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Monday, April 4, 2011

BBA13 Focaccia

This is the 13th recipe of the BBA challenge, Focaccia,which I have made many times before,using the recipes in Carol Field's book, aptly named Foacaccia.I had enjoyed her focaccia and sometimes used it as a base for a thick crust  Scilian pizza.
 Peter Reinhart's Focaccia recipe had a better flavor due to the overnight refridgerated ferment.But, 2 cups of oil!! I would not use 2 cups of oil, no matter what was written,or how he claimed ,do it ,do it!
 The recipe was simple enough having already made the Ciabatta with it's stretch and fold method,and thanks to Chris at  http://akuindeed.com/?p=3485, who put up a link to utube of how the stretch and fold method is done,we  all now have a better understanding of it.
 The only problem I had,actually just a misunderstanding of the directions,as I was doing 3 other projects at the time.After taking the 1/2 sheet pan of Focaccia out of the fridge after it's overnight ferment and let it warm for 3 hours, I then first dimpled it.Oh, I was supposed to do the oil and dimple 3 hours ago.So I preceded to oil and dimple the dough expanding it as I did to fill the pan as much as possible,but in no way would I add all that oil.There's already 1/4 cup under it, used only another 1/2 cup of herbed oil poured into the dimpled top of dough.At this point I let it rise 1/2 hour as I misread the directions,then baked it according to the recipe instructons.
 When it was done, topped it with sliced pepperoni,Italian turkey sausage, chopped homemade roasted sweet red peppers in garlic and olive oil,and shredded mozarella.I purposedly baked it fully before topping as I don't like a wet thick dough pizza.
 The flavor as I had said was awesome,the texture was light and springy,and still a little oily for me.This is definately the  tastest focaccia I've made so far.As for looking like the golden thin slices pictured in his book, I can't see how that would be possible with out squashing or rolling the dough.No matter,except it seems missrepresented and missleading as to what the finnished bread would be.Although nothing like pictured in his book,it still was delicious,and easily remedied next time with less oil. But it would be better to have photos closer to actual home results, than that shown.While we try to guess what did I do that it's not like that?



  Well here are my photos of the process:
After kneading and shapped into a rectangle ,allowed to rest 5 minutes,did the first of 3 stretch and folds,covered with plastic and proofed 30 minutes
 
This is what it looked like after it's final 3rd stretch and fold and then covered and proofed 1 hour


oiled parchment with OMG 1/4 of olive oil!







placed the dough onto the oiled parched,spread  the herbed oil (  less than1/4 cup) on top







 
  
Well after unsucessfully trying to upload the photo of oiling and dimpling the dough prior to putting in fridge
you can see it was done!Let ferment overnight
next day removed from fridge, and let warm for 3 hours. That was my error,after 3 hours coated with about 1/4 cup of herbed oil, dimpled the dough to spread it as much as possible,covered it and let it rise 30 minutes before baking 
after baking topped with pepperoni,diced Italian turkey sausage,diced roasted red peppers (homemade of course) and shredded mozarella,put under broiler 5 minutes to heat and melt cheese
money shot! airy springy tasty  focaccia pizza!Albeit oily.




2 comments:

  1. Jim,

    That looks good - very similar to my own. I'm totally with you on the oil. 2 cups is just nuts. Oil squirts out of the dough when you bite it.

    I've never made Field's version, I'll have to look at it. I have "Italian Baker" - I'm sure there's a version in there.

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  2. Jim, your Focaccia looks wonderful. Mine is on the counter proofing from it's first fold. I have been reading your blog to help me in this process. Homemade roasted red peppers sound wonderful!!!

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