Made a couple loaves of Ciabatta Polesana from Carol Field’s “The Italian Baker” for my daughter’s 30th birthday. Also made my first try at stenciling (with Cocoa powder). This is my current favorite Ciabatta recipe, even though it is the highest hydration recipe I have ever tried. (Combined biga + dough hydration 97.5%.) While cold retarding the biga over night, I also cold autolyzed the flour and water over night
for the final dough as in Peter Reinhard’s pain a’ l’ancienne. That really helps hydrate the final dough and also gives a jump start to gluten formation. Could have possibly final proofed for a little longer but it smelled great coming out of the oven. I have a long way to go on the stenciling, but it was still readable when my daughter got it, so it was successful from that standpoint.
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That’s awesome! Your daughter must’ve been thrilled 
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More Ciabatta! Yesterday was my other daughter’s birthday, so I made some more Ciabatta Polesana (no stenciling this time). I added 50g (10% baker’s percentage) of my 100% sourdough starter to the final dough, based on MC’s Ciabatta notes (http://www.farine-mc.com/2014/02/all-about-ciabatta-notes-from-class.html). Taste, aroma and crumb were very good.
These look amazing! Congratulations, and Happy Birthday to your daughter.
It’s baaack! Today’s Ciabatta Polesana bake. 
Getting closer to an open crumb like the one on the cover of Carol Field’s “The Italian Baker”.
That looks superb. Inside is soooo open. I love the patterns on the crust of ciabatta.