I’ve loved ciabatta for a long time. It used to be one of the breads I’d buy on the way home from the bus stop, holding the white paper Breadworks bag, trying not to eat it all before dinnertime. The crust is a perfect balance of crispy and chewy – and even though the loaf is full of holes, the solid crust makes for a delightful conveyance of butter.

But even this could be improved – yes, it can be done. Caramelized onions, slowly cooked in oil, and doused with balsamic vinegar, wrapped into the dough before baking, make the bread even moister, chewier, with a subtle sweetness.

I chose the Poolish starter for my ciabatta – mostly because it didn’t require too much work beforehand. Just flour, yeast, salt, and water, left to ferment overnight. Then on with the bread!

The dough for ciabatta is extremely sticky – I had my concerns while trying to knead that the whole thing would dissolve into a gooey mess. Luckily, this is not a loaf that need be perfectly formed or artfully presented. My dough scraper became my best friend, and I managed to get it the short distance from my counter to the table for it’s rise on my floured towels, only losing control of the droopy loaf once.

This is the first time I wished I had some of the special equipment the book recommends – stiff linen for the rising. My floursack towels were thoroughly floured, but still managed to grab the dough, especially on the caramelized onion loaves, which were having more trouble holding together as the outer layers of dough slipped against the oily onions.

This was not a bread that I had laying around a week later – one loaf I devoured myself, and the rest went at my 4th of July celebrations. If it had been in a paper bag, I might have finished eating it even sooner.