Soft Baked 3-Hour Ciabatta Bread

Ciabatta is an Italian bread known for its floury crust and airy, chewy crumb. My recipe for soft-baked ciabatta bread uses a simple coil fold, which involves periodically lifting and tucking the dough under itself while it rises to develop strength and structure. The result is a super soft homemade ciabatta bread with an open crumb, perfect for sandwiches. Ciabatta's rustic appearance also means it is surprisingly easy to shape!

Clocking in at just three hours start to finish (most of it hands-off resting time), my beginner-friendly ciabatta recipe is a perfect option for a lazy weekend or evening baking project! I love baking ciabatta sandwich rolls to serve with my deli-style tuna salad or as tear-apart dinner rolls with my favorite homemade spaghetti sauce.

The SOFTEST Ciabatta bread you'll ever bake

One of my biggest complaints about store-bought ciabatta bread is that the crust is too thick and hard. It can be tough to bite into, especially with lots of sandwich fillings.

So for my homemade ciabatta bread recipe, I focused on developing a soft and fluffy texture inside and out. The crust is chewy and floury; it's undeniably ciabatta, but soft and squishy enough to bite into without issue.

This is the full-size version of my small-batch ciabatta which is made with one cup of flour. To scale the mini ciabatta up and better support the additional weight of a larger dough, I snuck in an extra set of folds and extended the bulk fermentation by 30 minutes. But don't worry, it's still a quick ciabatta bread recipe that you can make by hand, no mixer needed.

To give this ciabatta bread its soft, fluffy crumb my recipe uses a high-hydration, very wet dough. Since it's too wet to knead, I like to use a coil fold (more on that below) technique to build structure into the dough.

You don't need a special pan to bake ciabatta bread. Just plop it onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, cut it into pieces, and your soft and fluffy ciabatta is ready to bake.

Grocery List and Ingredient Rundown

Here are the ingredients that you'll need to make my soft and fluffy ciabatta bread! They're all very basic and easy to find in most grocery stores. See recipe card (at the end of the post) for ingredient quantities.

How I Mix My Ciabatta Dough

Making my soft-baked ciabatta takes just about 3-ish hours, start to finish. It's a very hands-off recipe with no fancy shaping; it's meant to have a rustic, imperfect shape.

If you're new to bread making, homemade ciabatta bread is a great place to start. You can do this!

I use a square container for mixing and folding my soft-baked ciabatta dough — it helps train the dough to hold a square shape so it's easier to cut later. But you can absolutely use a round mixing bowl instead.

Resting and Coil Folding (Bulk Fermentation)

By letting the ciabatta dough rest between these sets of coil folds, air bubbles are trapped inside the dough's gluten network, giving the ciabatta its open, airy crumb.

I know, it sounds complicated! But all you really need to know is that it's a two-hour rest total, with folds every 15 minutes for the first hour. That's four sets of folds total. During the second hour, I leave the dough to rise undisturbed.

The first hour starts immediately after you finish mixing the dough. After mixing, the dough rests for 15 minutes, and then you do the first set of coil folds. Each "set" of folds consists of four coil folds.

On the first set of folds, the ciabatta dough will feel weak and might even tear. That's okay. Keep going. Plop it down over itself. It will continue to strengthen as you keep folding.

It's okay if both ends of the ciabatta dough release from the bowl. The goal is to get the two flaps tucked under the dough. Pull the dough toward your body, so the flap of dough closest to you curls under itself. Let the far flap of dough settle on top of it to form a coil shape.

Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and repeat. Each time you pick up the dough, your fingers should be sliding under the newly tucked-under ends.

On the first coil fold in each set, the dough will be relaxed and easier to stretch. By the final fold in each set, it won't stretch it quite as much. The gluten network is getting stronger. Each time you do a set of folds the dough will feel smoother and stronger.

After the final set of coil folds, cover the bucket and let the dough rest. At this point, you want the dough to work on developing nice bubbles. At the end of the rise time it will look airier and will double in size.

How I Shape and Cut Ciabatta Dough

Always cut and shape ciabatta on a generously floured work surface.

You can also cut the dough into sixteenths or even smaller to make dinner rolls. Don't separate the rolls on the pan before baking, and they'll bake up pull-apart style.

Use a sharp knife or bench scraper in an up-and-down motion to make your cuts, and leave the sticky cut edges facing open. Don't tuck them under or try to hide them. Ciabatta is a very loose bread — no fancy shaping required.

BONUS: Flipping for Floury Stripes

This is a technique I picked up in a class at King Arthur Baking HQ in Vermont. And while it's technically optional, it gives the ciabatta such a pretty pattern on top.

While the cut loaves are resting, the dough expands, and the flour on the countertop trapped underneath the ciabatta gets trapped in the wrinkled creases, creating a unique striped pattern.

To reveal those beautiful tiger stripes and give your soft-baked ciabatta buns their own unique fingerprints, flip each loaf over as you transfer it onto the sheet pan, immediately before baking.

Right out of the oven, the ciabatta loaves will feel hard to the touch. That's okay, they will soften as they cool.

📖 Recipe