Pane de Cristal, also known as Glass Bread, is made with a high-hydration dough (100% or more) and features an open crumb structure with a thinner, crispier crust that supposedly shatters, like glass, when sliced.  This unique bread is from the Catalonia region of Spain and represents the local version of ciabatta.

Instead of shattered glass, some of my loaves reminded me of blown glass.  The loaves ballooned in the oven, and when they were finished baking, I could see right through the crust.

I thought it was cool the way the loaves ballooned, but if you sliced them lengthwise, they were pretty much hollow on one side.

I tried this bread several times and got similar results each time. I baked two loaves at a time.  The loaves that ballooned the most had a final proof of 1 hour, and the other loaves proofed for almost 2 hours. Perhaps the longer proof gave the second batch a more even crumb.

Kelly of A Messy Kitchen chose this bread as the bread of the month for the Bread Baking Babes.  If you are looking for bread therapy, this is the one!  I was feeling a bit under the weather recently, and making this bread is just what I needed to brighten my day.

Use high-protein flour to make Pane de Cristal Glass Bread

One of the keys to making this interesting bread, with its high-hydration dough, is to use a high-protein flour such as KAF bread flour.  KAF bread flour has 12.7% protein and includes a bit of barley malt to help with browning.  However, in my case, it didn’t seem to help.  My loaves didn’t brown evenly.  I probably should’ve added some barley malt, but I didn’t have any, so for the final bake, I added a bit of sugar.  It helped, but it still didn’t brown that well.

My version is made with bread flour and a little over 15% whole grain Kamut. I chose Kamut because it is more absorbent than bread flour, has good elasticity and extensibility, and apparently, you can use a high percentage of Kamut-to-bread flour and still obtain an open crumb.

There are numerous examples of this bread online, and Kelly provided us with two options – a yeast version from King Arthur Flour and a sourdough version.

I chose the sourdough method, as presented in the video by Joy Ride Coffee.  I changed the formula a bit to include an overnight levain with 50/50 mix of bread flour to Kamut so I could introduce more Kamut into the dough.  Although I only used 15%, I enjoyed the flavor and texture the Kamut imparted to the dough.

My favorite way to enjoy this bread is drizzled with olive oil, toasted, and spread with Trader Joe’s Brushetta – An Italian tomato topping with garlic and basil.  The slices with the bigger holes don’t hold as much tomato topping, but they still taste good drizzled with olive oil.

Performing the coil method

In the Joy Ride Coffee video, they demonstrate the “coil method.” It is another key to making this bread.  I had heard about this method but hadn’t tried it yet. 

I enjoyed using the coil method!  It made working with a high-hydration dough very easy.

The King Arthur Baking blog also has some good videos for making this bread.

I encourage you to watch some videos of this bread.  The process is truly fascinating.

 

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Happy Baking!
Cathy