Hello TFLers!

Pizza and Focaccia are both subjects near and dear to me. I have seen so very many arguments arise from the subject of how to discern one from the other, and I don't like to see my fellow TFLers consumed by the fires of wrath. We are a community, after all, and a community we shall remain forever after. If you would all be so kind as to follow along with me on this journey...

I would like to be able to claim some fair amount of impartiality in this decision, and so if you will allow me, I will open with my qualifications.

I state for posterity that I am a proud and very happy mutt, being of Mediterranean and Scandinavian descent. I believe that the Mediterranean predeliction toward passion and exuberance in all things, combined with the Scandinavian predeliction toward dispassionate objectivity, provides a somewhat rare qualification for this decision. I am passionate about food to the point that I will make a stubborn stand on where to have dinner on any given night. When I state that "bread is the staff of life" I mean that bread is that from which life itself flows. Humanity is as nothing without our ability to process food, to turn raw, edible materials into readily-accessible nutrients. Without bread, our species would be simply one among countless thousands.

My passion and background firmly established, the conclusion follows.

The difference between pizza and focaccia is twofold:

One! It is a difference in toppings. A pizza's toppings must cover all or a vast majority of the bread's surface area. A crust may be visible and readily available for gripping. The crust may be foregone in the event that the toppings are thick enough to render a crust redundant, as in the case of a "Chicago-style" pizza. A focaccia, therefore, will have the lower layer of bread readily and amply visible through its toppings, regardless of the nature of toppings or the formula from which the bread itself has been constructed.

Two! It is a difference in width. A pizza's inner crust (that portion of crust which is covered with toppings) must not ever exceed 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) in width. The focaccia, therefore, will have an inner crust with a width equal to (or nearly so) or greater than that of the outer crust (that portion of crust which is not covered with toppings). 

Thank you for your time, I love you all.

I love the new bakery I am working at. Everyday I get to work by 2-23oish a.m. and bake till 10 a.m. Five days a week, sometimes six. I experiment with new ideas, new shaping methods and have just so much fun. Though after work I walk down the road and attend school for another 8-9 hours. So I am pretty tired out and never really get the chance to bake at home, so lately my blogs have been lacking and all I can do is comment on the wonderful works I have been seeing on TFL lately.

But I had a moment tonight and wanted to share this with everyone. While David is making Miches, and everyone is going crazy over excellent pastrami sandwiches on rye...I was attending to my cravings and crafting the 'wich I fall back upon time after time. Plus, I wanted to see if I could start a trend or something on TFL, similar to the miches and possibly the  semolina loaves we saw last week ; )

Right? I baked off a tiny sandwich loaf at work and brought it home to my fiance who always says she isn't like me when it comes to being able to eat a whole loaf.

I thought this would be the right size then :) It's about 1 3/4 to 2 inches in height, about 1 1/2 inches wide. Baked in an itty bitty loaf pan at work. Cute isn't it.

Up next...

Micro Monte Cristos

Tis the seasoned for a little unleavened levity. This video is about dough, but not bread. It's about what not to do with gnocchi.  Starts off a little dull but it's worth staying through to the end. Infectiously funny . . .

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkXy12xVnRs&feature=player_embedded

Ho ho ho!

Now I know what to do with my stale loaves...

Via Boing-Boing.  Shoes for sale here.

David

A facebook friend drew my attention to this new and revolutionary method for mixing "whole meal" breads.  I did try it at home, however my wife said it did not have the same effect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMBXJ9I3pJM

Enjoy!

Sam

Silliness with which to wrap up the weekend.

Bread is Dangerous!

(copied from an email sent by a friend, thought I would share with you all!)

1. More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users.
2. Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
3. In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations
4. More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.
5. Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average North American eats more bread than that in one month!
6. Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low incidence of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and osteoporosis.
7. Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after as little as two days.
8. Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.
9. Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
10. Newborn babies can choke on bread.
11. Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 240 degrees Celsius! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.
12. Most bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling.

In light of these frightening statistics, we propose the following bread restrictions:

1. No sale of bread to minors
2. A nationwide "Just Say No To Toast" campaign, complete celebrity TV spots and bumper stickers.
3. A 300 percent federal tax on all bread to pay for all the societal ills we might associate with bread.
4. No animal or human images, nor any primary colors (which may appeal to children) may be used to promote bread usage.
5. The establishment of "Bread-free" zones around schools.

Source Unknown

Hi,

Just a light anecdote to brighten your day and perhaps provide some "assistance".  :-)

I perform all my breadmaking by hand - partly because I don't have a mixer and partly because the meditative aspects of breadmaking are half the reason I bake bread. 

Tonight, as I mixed Hamelmann's Oatmeal Bread by hand (big hunk of dough, that!) ALONE in the kitchen (sigh!), my mind began to wander as I hit the rhythmic stage of kneading.

You see, usually I am accompanied in my (daytime) breadmaking by my 2 year old son, who is a precocious chef.  He usually insists on 'helping'.  When he is no longer satisfied with his own blob of dough, I have developed a novel method to keep his hands out of the way -- the Kneading Song.  I promise you that once you hear this it will be forever stuck in your head as you knead - so beware if you read further!

Now he automatically sings it when I'm kneading (and sometimes when we are in the shops - much to the confusion of my fellow shoppers):

(to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat)

Knead, knead, knead the dough

Make it nice and smoooooth

Fold it over, push it down

And now you're in the groooove

(Repeat until kneading is over; or as is usually the case, until you can get the #$!@ song out of your head!) 

Happy kneading!

MommaT 

Ok, one final rant about Switzerland:

The Swiss are the ultimate recyclers.  

During our visit, my 15 yo son accompanied my uncle to the recycling center.  He came back with wide eyes: "they have a bin for wine corks, for batteries, even one labeled 'Alt Brot' (old bread)!  Wonder what they do with that?"

My uncle's neighbor, overhearing, mentions that many farmers use the stale crusts for animal feed.

A month later, I come across Rose Levy's pumpernickel recipe, which specifically calls for bread crumbs made from the previous loaf!  I didn't have the heart to tell my son...

Paula