This is the best focaccia on earth!!
I have had The Bread Bible for years, but hadn't baked this recipe before. Why, oh why? This recipe is terrific!
After 20 minutes of beating, the resulting dough is the consistency of melted mozzarella, as Rose describes it. Right on there--that's it exactly!
I have had The Bread Bible for years, but hadn't baked this recipe before. Why, oh why? This recipe is terrific!
After 20 minutes of beating, the resulting dough is the consistency of melted mozzarella, as Rose describes it. Right on there--that's it exactly!
Flour, water, sugar, salt and yeast--that's all the ingredients in this dough. Or is it batter?
This is such a "slack" dough that it's tempting to call it a batter! My dough doubled in only 2 hours, instead of the 4 that it was supposed to take, according to the recipe. No complaints there!
My understanding of bread baking is rudimentary:
OK, that's about the entire scope of my knowledge.
That having been said, I have been happily baking bread for 40 (gasp!) years! Although the fine points are interesting, and sometimes I do read up on those things, it's not critical to know much more than that--so long as you have excellent recipes that you can trust. Need I say it--bake with Rose's The Bread Bible and you can't go wrong.
- yeast is a living organism
- when fed and warmed, it produces carbon dioxide gas
- that gas makes the bread rise
- you can kill the yeast if you expose it to high temperatures
OK, that's about the entire scope of my knowledge.
That having been said, I have been happily baking bread for 40 (gasp!) years! Although the fine points are interesting, and sometimes I do read up on those things, it's not critical to know much more than that--so long as you have excellent recipes that you can trust. Need I say it--bake with Rose's The Bread Bible and you can't go wrong.
My son Dustin taught me to make poached garlic a couple of years ago, and I always keep a jar of it handy in the fridge. Rose includes this in her focaccia recipe. Fresh whole cloves of garlic are simmered in olive oil and then used as you would roasted garlic. Plus, the garlic-scented olive oil is an added bonus!
The dough is spread on a sheet pan. The little holes are actually pockets into which I have inserted cloves of poached garlic.
Promising texture!
Adding fresh rosemary to the focaccia. I also sprinkled it with Maldon flaked sea salt, which added sparkle and crunch.
The dough deflated in the oven for some reason, but it emerged crispy, chewy and amazingly light and full of holes. Next time I won't dimple the dough if I add the garlic cloves, because that step might have been unnecessary and that may be why the dough fell.
It was simply the best focaccia ever! I will be making this often!
Thanks, friends, for visiting and commenting on this monthly bake-along with the Bread Bible Alpha Bakers!
It was simply the best focaccia ever! I will be making this often!
Thanks, friends, for visiting and commenting on this monthly bake-along with the Bread Bible Alpha Bakers!
