The Fresh Loaf

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Great Focaccia

ohc5e's picture
ohc5e

Great Focaccia

Uncooked Focaccia Dough with garlic, rosemary toppingUncooked Focaccia Dough with garlic, rosemary topping 

Baked, Whole FocacciaBaked, Whole Focaccia 

Leaning Tower of Focaccia...check out the crumbLeaning Tower of Focaccia...check out the crumb

So I posted a few days back about good recipes for focaccia.  Thank you all for your suggestions.  I did a little research and developed a hybrid formula of my own.  I baked it for the first time tonight and I am very happy with the results.  It came out with a very crispy, browned crust and a chewy, open crumb.  It was delicious and just what I was looking for...

The recipe is below...

500 g of KA bread flour

150 g refreshed, starter (100% hydration, also KA bread flour)

4 g of SAF instant yeast

11 g of sea salt

25 g of olive oil

15 g of rendered, liquid pork fat (40 g of olive oil is probably okay)  * I used guanciale (a cured Italian cut of pork) that added great flavor to the bread.  I sauteed it on low heat and discarded the solids, reserving the liquid fat

345 g of water

 

Mix all ingredients in bowl of the mixer, except for the salt, until it forms a loose dough.  Mix on a slow speed for 5 minutes.  Add the salt and mix on medium high speed (8 on my viking mixer) for 8-10 minutes until it clears the bottom of the bowl and passes the windowpane test.  

Let it rise in an oiled container for 2 hours of bulk fermentation, turning and folding it every 45 minutes, a total of three times.  Gently turn out the dough on a lightly oiled baking sheet and gently stretch it out about half way to the edges. Let the dough rest for a half an hour covered with plastic wrap.  Stretch the dough again to the edges.  I used an almost pizza-like technique lifting the dough up and letting the weight of the dough stretch it out.  Try not to force the dough or degass it very much. Let it rest for another thirty minutes covered.  If you need to stretch it out a few more inches do it now before you top it.

 

I took two large cloves of chopped garlic, a tablespoon of sea salt and 2 tbsps of chopped rosemary and ground it up to a paste in a mortar and pestle.  Mix two tbsps of water and two tbsps of olive oil with the garlic-rosemary mixture.  Brush on top of the dimpled surface of the dough.

 

Bake for 25 minutes in a pre-heated, 450 degree oven.  Let it cool on a rack for 20-30 minutes and cut into desired shape...ENJOY! 

Comments

Paddyscake's picture
Paddyscake

Nice crumb & crust and the rosemary-garlic topping sounds awesome. I have never heard of guanciale. Is it a salami, ham or bacon? What type of flavor?

ohc5e's picture
ohc5e

Guanciale is the cured pig cheek...its kind of a unique flavor--hard to describe.  I get mine at a local italian specialty food store.  It's great sauteed until crisp and then cooked with canned tomatoes and slivered onions as a spaghetti sauce.  I've also seen it in the Sur la Table catalogue.  Mario Batali's father makes salami and cured meats and sells it through them.  I am sure bacon fat would be just as good...

edh's picture
edh

Now I'm in trouble; I'd sort of given up on foccaccia, thinking I really don't need the extra oil in my diet (the bread alone packs on the wieght, especially in winter!), but olive oil is good for us, right?

That is beautiful foccaccia, and I'm simply going to have to make some, very soon!

Did the garlic come through as a strong taste? I've only ever used rosemary and salt, so I might have to try your topping, too.

Thanks for posting this; I needed something new to make...

edh

ohc5e's picture
ohc5e

The garlic wasn't too strong.  I don't like too much garlic.  I also forgot to mention in the directions that I let the dough rise for an extra 45 minutes after the final turn...Oops.  Good luck, hope you like it.

weavershouse's picture
weavershouse

Nice job and I bet you enjoyed it. I was just wondering why you add 2 T of water to the topping mix.

                                                                                                                               weavershouse

ohc5e's picture
ohc5e

I read a recipe by Dan Lepard that included a mixture of oil and water as a topping. I imagine it serves a similar function as steaming an oven but I'm not positive.  I was concerned that it would prevent browning the crust but it didn't seem to affect it...

edh's picture
edh

Thanks for your formula; I tried it yesterday and it received rave reviews from the family!

Actually, it was a kind of spur of the moment thing, so I just used whatever I had on hand for starter, which meant that I ended up making a very small batch. It was just right for dinner though, and I'll certainly be making it again! Not too surprisingly (I live in a very rural area) I had to skip the guanciale (I'm thinking rendered fatback wouldn't be quite the same somehow...), but the plain olive oil worked fine.

I might add carmelized onions next time too...

Thanks,

edh