Monday, December 14, 2009

Focaccia {bba}

I've scaled plenty of recipes in my baking experience, but this is the first time I've cut a Bread Baker's Apprentice recipe by more than half. When it came time to bake Focaccia, the next bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge, I was the only person home for an entire week, so I made just 1/6 of the recipe. It turned out to be an adorable little bread and quite tasty too!


n.o.e.'s notes:

- I reduced the recipe quantities to 1/6, mixing the dough in my mini food processor. It came together beautifully.

- I used high gluten flour.

- I figured that I needed a baking pan about 6' x 6" for my 1/6 recipe of dough. There are no shallow pans in my kitchen that size, so I ended up using a toaster oven tray that was 6" wide and blocked across one end by aluminum foil divider to make a square baking area. Then I pressed the dough into the roughly 6" x 6" area.

- To flavor my olive oil I warmed it with sage, oregano, thyme, and two kinds of basil from my garden. To that I added salt, pepper, bit of red pepper flakes, and a bit of freshly chopped garlic. This oil is then brushed on the dough at various times.

- Reinhart's directions stressed the liberal amounts of olive oil. When I was finished, there was oil all over the dough and pan! As the bread baked, the olive oil seeped through very top and very bottom, making the outside edges lightly crunchy.

- My bread didn't get very tall, nor did it have a bunch of big holes inside.


the verdict:

The fragrance of this bread as it baked was tantalizing, and the taste did not disappoint. The outside was a bit crunchy and the inside was wonderfully warm and tender with savory hints from the herbs and oil.

I'm submitting this bread to Yeastspotting, a weekly roundup of yeasty goodness. Stop by and check out the beautiful breads!

9 comments:

NKP said...

Focaccia is my favourite. I would have baked the whole thing.. and eaten the whole thing. Yours looks really tasty.
So nice that you still have herbs in the garden!

natalia said...

Ciao Nancy ! Your faccia looks great with all the herbs on top ! I took a pizza class last month and the amount of oil for the focaccia was just crazy !!

TeaLady said...

This was a GREAT bread. And fairly easy.

Yours looks delicious. And to think you only made small amount. 1/2 of mine is frozen stil.

Di said...

That looks really good. Mine was a big hit at the potluck yesterday--disappeared in no time. =) I definitely think we'll be making this one again at some point.

Leslie said...

Beautiful focaccia! Seeing it makes me want to make another batch. I bet the fresh herbs from your garden really made it special.

margot said...

The focaccia looks wonderful with all those fresh herbs. You were smart to make just a sixth of the recipe; I made focaccia (not the BBA one, though) this weekend and it's really going to be a challenge to finish it before it goes bad.

Anonymous said...

Your focaccia looks great! I have some of this dough in the freezer (left over from pizza party). I should take it out and make it for dinner tomorrow. Thanks for the delicious reminder!

Mimi said...

Great looking focaccia!

Joanne said...

I adore focaccia. I find it to be absolutely irresistible. I love the herbs you put on this. So delicious.