Last week was the first time I had ever seen, tasted, or baked Focaccia.  I followed the direction to the letter and the bottom was a very dark brown, burnt.  This week I used a Pizza stone and it came out just right.  I looked high and low all over the place for a Whole Wheat Sourdough Focaccia recipe and didn't find one so I made my own up.  In "Local Breads" I saw the recipe for "Grape Harvest Focaccia" so I decided to add the grapes since mine are ripe.

Grape Harvest Focaccia 

Focaccia Crumb 

 Coming out of the oven the Rosemary just smacks you in the face.  Then you get the fruit aromas of the grapes.  The taste of this is just great.  The first flavor is the grapes and after chewing it for awhile you get the tangy sourdough.  I'm very happy with how it turned out this week. 

A few years ago when I was dreaming about baking good bread I stumbled across Mike Avery and his Sourdough Home web site. http://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.html . For me it was a great find and Mike was very kind with me as I stumbled through the beginnings of learning to bake simple breads. After I was on my way and had been using some of his key recipes with success, I decided to purchase his self published recipe book. I figured he had earned my support after spending so much time holding my hand in the early days, and it's well done, has great pictures, easy directions and is a very good value (cheap). One of the extras Mike includes is his never ending updates. So every now and then he sends me a new recipe or update to one of the hand outs. He also supports the attendees of his classes with this same free update service.

Anyone who has been reading here at TFL knows what an asset Mike is for aspiring bakers. I really don't know anyone who is more well read and takes the time to work with the community and our users like he does. I hope he writes a hard cover book one of these days. He is very authoritative and has a clear writing style. Honest--I'm not the fan club president but I do appreciate all he does for us. It takes time to do this stuff.

A couple days ago I received a recipe for Focaccia from Mike that looked interesting and I tried it today. One thing I like about this recipe is that it's a 1 day project and still it tastes wonderful. It starts with a Sponge and is about 25% WW. I thought I would try making it savory so I added 1/4t of French Thyme and powdered Rosemary in the dough mix. As you can see in the photo I also baked a couple sprigs of fresh rosemary in the top.

This is the easiest and best Focaccia I have made. Thanks Mike, for the inspiration and formula. 

Focaccia

I was bored last week (probably avoiding homework), and decided to throw together a focaccia. Being a busy, poor college student, my baking tends to be as simplistic as possible. But everyone was still raving about it. I am going to share the recipe here, but keep in mind the spices are what I have in my cabinet. Its nothing more than "lets throw a little of this in, that should add some flavor."

This time, I put spices in the dough as well as on top of it. I usually forget to include the spices in the dough, so they just go on top. Most people eating it wouldn't notice the difference, but I think this one had a little more flavor. This bread would be GREAT with a cheese fondue. Over christmas, we used some left over spaghetti and alfredo sauces for dipping.

any suggestions for improvement are always welcome :)

2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 package (2 1/2 tsp) yeast

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 c very warm water (120° to 130°F)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 egg

1 tsp ground oregano

1 tsp italian seasoning

1 tsp minced garlic

topping:

olive oil

italian seasoning

minced garlic

dried parsley

dried basil

grated cheese (cheddar, parmesean, etc. I used a 4 cheese blend this time)

Directions:

1. dissolve yeast into water, let ferment 10 minutes

2. combine yeast mixture with olive oil and egg, add 1 cup flour

3. add spices, then 2nd cup of flour, stir until a soft dough is formed

5. knead. The dough is really soft at this point, so be prepared to add remaining flour, and have more standing by if necessary.

5. lightly oil bowl, put dough in bowl, turn to grease the top

6. preheat oven to 475 F

7. let rise until double volume, abt 45 minutes

8. punch down, knead briefly.

9. roll out dough on baking stone (or pizza tray) till it is about 1/2 inch thick

10. brush on oil, not too thick or spices won't stick. dimple every inch or so.

11. add spices and cheese. i havent been able to tell a difference in what order they go...

12. bake 15-20 minutes.

I have pictures, but they are way too big, so I will upload then when I get the chance. Hope you enjoy it!

I tried to top a focaccia with whole sage leaves. I let the dough rise, spread it with olive oil, dimpled it, and put on the leaves in a pretty pattern. In the oven the leaves got all crispy and delicious. Yum! But when I picked up a slice to eat, all the leaves fell off. The same thing has happened with rosemary, but to a lesser extent. Must I brush the dough with egg-wash? Then how would I get the oil on top? Thanks!

I like to have chunky sea salt on the top of my foccacia (is focacce plural?) but it soon melts, for lack of a better word, into the top of the bread and just makes a wet mess.  I've tried salting before and after baking, and after oiling, but to no avail.  Any ideas?

SOL

I've decided to make Peter Reinhart's whole wheat focaccia from his new WGB. Of course I had to make a few changes. I omitted the sweetener and the olive oil in the dough. I used a minimal amount of olive oil to shape the focaccia (less than a teaspoon), and I added some rosemary on top of the focaccia (I like rosemary). Here is a shot of the focaccia after it had cooled and I cut it. I am very happy with it.

Today I decided to bake the Grape Harvest Focaccia from Daniel Leader's new book, Local Breads.

Since I prefer my doughs to be lean where possible, I decided to make it without the 1/3 cup of olive oil in the dough that the recipe calls for. I only used about half a tablespoon of olive oil for spreading over the dough before baking. I also increased the amount of red grapes. The amount called for in the recipe didn't seem to be enough.