BBA Challenge #7 Ciabatta

So for the purposes of this challenge, I'm doing everything by the book and as it's written.  I'm not tinkering, even when I really really want to fix something.  I did the poolish version out of the book, and I've made ciabattas before, so I knew pretty much what I was looking for. Having read several threads on TFL in the past when I was looking for recipes and research, I knew that this version was going to be tricky.

The poolish version has a very low hydration for a ciabatta, which usually has hydrations of at least 80% and upwards.  The last ciabatta I'd made used a 95% hydration which was crazy wet but also tasted and looked amazing.  PR's poolish ciabatta only has a hydration of 72% in comparison! It's more like a baguette dough than a ciabatta, in that sense. The biga version is a little better, but not by a whole lot (78-79%, I believe).  Why do we want high hydration? So we get those nice big holes inside that are the mark of a well handled dough.

Knowing all this, I was absurdly gentle when I handled the dough.  I made sure to flour the board (we don't have enough counter room) really really well, and then I lined my couche with parchment that I sprayed oil on and then floured so the flour would stick.  I didn't want to take any chances of stickage with this, and the parchment made transferring into the oven very easy: slide on peel, stretch a little, and slide right onto stone.

I did add a tiny bit of olive oil, as in the side notes, but not the full 1/4.  I think I only added about 1TB and when I cut it open to taste, it was awesome.  The crust had softened a bit so that it was still a little chewy, but not tough and leathery, and the crumb was again nice and chewy, but a little more tender from the touch of oil.  I really enjoyed the taste of this, but I'll continue pushing the hydration higher too.