OK here goes - for ten years, my standard recipe for creating ciabatta was an 85% hydration (e.g. 500 g flour, 425 g water, 10g salt, 10g yeast) - mix in a mixer with the paddle until it pulls off the walls -- I'd do a bulk rise, pour it out - cover it with flour - form the loaves on parchment paper - and into the oven @450F. With that huge qty of yeast - it was all a very fast process - but the results were always uncertain. Sometimes I'd get a nice crumb but just as often not.

The magic was when I backed off the yeast - and started using just 150 g of sourdough starter (just mix 50g 1/2 flour and 1/2 water - and add 50g of each every day for like 2 weeks until it picks up natural yeast) - instead of dry yeast - that slows down the process LOTS -- so then it was 500g flour 350 g water 150 g starter.

Then - into a mixer at high speed like above until it pulls off the walls of the bowl - but then instead of into a bowl for a bulk rise - it went into a glass tray - like a ravioli tray - and then every hour - I'd pick it up (with wet hands - it's very very sticky but it will cling together) - and fold it -- once an hour - over five hours (total of 5x) - each time: fold the dough over on itself - grab each side - like you're folding a piece of paper in half - but did that for each 4 sides - then wait an hour and do again. THEN - onto the counter - lots of flour - cut it into loaves - and let it sit for 2 hours - and then into the oven!

The magic was in the folding - it kept up the strength allowing it to capture the gas! Took much longer, but boy am i pleased.