Bread-Bakers v105.n028.6

Diane wrote,
>I have been making the recipe for ciabatta bread from Peter 
>Reinhart's book _The Bread Baker's Apprentice_ for almost 2 years 
>now and have yet to achieve the holes he talks about.

I haven't looked at the Reinhart recipe in quite some time, but my 
guess is you just need to take it easy on the kneading after the last 
rise.  This question comes up in some form or another quite 
frequently.  The holes are just air, if you knead the dough 
thoroughly after the last rise you will not get many holes.  If you 
take it easy on the dough you'll get holes.  That has been my 
experience anywho.  Maybe the answer isn't that simple since the 
question does come up so frequently.  I can only speak for my 
experience and I have baked at least a quarter ton I'm sure it's more 
like a half ton of bread in the last 7 years.

Your Fellow Bread Baking Fiend,
Pedro