Ciabatta and Biscotti-Slipper and Biscuits

Since I was craving a panino, I thought ciabatta would be a good bread to make panini.  The last time I made this bread was four years ago when I made Italian sandwiches using ciabatta.

My plan was to have the panini on Saturday.  Friday, I made two loaves and by Friday evening there was only one loaf left.  The urge to tear into this bread was beyond Tom’s control-

Ok, ok! I wasn’t as innocent as I would like to think.  In my defense, who could resist a piece of homemade bread fresh from the oven?

So, yesterday, I made two more loaves.  What I love about this bread is that it has huge holes throughout. The night before you make the bread,  you make a sponge to add to the bread ingredients.  There is no kneading involved.  The dough is very, very sticky and wet.  It is an amazing dough and bread.  I use the recipe from King Arthur.

Armed with smoked turkey, smoked gruyère, stone ground honey mustard and apple hickory smoked bacon, I put together-what I was hoping to be-a panino to end all panini.

 Not so much!

I must have left it in the panini maker too long.  It dried out the bread and was nearly hard as a rock.

Needless to say, I wasn’t going to make that mistake again.  We ended up making our sandwiches without the use of our panini maker.  To Brian’s sandwich, I omitted the mustard and used warm BBQ sauce and added thinly sliced Granny Smith apples.

Since I have been on a baking spree for the past two days,  I also made a small batch of almond biscotti with a touch on nutmeg.  I used this recipe omitting the orange peel and the dipping chocolate.

We ate these last night with coffee and Brian had tea. They were delicious!