Our first Tuesdays with Dorie post of February is Focaccia (I love how spell check wants to correct this to Iaccoca!) and is hosted by Sharmini of Wandering Through. Please check her blog for the complete recipe…which is a contribution to the cookbook, Baking with Julia, from Craig Kominiak. I have made some sub-par focaccia in the past, so I was eager to try a new recipe…especially one that had a final, overnight rising in the refrigerator. This slow, cool rise is imperative in developing the best flavor as well as the classic “chewy texture and surface bubbles.”
This recipe makes 3 loaves…so I divided the recipe by 3. A few of the calculations were a bit iffy…like 1/3 teaspoon of salt…but the dough came together perfectly. I have a brand new Professional KitchenAid mixer, but it’s manual still warns to only knead bread on speeds 1 or 2. I modified the instructions and did not mix for 10 minutes on medium-high, but instead on speed #2 with the dough hook. The hardest part was the overnight waiting period, but I patiently waited, then pulled the dough out of the fridge on Sunday morning to bring it to a “cool room temperature.” Mine did not have tons of air bubbles, but I shaped and let it rest as directed. Garlic infused olive oil and minced rosemary, thyme and sea salt were sprinkled over my shaped dough…after making some crosshatch slashings with my new single edged razor now reserved for baking (hubby asked why I bought this since there was a perfectly good one in the garage..uh, who knows where that blade has been!). Using a cornmeal dusted pizza peel, my focaccia dough went directly on a preheated pizza stone. Bill and I couldn’t stop munching on this bread…and it went perfectly with our Super Bowl chili. SO much better than my other attempts! Maybe I should have made all 3 loaves!!!
Linked to Roxana’s Bake Your Own Bread Party~
{ 49 comments… read them below or add one }
your focaccia is just gorgeous! it is making me eager to break out the yeast, it has been way too long since that has happened!
I adore focaccia! My favorite way to eat is is to dip it in tons of olive oil!! lol
Liz, what a wonderful looking Loaf of Focaccia with Rosemary & Thyme! I love the idea of eating this as a “dipping bread” and it must have tasted so good together with your Super Bowl Chili. This was indeed a wonderful recipe and I ike the idea of different toppings for the Focaccia – nice to have such a great recipe that will turn out so well!
Have a great Tuesday!
I like that you tore it up! It´s the way to eat focaccia. With a bowl of chili, amazing for a cold day watching tv. I broke my Kitchen Aid because I used to knead bread at high speed, which makes it move on the counter so I should´ve guessed something was not right. So don´t go past 2 when kneading, especially a long time like brioche or dense mixes like multigrain bread.
you are making me want to get bread making again- or at least foccacia making again. yours looks beautiful and delicious
I’ve always enjoyed nice focaccia especially when being served in an Italian restaurant. Wish I can make this……..
That is a delicious looking loaf! Glad you liked it. Thanks for baking along this week.
Yours turned out really great. I too didn’t have many air bubbles in my first attempt (My second attempt I didn’t even both with the reshaping), but yours still looks like it came out nice and thick. Great pictures!
Your bread is beautiful, Lizzy. I love the cross-hatch design. This is a bread that you just can’t stop munching on. Have great week!
Yum. I love foccacia. For some reason, I lost you in my googe reader feed. Sorry I haven’t stopped by in a while!
Wow Lizzy! I’m going to bookmark Sharmini’s post! Thanks for sharing this!
Lizzy – your Foccacia turned out beautifully! I have a recipe for this but must try yours with the overnight rising which probably makes a big difference! It must have been a chili bowl kind of weekend
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Have a great day!
Ha, my spellchecker was doing the same thing! I had to go look it up again to make sure I had it right!
Your focaccia looks absolutely beautiful – I wish mine had looked half as nice! I bet it would go well with some chili!
Wow, LIzzy, that is one of the most beautiful foccacia’s I’ve seen. Gorgeous. I like the garlic-infused oil especially. I’d be munching on it non-stop too!
That is such a pretty foccacia and it sounds so wonderful! Mmmm garlic infused oil……
Gorgeous focaccia, I love the rosemary and thyme!
Beautiful photos and meal with this focaccia. I’m skipping the fridge time and making other changes for next time. The basic idea is good, but the fridge time did nothing noteworthy and made it difficult for my dough to get rising again….and I really wanted a good rise with lots of bubbles.
There is something so lovely about a freshly baked loaf of foccacia. It adds so much to a dinner table. Thank you for sharing…and thank you for your sweet words on my blog. They made my day.
I’m so inspired, Liz! This is so beautiful. The process of leaving the dough in the fridge overnight is exactly how I made my very first bread recently. Patience is required but it is so worth it! I’m holding on to this recipe!
Mmm I love homemade focaccia! Everything from the smell while it’s baking to the taste when devouring… focaccia is amazing!
wasn’t this delicius bread! I loved it too
What a coincidence, this is the third blog (the other two were not participating in Tuesdays with Dorie) on Focaccia! It was the early nineties that I made my first Rosemary Focaccia ever, I was sick at home with Mono and I copied the recipe in long hand from Biba’s Italian Kitchen (before the internet!). Her recipe has a sponge which makes the focaccia chewy and full textured. Now I’m really going to have to button down and make this wonderful bread.
Gorgeous, perfect looking focaccia–might as well have been the photo in the book! Had fun with this one.
Beautiful focaccia, love it. Great click.
Mine did not have tons of air bubbles either…I followed the recipe precisely and the dough was kind of dry instead of billowy and wet. However, it still came out delicious and I will try again. I wonder if the weather has anything to do with the outcome.
Your focaccia looks beautiful, Lizzy! Absolutely perfect!
Obviously you know I love rosemary focaccia – love the garlic oil in there too! Looks wonderful!
Perfect as always! Looks really good, Lizzy.
I am loving this Tuesday! I’ve never made a foccacia that had to sit overnight. I am going to give this a go – I have better luck with foccacia (Iaccoca?) than other breads. And you cannot have too much foccacia in your life. It’s a beauty! My husband is always taking kitchen utensils from me – to work on the car. It’s a challenge – because I don’t want them back – I want them replaced!
Oh sounds like a really delicious foccacia. it is nice to have a success when we only know past lesser result. Yay for the new mixer!
The smell of homemade focaccia is actually incredibly delicious
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Beautiful focaccia. Glad you and hubby enjoyed it:)
I am such a carboholic and this bread is screaming for me to make it! You aced this one Liz.
Your focaccia looks so good! Just perfect! And your shaping of the dough and slashing is wonderful too. Great job all round!
Hi Lizzy,
I like how you criss-cross your foccacia so neatly. Your bread looks wonderful.
Zoe
Liz – gorgeous! Glad to hear it was a hit in your house and I am sure it was YUM with the chili.
Your foccacia looks perfect. I love making bread, but never have tried making this. I think I am going to have to try it.
I love foccacia but have never made it myself. Yours looks so, so good!
This looks delicious! I bet the house smelled wonderful while it as baking. Great herbs!
Great looking focaccia! Mine was also very flavourful due to the time spent in the fridge. This is the third bread I’ve made that uses a long slow rise in the fridge, and each time it has turned out well. Now I’m a fan of fridge time!
I am so craving bread, not having a kitchen stinks. Your bread looks fantastic, and would be awesome at any party! Yum, Hugs, Terra
Your focaccia sounds like the perfect accompaniment to chili, which, by the way, also looks delicious. Beautiful photography, as always. Like you, we also had a good chuckle over the spellchecker’s suggestion.
Chili -yum! What a great idea to have focaccia with chili! (Think I will have to put that on the menu for the weekend!) And your bread looks really great.
Considering how good a baker you are, I will definitely have to give this a try if you liked it better than your other recipes.
So delicious! ♥♥♥
That is a perfect loaf! So beautiful – as are your photos. I always enjoy viewing your pictures – you always have perfect presentations.
Foccacia is on my to-bake-list this year, although I have baked lots of other flat breads, none of them were left overnight to rest like an original foccacia.
Yours turned out beautiful, love the rectangle shape and the garlic olive oil, mmmm LOVE!
Thanks for bringing it to this month #bakeyourownbread round-up
I’m with Roxana . . . foccacia is on my list this year, too. I will be making mine with (no surprise) rosemary! Hope mine is as beautiful as yours!
Bookmarking this as I have foccacia on my to-bake list
Looks so good, Lizzy!
I need to try foccacia soon before I even attempt to try baking other kinds of bread. Looks fun, easy (no, easier), and goes well with all kinds of food. Your foccacia looks so pretty! I’m motivated by looking at yours.