Focaccia

[Mr Flibble]

I ran a search and found no threads about focaccia, which is one big oversight considering the forums have existed over a year!!

Focaccia is by far my favourite bread, but it's been the hardest for me to make right in the past. I pretty much perfected focaccia pizza base/doughballs a few years ago, but the fluffier stuff with sundried tomatoes, sweet pepper, olives etc that I can get in waitrose (uk supermarket) has evaded me. I've tried various recipes in other books, but none have been that great. I've eaten lots of other supermarkets and restuarant's focaccia, but it's not as good as my favourite type.

A while back I found on amazon a book called focaccia, all about, erm, you can probably guess:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0811840654/qid=1127592490/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-9342647-9090005

It's been on my to buy list for ages, but each month I've found other things to order. Anyway, yesterday it arrived and I made one focaccia yesterday evening and one tonight. Yesterday's was my best ever, far better than stuff I've had in restuarants before. Tonight's was even better. I'm hoping with more experimentation I may be able to recreate my favourite one :D

The main thing I'm doing differently now, on advice from the book, is spraying the walls/floor of the oven with water throughout the baking process, to help the bread stay moist and the top not browning before the rest has cooked. The book also has excellent advice on cooking toppings (char grilling sweet peppers etc) and making infused oils to flavour the bread with. If anyone's into focaccia I can highly recomend a copy. The book itself, like most cookery books I buy these days, isn't aimed at vegans and some of the recipes arn't even vegetarian. Most of them however are vegan, including most of the doughs. It's only western food producers that feel the need to stick dairy into traditional breads which are naturally vegan! Tonight's attempt is shown bellow:

http://media.offline.org.uk/files/pictures/cookery/sweetpepper.jpg

:)

[catalina]

Wow, that looks really good!!!:)

[Gliondrach]

It looks very nice. Does it still exist or have you scoffed the lot?

[abrennan]

That's fantastic

has it got recipies for wholemeal flour

:D

[ConsciousCuisine]

Please make me some!!! :)

[On the Coast]

Woah - that thing looks like a delicious birthday cake, I just went into bread lust - :eek:

[Jacqui]

That looks so yummy! Very hungry now, must go and eat.:)

[Mr Flibble]

Does it still exist or have you scoffed the lot?

There's a quarter left. A focaccia that size (i think it's 10" diameter) only has 280g flour, but 1 tbsp yeast so there's plenty of CO2 in there making it nice and light. I was secptical about using that much, and I did think it was a misprint, but I went with it anyway.


has it got recipies for wholemeal flour

yea, quite a few actually. I haven't actually ever seen a wholewheat focaccia on my limited travels, but I don't know whether wholemeal is a common occurance traditionally or not. The book tends to use dry active yeast, which works for me as I use it in the rest of my bread making and buy it in bulk anyway, although it has some recipes using starter.

The thing which suprises me, although not really when I think about it, is that Italian breads don't need/debatebly should use high gluten bread flour. The quality of flour in Italy has been traditionally quite poor compared to the US/UK, and their breads use just normal (10-12% gluten) all purpose unbleached flour.I use high gluten in the rest of my bread making, it makes the dough a lot nicer to play with, especially pizza.

[adam antichrist]

can you please post a recipe?
I can't afford no books.

[ConsciousCuisine]

can you please post a recipe?
I can't afford no books.


Yes, at least one recipe please! :)

[Mr Flibble]

Yes, at least one recipe please! :)

The one i made last night was an adaptation of one of the recipes from the book, so that I could make the dough on the italian dough cycle of my bread machine. It went along the lines of 1 tsp dry active yeast, 1 tsp sea salt, 275g white bread flour, 3/4 cup of water, 1.5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil in the bread machine on a dough cycle (45 mins, knead, rest, knead, first rise). Knead a bit once out of the machine, shape into the bottom of an oiled dish (about 9inchs by 9inches), dimple with finger tips and pour extra virgin olive oil in the dimples. Place in a warm place with a towel covering until doubled in height (I stick the oven on to about 100 degrees celcius, then turn it off and open the door for a few minutes, then place the bread inside with the door ajar, so it stays about 30 degrees in there - much better results than an airing cupboard). In the meantime I sliced up several cloves of garlic (about half a bulb) and gently fried in olive oil with a chopped red onion until it caramelised. Then, when the bread was ready, heated the oven with a pizza stone in to 200 degrees celcius (180 degrees with a fan), sprinkled dired rosemary on the top with the garlic and onion, then cooked for 20 minutes. At this time I took it out gently and let it finish cooking for another 5 directly on the pizza stone. Served with fresh soup, yummy :D

[absentmindedfan]

Ok you now officially have to move down my way and be employed as my bread chef!
Mmmm...focaccia...*drools*

[pat sommer]

looks pretty but don't call it focaccia. (I'm a kill joy) Never done seen anything like that in Italy. Inch high with dimples to hold oil and olives etc is what I'm used to seeing.... though the flavour can be insipid as there has been a decades long decline in dough ferments. Every place has its own air-borne yeasts and lactic acid producing bacteria that don't give the fast-acting predictable results of today's genetically modified baker's yeast. God, I love finding those old family run places still making the good stuff! Bla bla bla

So, those now confident with their machines and overly strong flour can KICK IT UP A NOTCH and find some ferment online to make a 3 step sourdough (alot is based on honey:( ). I'm going to look up sourdough now from scratch; find out what wee beasties are inhabiting the neighborhood...

oh, and I love mine with rosemary course salt and a few capers mmmm

[Mr Flibble]

(I'm a kill joy)

I can tell. What on earth are you on about?

Personally, I'm not interested in using sourdough.

[pat sommer]

Sorry to be over the top... I trained as a baker. Sourdough needn't mean sour bread just that lacto-bacteria were used. Yeast alone, of course, produces wonderful breads. Baguettes for example. Basic ingredients difficult preparation.
Exploring the possibilities never ends! ...and I must try caramelized onion yum

[Mr Flibble]

I shall answer this post properly now I'm not so tired :)


looks pretty but don't call it focaccia. (I'm a kill joy) Never done seen anything like that in Italy.

Actually the pic above is a majorcan focaccia, no Italy involved. ;)


Inch high with dimples to hold oil and olives etc is what I'm used to seeing....

Me too (well, 1 to 2inches anyway), but i'm not adverse to a bit of extra fluff once in a while. The one above fits that description (the dimples are hidden by toppings), but it just rose more than I'm used to. Having never been to majorca I can't comment on it's authenticness (debateably anything in european cuisine with tomato isn't authentic to more than a couple of hundred years).


God, I love finding those old family run places still making the good stuff!

I would be, but as my french is dodgy and other languages than english non existant, I wouldn't like to try and confidently explain the concept of vegan to remote village bakary!


So, those now confident with their machines and overly strong flour can KICK IT UP A NOTCH and find some ferment online to make a 3 step sourdough (alot is based on honey:( ). I'm going to look up sourdough now from scratch; find out what wee beasties are inhabiting the neighborhood...

I've several starter recipes from various baking books, the formentioned focaccia book has several too. Personally though I lack time and effort required to use it at the moment. Being able to get home from work at 7-8pm in the evening and eat fresh bread by 10pm before bed at 11pm is a luxury. I'm not adverse to a challenge by any means and I'm always (within limits!) up for learning new things, but sometimes I need to find things to cook which are as easy and predictable as possible.


oh, and I love mine with rosemary course salt and a few capers mmmm

Salt (not too much, i'd like to retain functioning taste buds) and extra virgin olive oil is all I need. Of course it's very versitile for various toppings and things incorperated into the dough before the final rise. I use plain (salt and oil) focaccia as my pizza base of choice.

[pat sommer]

Wow majorca, do they have a french or italian influence? I love intermingled culinary culture like Tirol= austrian and italian. Food without borders.

[pat sommer]

oh, and have you tried freezing flattened portions of dough? Nice to have a head-start some evenings

[Mr Flibble]

Wow majorca, do they have a french or italian influence?

not sure. It's currently a spanish island, but it has quite a lengthy history of occupiers.


I love intermingled culinary culture like Tirol= austrian and italian. Food without borders.

me too, I like finding out about the history ingrediants which people associate to be from a certain country. Things like tomatoes being italian, chillis indian etc etc. 'Traditional' cuisine isn't always over a couple of hundred years old.

[moochbabe]

in honor of mr. flibble i made focaccia for the first time today...rosmary focaccia, but i was upset to see that it seems to have gotten to cooked and it is not soft, but extremely crusty :mad: does anyone have any advice about what i did wrong maybe? i followed the recipe exactly, but now i think maybe i shouldn't have, maybe i should've cooked it at a lower temp maybe? advice please

[Mr Flibble]

the recipe I posted? did you use a bread machine? I've made it a few times now without probs. Too crusty sounds like it was in the oven too long without any water to create steam. What size dish did you use and by how much had it risen when you cooked it?

[moochbabe]

no i used a different recipe, but i think next time i'll try yours. the reason i used this recipe is becuase it's in american measurements :rolleyes: (and it sounded good of course! :D) but the recipe i used called for all-purpose flour and whole wheat, but i used whole wheat and whole wheat pastry flour...hmm

[Mr Flibble]

In bread recipes it's generally quite important to ensure you use the exact type of flour specified - white flour has different properties to whole wheat. You also need to make sure you follow the amounts of ingrediants as accurately as possible - it's a lot more tempermental than most things.

I'll have a go at making mine again tonight and check teh recipe I wrote works, but having just read through it it sounds about right from memory :)

[moochbabe]

thank u mr. flibble, that'll teach me! it's funny cuz i knew bread could be finicky, but i was like, aww, i've substituted it before! lol, well now i know! thank u again (i think next time i may try making urs, i just have to convert all the measurements and last night i decided to start the dough and was not in the mood to do all the extra work :D)
although, maybe if i don't make it as thin as they say to it will work, becuase the thicker parts of it seem to be a bit more fluffy and focaccia-ish :)

[moochbabe]

ooo...i just cut into it and it is lovely tasting though! and it seems like only the outside of it really got very crusty...it seems as though i may have made it properly after-all! (next time though i won't push it out quite as thin ;)) :D :D :D this is so exciting this is the first bread i've ever made other than quick (tea) breads!