Easy Ciabatta Bread

Combine warm water and active yeast in a bowl and let sit for 10 minutes.

In a mixing bowl, combine bread flour and salt.

Add yeast mixture and oil to the flour.

Mix with a spoon or spatula until all ingredients are combined into a dough and there is no dry flour remaining in the bowl.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rest for 1 hour.

Wet hands lightly with water and starting on one side, lift the dough up and pull upwards gently to stretch and then fold it over onto itself.

Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat 3 more times, wetting hands as necessary between each stretch so that the dough doesn't stick.

Re-cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rest 30 minutes.

REPEAT these same steps for stretching, folding over, and resting the dough 2 more times.

Preheat oven 420F/215C.

Gently scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a generously floured work surface.

Sprinkle flour over the dough and onto your hands. The dough will be very sticky, so be generous with the flour on the work surface. Do not knead the dough otherwise you will lose all the air bubbles inside.

Using a bench scraper or spatula, scrape and shape the dough, pushing the flour on the work surface underneath. You can cut the dough into two or three pieces at this point or leave it as one loaf.

Transfer the dough to a flour-dusted parchment-lined baking sheet, flipping the dough so the floured underside is now on top. Let dough proof 20 minutes.

Bake bread for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 400F/200C and bake another 10 minutes until golden brown on top.

Allow bread to rest 5 minutes on the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.