Italian Focaccia Bread
Spelt is an ancient grain, used throughout Europe in the middle ages. It is likely that spelt was the grain used to bake most breads from the height of the Roman Empire through to the 1800s in America. Like more modern flours, spelt flour rises fairly well. It's a bit more dense than durham or semolina flour, and has a nuttier flavor. Focaccia itself is an ancient recipe which probably started with the Romans, and went on to be popular throughout the known world. It's a very tasty bread that is mostly flat, and stores well. It can even be used to make a pizza on!
|
Ingredients:
|
When baking focaccia bread, start with water that is just a little warmer than skin temperature. Make sure your mixing bowl is also warm (but not hot) so that your yeast has the best start possible. Into your mixing bowl, add your water and yeast, and let it stand for about 2 to 3 minutes to activate. Put in 1.5 cups of the flour and 1/4 cup of olive oil, the sugar, and the salt. You can mix by hand or by stand-mixer, though most of this recipe is very hands-on. By hand, you'll want to mix it with a wooden spoon for a minimum of 5 minutes, or "until smooth". With the stand-mixer, this takes 3-4 minutes.
When you are mixing it together, it will first look very grainy and dry, after which it will change to a very liquid state, almost like pudding, with lots of gluten strands springing off the sides. When it reaches this point, where it's quite smooth and soft looking, take your bowl out of the mixer and push the equipment away (if you used them at all). The rest is done by hand.
Pull the rest of the dough off the beater or spoon, and then add in the rest of the flour. Blend it by hand, something I assure you will be sticky, messy, and perhaps uncomfortable. It does get better, I promise. You want to squish the dough and the flour together, until it becomes less soupy and more doughy. This process takes about five minutes, perhaps less time if you're more experienced. Take the time to scrape the sides of the bowl several times during the process, getting all the flour worked in. Once in a while you'll want to pull all that dough off and return it to the bowl, so it gets worked in with the rest of it.
Once the majority of the flour is worked in, slop the whole thing out onto a floured counter top (they call specifically for Formica in my original recipe). It will still be sticky and messy and not as much like the nice, elastic bread dough as you might like. It's okay, really. Be patient and don't be afraid; you've done nothing wrong. Set a timer (or better yet have a friend do it for you) for five minutes, and then begin to knead the dough. You want to push down on it with the heel of your hand, and then do a quarter turn, fold it away from you, and press again.
Keep doing the kneading for the entire five minutes. You'll notice that the dough stops being sticky after about a minute, and then continues to change in consistency. It'll seem dry for a bit, then springy, then almost wet again, then it'll cycle through some variation of those. Don't be afraid to really put your back into it - lean into the dough, really press it hard. It'll tear a bit under your hands and that's fine. It'll stretch, turn, look funny, and then just about the time the timer beeps, you'll notice it changes. No, I can't tell you what it's like... it's just something that happens with dough when you've treated it correctly.
Make a ball out of the dough, achieved by sort of cupping it repeatedly with your hands while turning it. It doesn't need to be sitting in the flour anymore. You want to let the dough rest, and if you don't have Formica counter tops, put down some saran wrap or parchment paper to let it sit on. Cover it with a large bowl. You want the dough to rise for about one hour, or until it's doubled in size.
If you have a cold kitchen (under 70F), you probably want to do something to keep the dough from getting too cold. The dough is rising at this point, and that means the yeast have to be warm and moist. I solved this with a neat little trick - a heating pad (the kind you use for sore muscles) set to low, on top of the bowl. It doesn't get hot enough to actually heat the bowl up, but it keeps the temperature underneath nice and even. It was a tiny bit warmer than the kitchen under there, and it rose beautifully!
The ball should double or more in size in an hour. Don't forget to use a timer - this is not something that does well if forgotten. You want to make a fist and actually punch down your dough. It will deflate; don't panic, it's supposed to do that, and yes it makes funny farting noises, which is great if your toddler happens to be around. Knead out the dough for a couple of minutes (don't go much over 2 minutes, although it does feel awful good at this point, almost like a baby's powdered butt).
Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until it is about 9" by 13" (roughly... don't bother with measuring here). As you roll, put your back into it again, as you're going to want to make all the big air bubbles pop. I would guestimate that my dough ended up being about an inch thick when it reached its final shape and size, although perhaps a bit thinner than that. It still felt pretty soft and springy.
Put your rolled out dough onto a well greased baking pan or a floured pizza/oven stone. I love these pizza pans, with their zillion little holes in them. It allows air circulation and a beautiful crust formation. You want to let this rise again, "...until not quite doubled in bulk." It will want to rise for 30 to 45 minutes. Keep an eye on it!
After it has risen a second time, you want to poke it with a fork. Poke it all over. Make pretty patterns if you like, or be random like me. Enjoy yourself! I like this part, a lot. It will deflate a bit, though not a lot. While you're doing this start pre-heating your oven to 375F. You want your oven to be FULLY pre-heated before your bread goes in. The initial "blast of heat" invigorates your yeast and makes for a slightly puffier, more delicious bread. This is true of all kinds of bread, by the way, not just focaccia.
Next, drizzle some good quality olive oil over your bread. Use your hand or a food brush to lightly coat the entire top of the bread with the oil. Then sprinkle it with the spices you want to use. I used pepper, and an Italian blend of herbs. I also used the halved onions, which I sort of spread randomly over the top. You can also press in sliced or whole olives (minus the pits!), halved cherry tomatoes, sprigs of rosemary, or anything else edible and pretty you can think of.
Pop your focaccia into your pre-heated oven and let it stay there for about 25 minutes. I checked mine at the 25 minute mark and decided to let it sit for another 4 minutes. That took it from "lightly browned but still looking rather doughy" to "perfect." The onions got a tiny bit browned, too, which made it look like one of those beautiful artisan loaves you see in higher quality grocery stores, or at bakeries. The smell will be heavenly.
Some notes:
Using different flours will produce slightly different results. White, semolina, or durham flours will cook more quickly and be more dry in general. Spelt and farro will be more "wet" and may require adding a bit extra flour during the kneading process. If you are using freshly ground (as in, ground in the past couple of days) flour of any kind, reduce the water by about 2 to 3 tablespoons (freshly ground flour has a ton of water in it).
I don't use packaged yeast, because I use so much of it. Instead, I buy big 5lb bags of it, and store it in the freezer. Then I keep a little jar of it in the fridge for daily use. This is much more convenient. For the record, one package of yeast contains just about 2.25 tsp of the stuff. So two packages would be 4.5, which is what the recipe calls for! If you have yeast that's older, always test it before you use it. Testing is easy - put a half teaspoon of yeast into a bit of warm water. If it bubbles up and starts making that lovely yeasty smell, it's good. If it just sits there like sand floating on the water, go buy some new yeast.
Avoid using brick cheeses as a topping on this bread. Cheddar or Monterey jack will get very oily during the baking process, and may cause the bread not to rise and brown as nicely. Stick to more period cheeses such as feta or grated romano.
Always use pitted olives, and be aware that whole olives may actually be "popped out" during the baking process. Sliced olives are a better choice. Bits of minced garlic are also rather delicious!
Don't give in and use butter in place of the olive oil for this recipe. It was created thousands of years ago, and this is not a moment to "mess with perfection". Do consider sprinkling some good quality kosher sea salt on top of the loaf for flavor. Focaccia is a very pretty finished product but without a few additives it can seem quite plain. It's also very nutritionally dense when made with spelt or farro. The Roman legions are said to have lived on focaccia and a soup made of water, olive oil, herbs, and salt, when on the march!
This bread may be good for those who have gluten issues that are NOT Celiac related. Spelt is often tolerated quite well in non-Celiac sufferers. For those of us with allergies to modern wheats, spelt is a wonderful choice, because it reacts much like modern wheat (rises well, makes a fluffy loaf, etc.) but doesn't have the same proteins and genes. This bread, as presented, is NOT good for Celiac people, as spelt does contain gluten.
When you are mixing it together, it will first look very grainy and dry, after which it will change to a very liquid state, almost like pudding, with lots of gluten strands springing off the sides. When it reaches this point, where it's quite smooth and soft looking, take your bowl out of the mixer and push the equipment away (if you used them at all). The rest is done by hand.
Pull the rest of the dough off the beater or spoon, and then add in the rest of the flour. Blend it by hand, something I assure you will be sticky, messy, and perhaps uncomfortable. It does get better, I promise. You want to squish the dough and the flour together, until it becomes less soupy and more doughy. This process takes about five minutes, perhaps less time if you're more experienced. Take the time to scrape the sides of the bowl several times during the process, getting all the flour worked in. Once in a while you'll want to pull all that dough off and return it to the bowl, so it gets worked in with the rest of it.
Once the majority of the flour is worked in, slop the whole thing out onto a floured counter top (they call specifically for Formica in my original recipe). It will still be sticky and messy and not as much like the nice, elastic bread dough as you might like. It's okay, really. Be patient and don't be afraid; you've done nothing wrong. Set a timer (or better yet have a friend do it for you) for five minutes, and then begin to knead the dough. You want to push down on it with the heel of your hand, and then do a quarter turn, fold it away from you, and press again.
Keep doing the kneading for the entire five minutes. You'll notice that the dough stops being sticky after about a minute, and then continues to change in consistency. It'll seem dry for a bit, then springy, then almost wet again, then it'll cycle through some variation of those. Don't be afraid to really put your back into it - lean into the dough, really press it hard. It'll tear a bit under your hands and that's fine. It'll stretch, turn, look funny, and then just about the time the timer beeps, you'll notice it changes. No, I can't tell you what it's like... it's just something that happens with dough when you've treated it correctly.
Make a ball out of the dough, achieved by sort of cupping it repeatedly with your hands while turning it. It doesn't need to be sitting in the flour anymore. You want to let the dough rest, and if you don't have Formica counter tops, put down some saran wrap or parchment paper to let it sit on. Cover it with a large bowl. You want the dough to rise for about one hour, or until it's doubled in size.
If you have a cold kitchen (under 70F), you probably want to do something to keep the dough from getting too cold. The dough is rising at this point, and that means the yeast have to be warm and moist. I solved this with a neat little trick - a heating pad (the kind you use for sore muscles) set to low, on top of the bowl. It doesn't get hot enough to actually heat the bowl up, but it keeps the temperature underneath nice and even. It was a tiny bit warmer than the kitchen under there, and it rose beautifully!
The ball should double or more in size in an hour. Don't forget to use a timer - this is not something that does well if forgotten. You want to make a fist and actually punch down your dough. It will deflate; don't panic, it's supposed to do that, and yes it makes funny farting noises, which is great if your toddler happens to be around. Knead out the dough for a couple of minutes (don't go much over 2 minutes, although it does feel awful good at this point, almost like a baby's powdered butt).
Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until it is about 9" by 13" (roughly... don't bother with measuring here). As you roll, put your back into it again, as you're going to want to make all the big air bubbles pop. I would guestimate that my dough ended up being about an inch thick when it reached its final shape and size, although perhaps a bit thinner than that. It still felt pretty soft and springy.
Put your rolled out dough onto a well greased baking pan or a floured pizza/oven stone. I love these pizza pans, with their zillion little holes in them. It allows air circulation and a beautiful crust formation. You want to let this rise again, "...until not quite doubled in bulk." It will want to rise for 30 to 45 minutes. Keep an eye on it!
After it has risen a second time, you want to poke it with a fork. Poke it all over. Make pretty patterns if you like, or be random like me. Enjoy yourself! I like this part, a lot. It will deflate a bit, though not a lot. While you're doing this start pre-heating your oven to 375F. You want your oven to be FULLY pre-heated before your bread goes in. The initial "blast of heat" invigorates your yeast and makes for a slightly puffier, more delicious bread. This is true of all kinds of bread, by the way, not just focaccia.
Next, drizzle some good quality olive oil over your bread. Use your hand or a food brush to lightly coat the entire top of the bread with the oil. Then sprinkle it with the spices you want to use. I used pepper, and an Italian blend of herbs. I also used the halved onions, which I sort of spread randomly over the top. You can also press in sliced or whole olives (minus the pits!), halved cherry tomatoes, sprigs of rosemary, or anything else edible and pretty you can think of.
Pop your focaccia into your pre-heated oven and let it stay there for about 25 minutes. I checked mine at the 25 minute mark and decided to let it sit for another 4 minutes. That took it from "lightly browned but still looking rather doughy" to "perfect." The onions got a tiny bit browned, too, which made it look like one of those beautiful artisan loaves you see in higher quality grocery stores, or at bakeries. The smell will be heavenly.
Some notes:
Using different flours will produce slightly different results. White, semolina, or durham flours will cook more quickly and be more dry in general. Spelt and farro will be more "wet" and may require adding a bit extra flour during the kneading process. If you are using freshly ground (as in, ground in the past couple of days) flour of any kind, reduce the water by about 2 to 3 tablespoons (freshly ground flour has a ton of water in it).
I don't use packaged yeast, because I use so much of it. Instead, I buy big 5lb bags of it, and store it in the freezer. Then I keep a little jar of it in the fridge for daily use. This is much more convenient. For the record, one package of yeast contains just about 2.25 tsp of the stuff. So two packages would be 4.5, which is what the recipe calls for! If you have yeast that's older, always test it before you use it. Testing is easy - put a half teaspoon of yeast into a bit of warm water. If it bubbles up and starts making that lovely yeasty smell, it's good. If it just sits there like sand floating on the water, go buy some new yeast.
Avoid using brick cheeses as a topping on this bread. Cheddar or Monterey jack will get very oily during the baking process, and may cause the bread not to rise and brown as nicely. Stick to more period cheeses such as feta or grated romano.
Always use pitted olives, and be aware that whole olives may actually be "popped out" during the baking process. Sliced olives are a better choice. Bits of minced garlic are also rather delicious!
Don't give in and use butter in place of the olive oil for this recipe. It was created thousands of years ago, and this is not a moment to "mess with perfection". Do consider sprinkling some good quality kosher sea salt on top of the loaf for flavor. Focaccia is a very pretty finished product but without a few additives it can seem quite plain. It's also very nutritionally dense when made with spelt or farro. The Roman legions are said to have lived on focaccia and a soup made of water, olive oil, herbs, and salt, when on the march!
This bread may be good for those who have gluten issues that are NOT Celiac related. Spelt is often tolerated quite well in non-Celiac sufferers. For those of us with allergies to modern wheats, spelt is a wonderful choice, because it reacts much like modern wheat (rises well, makes a fluffy loaf, etc.) but doesn't have the same proteins and genes. This bread, as presented, is NOT good for Celiac people, as spelt does contain gluten.