold back on water! No clue that THAT much water would have made such a difference, Rebecca. Thanks so much for the explanation. I can use this info on other recipes now, holding back water instead of adding more and more flour. 
It tasted fantastic the first time, but it was a nightmare to work with the dough. This time, it was perfect all the way around!

My family has been begging me to make these again, they are amazing! My first try I followed the recipe exactly, this time I added a little flavor god garlic lovers seasoning to the dough for garlic ciabatta, I’m also doing two test batches that are made with a 24hr Poolish(65g flour and 65g water with 30-40 yeast granules mixed and set on counter in deli container). The Poolish I picked up from a YouTuber recipe who made homemade bread for BLTs (Brian Lagerstrom), I feel like it will help develop some even better flavor to the ciabatta! Thank you for the recipe!

Wow! These were pillowy soft and completely wonderful

Honestly, I think I love making ciabatta more than I love eating it, thanks to Rebecca! I’ve made these a few times, most recently for pulled pork sliders 🤤

Ive made this recipe a few times now and it's great.  Love that there is no sugar!  I reduce the salt a tad.  I'm making sandwiches for a party tomorrow and made the last batch into bite size rolls, ready for egg salad and watercress and tuna and cucumber fillings:)  Baking time was reduced to about 14 mins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBGgYu2pR38

Soft Baked Ciabatta Bread: https://thepracticalkitchen.com/soft-baked-ciabatta-bread/

This soft-baked ciabatta bread uses the coil folding technique to develop a beautiful open crumb and an airy, tender texture. Clocking in at just three hours start to finish (most of it hands-off resting time), this easy ciabatta recipe is a perfect option for a lazy weekend or evening baking project!

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Twisted Ciabatta Breadsticks

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The most viewed coil folds recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine