Let’s talk about a love project here. No, nothing sleazy today. I am talking about a love of baking, and specifically – a love affair with the 3 basic elements of WATER, FLOUR AND YEAST, plus the wonderment of  science.

I finally made bread again. Ever since I came back from my trip in march to Melbourne, I did bake, but they were all muffins and cakes for breakfast and tea-time. I understood making bread will take some time and especially, I will need to ground myself at home to do it!  Finally, a day came where I didn’t want to go out and had no where I really wanted to go since our weather was horribly hot & humid & quite unbearable for the past few weeks.

I have always wanted to make foccacia, it’s process simply fascinates me just by reading it on the recipe book. I have quite a number of bread gurus (on book)….. Jim Lahey, Dan Lepard, Peter Reinhart & AHBin5, plus a new addition to the family is John Barricelli of Sono Baking Co. Of course, I won’t forget my real-life experience in Phillippa’s Bakery-Factory in Richmond, Melbourne. There were so many gurus there, 2 overwhelmingly great days seeing bakers in action, and I must really thank Andrew & Phillippa for being such wonderful people for giving me that opportunity. Soon, I will write about my experience there…. but for now, let’s get back to Focaccia!

Smoked Garlic Sausage, Sundried Tomato & Herbed Focaccia

I decided to try Sono’s recipe of Herb Focaccia.

It was a nice Sunday, mid-afternoon, warm environment and of course, a perfect climate for bread dough to rise and be glorious, jiggy-wiggy and smile together with me! (…am I nuts or what?!?) I started off as directed in the book, mix together all the simple straightforward ingredients, covered the mass of dough with plastic-wrap and place it at a warm spot. I waited….5mins- check….waited some more..10mins check….waited again….15mins-check….and I waited, waited…with great anticipation for the dough to balloon and wow me! I was too eager – because most breads take time, and I was suppose to wait 1.5hours minimum….my dough didn’t smile upon me until after more than 3 hours plus!

In my waiting patiently, this was when I felt that making bread is really like a love affair .

It demands your patience, your time and tenderness, your understanding & attention, and much like your love with that special someone, your giving it all to bring out the best, BUT, not necessarily need to be perfect.

So folks, here is the TLC for Herb Foccacia, basic but delicious. I made mine with some extra toppings of sun-dried tomatoes and smoked sausages. Being foccacia, it must have beautiful holes (like a block of mouse-cheese…) to be worthy to call ‘foccacia’. I was certainly pleased I managed to get quite some beautiful holes in my foccacia affair. I do believe, however, that if I gave the dough more kneading massages, the final product will definitely have bigger holes! Maybe next time…. this time I was pressing for time, so I too some shortcuts that I’ve learned reading the books of my bread gurus.

Herb Focaccia (adapted from The Sono Baking Company Cookbook)

Dough
3 1/2 cups (875ml) warm water (105 – 110 Deg. Fahrenheit)
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
7 1/4 cups (1015 g) all purpose flour (I used bread flour in mine)
3 tablespoons coarse salt (Since i had sea salt, i used only 3 teaspoons of it)
1/2 cup (125ml) olive oil

Topping
1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh woody herb, such as rosemary, thyme, or oregano, or combination of these
4 teaspoons flaky coarse salt, such as Maldon

Directions

• To make the dough: In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup of the warm water and the yeast and let proof for about 5 minutes. (For me, because of our warm climate, we can substitute the warm water for room temperature water and everything would be perfectly rosy as normal…)
• In a very large bowl, stir together the flour and salt and make a well in the center. When the yeast has proofed, pour it into the well along with the remaining 3 1/4cups water and 1/4 cup of the oil. using a plastic pastry scraper, gradually pull the flour into the wet ingredients, folding to mix, until a very wet dough forms. Then knead the dough in the bowl for 5 minutes, by folding the dough over on itself with the plastic scraper while you turn the bowl. Scrape the dough out onto a clean work surface; wash and dry the bowl. Smear the bottom of the bowl with olive oil. Scrape up the dough with the plastic scraper, return it to the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with an oiled plastic wrap. let stand in a warm place (at least 70 Deg. F) for about 1.5 hours, or until the volume increases by 1.5 times.

• Use the plastic scraper to turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and to cut it into equal quarters.
• Coat each of four 8-inch cake pans with the 1 tablespoon of the remaining olive oil. Gently shape each piece of dough into a round. Put one piece of dough in each pan, smoothest side down, and coat with the oil. Turn the dough over so that the smooth side faces up. With your fingertips, push the dough out toward the edges of the cake pan, creating dimples and bubbles, until the dough fills the pan and is dimpled all over. If the dough contracts, just set it aside for 10 minutes to allow it to rest, and try again. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and let rise until puffy and increased about 1.5 times in bulk, 30 to 45 minutes.

• Set an oven rack in the bottom third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 425 Deg. Fahrenheit.
• To make the topping: Drizzle each focaccia with 1 tablespoon olive oil, using your fingers to spread the oil over the top. Sprinkle each round with 1/2 tablespoon of the chopped herbs and 1 teaspoon of salt.

• Set two of the pans on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake, rotating the sheet about two-thirds of the way through the baking, until the focaccias are evenly golden on top and bottom, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove the focaccias from the pans with a knife or offset spatula and let cool on a wire rack.
• Repeat to bake the remaining two focaccias.

Fresh, fragrant and delicious snack awaits you in just 35 minutes! All the patience, love and care is definitely worth waiting for – just like in real life!

If looked closely, the sundried tomato focaccia versus the potato-onion focaccia spots a slightly different texture, especially the holes (and of course the flavour). The potato-onion one was an ‘older’ dough, as the I did not bake all the dough yielded from the batch. I kept half of the portion in the refrigerator for 4 days, baked them, and the taste has taken a slight sourdough-ish dimension. The crumb, as you will notice, is definitely different from that baked from fresh dough.

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