090726 – Focaccia | BBA #13

090726 – Focaccia | BBA #13

090726, 12:58 pm
Filed under: BBA Challenge, DINNER | Tags: bread, onions

Challenge #13 – woo hoo!  I feel a little guilty about skipping the Cranberry Celebration bread, and I still plan to get back to it one of these days…

This was the best bread yet.   Joe would agree.  Before starting this blog or joining the BBA chalenge, i made a whole lot of focaccia.  All the recipes i made were the one day variety, some i crunched down into about 2 1/2 hours prep + baking time.  The 2 day preperation really makes a difference and is well worth the extra time.  This is the best focaccia we have ever had.

I made the ‘regular’ focaccia recipe (not the poolish or pizza style version).  I made about 1/4 to 1/3 C of herb oil, in which i used basil, paprika, rosemary, and thyme. For the drizzle on top of the bread before baking, i added 4 cloves of minced garlic.  I sauteed a small red onion sliced thin for my pre-proof topping, sprinkled sea salt on top for my pre-baking topping, and threw on some grated asiago cheese 10 minutes into baking.

Unfortunately I didn’t have a baking sheet with a lip to it, and as you can see I was pretty lucky that it didn’t spill over in the oven.  I have a little confession to make  here… i didn’t let the bread proof for the full 3 hours that PR called for before baking it.   After dimpling down the surface so that the dough was 1/2″ thick, it sat for about 1 1/2 hours before entering the 500°F oven.  Over that time, i did manage to rise to about 1″ thick.  I think sitting over the hot oven helped to accelerate this final proofing process and the dough did manage to rise to the desired 1″ thickness.

So far, we have been eating the focaccia every night (with no sign of getting tired of it) and making little sandwiches on it for lunch.  At this rate, I think I will be able to make French bread this Thursday before we move out for GOOD on Friday!

Here is the link for my Flickr photos!

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