Focaccia with Young Garlic, Olives and Flaked Sea Salt

This morning, I woke up with a headache.

It’d plagued me all of yesterday afternoon, and when it was not gone after a good night’s sleep, I knew I had to make war on it or have it ruin the entirety of today as well.  War on headache is something of a specialty of mine, as I have suffered from migraines for (approximately) the past 15 years.  Among other things, for me at least, eating carbohydrates (but not actually sugar) tends to help against headache.  Since I ration my intake of bread and the like, I figure that if I am going to eat carbohydrates, then by God (… by Food?), it will be something yummy.

Yes. Yummy.

And so, in-between loading the dishwasher and mixing up sourdough bread for tomorrow, this focaccia came to be.

Focaccia is a flattish loaf of bread which originates from Liguria.  Liguria is the locale that also gave us pesto Genovese, anchovies in oil, and a number of other delicious things (what part of Italy hadn’t?!).  Like much of Ligurian cuisine, focaccia is not meant to be bland.  In fact, the defining characteristic of focaccia is not how flat it is, but its extra-virgin olive oil and salt content – it is what gives it its characteristic robust flavor and golden color.  (For the record, I refuse to acknowledge the existence of those miserable dense flattened-to-death things some supermarkets and even cafes call ‘focaccia’.)

I am not sure why it was that I settled on focaccia, though possibly it was the ease and speed of preparation (and it does bake faster than rounder bread shapes), but as I didn’t actually have a standby recipe for focaccia of my own (this may become it now, after the loud acclaim-while-munching from T), I turned to my much-favored Mediterranean cookbook by Joanna Farrow and Jacqueline Clark.

I’ve adapted the original recipe somewhat (slightly smaller batch of dough, toppings), but I believe in giving credit where credit is due.  My recipe adaptation follows shortly.

And yes, I’ve baked, eaten, had coffee and my head is much better now.  All I have to worry about is how to keep myself away from the wonderful leftovers.

What you need:

• 4.5dl strong (high-protein content – at least 11%) bread flour + more for work surface
• 20g fresh yeast or equivalent amount of instant dry yeast
• 2.5dl finger-warm water + a little more as needed (flour moisture varies)
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil + more to drizzle on top and dip into later
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder or granules (optional)
• 1 teaspoon sea salt (I used pounded-down coarse sea salt)
• Flaked sea salt for topping
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 5-6 olives
• 3 cloves of young garlic, peeled and chopped (young garlic is juicier and thus does not dry as fast and burns less.  You can use regular garlic just fine too.)

What to do:

• Break up and dissolve fresh yeast in about 1.5 dl of warm water.  Let stand.  (If using dry yeast, follow manufacturer’s instructions for it – some call for mixing into liquid, others are for mixing into flour.)
• Put flour, salt, and garlic powder into a bowl and stir with a whisk to combine.
• If yeast has settled to the bottom (normal with fresh yeast), stir the liquid and add to the flour along with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
• Begin mixing with a wooden spoon or with a mixer equipped with dough hooks on low speed.  Add approximately 1dl of water, or more if necessary to make a very soft dough – mix until just combined.  Let stand for 10 minutes.
• After 10 min, mix a bit longer, then turn onto a well-floured surface and knead a few times with floured hands.
• Shape the dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl.  Turn to coat and cover with plastic wrap (clingfilm).  Let stand at room temperature for 30-60min or until doubled in bulk.
• Preheat oven to 210°C.  Roughly line a cake tin (I use my standard springform pan) with a sheet of baking parchment.
• Tip the risen dough onto a floured surface, and knead once or twice gently, avoiding squeezing the air out.
• Shape the dough into a ball, and stretch either on the surface or in the air to make a flat round shape.
• Place the dough into the baking tin and gently push at it with fingertips to fill up as much of the surface as possible, and to flatten out evenly.  Cover with a dish towel and allow to rise while you make the topping, approximately 20 minutes.
• Peel and chop garlic and rosemary.  Place in a small bowl and add 2-3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil.
• Pit the olives if necessary (pitting olives can be done by placing them on a board and smashing them under the flat of the knife – the stone will come out easily after), and chop coarsely.
• Once the bread is risen a little, poke it with clean fingertips to dimple and stretch more if necessary.
• Drizzle or brush the olive oil with garlic and rosemary all over the surface of the bread.  Scatter olives and flaked salt over, and push in with fingers a little.
• Place bread in preheated oven and bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from the oven, take out of tin, and cool on a rack.  If bottom of bread looks too pale, bread can be placed in the oven with bottom heat on for another 5 minutes without the tin.

This is fantastic both warm or cold, with a little bit of dipping oil or butter, and cheese or salad.  Or all on its own, as headache medicine.

Olive And Red Onion Bread

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, I have decided to go after the elusive wild Swedish yeast and began my own sourdough starter.

However, the first few days of the sourdough starter development are incredibly boring.  I’ve checked the jar with starter in the morning, and is it doing anything?  Nah.  Well, maybe a few bubbles.  So I fed it and left it be.  In the meantime, and in preparation for the (hopefully!) upcoming sourdough experience, I decided to give myself a crash reminder course in yeast bread baking – and to use up the remainder of the yeast block I had bought for the Herb and Lemon Peel Bread.

Kalamata Olive and Sundried Tomato Bread

(Note: THE RECIPE FOR THE BREAD IN THIS POST IS NOT SOURDOUGH.  IT IS LEAVENED BY FRESH COMMERCIAL CAKE YEAST.)

Since it seemed a bit boring to just make white bread (yes, I am spoiled), and we needed to go buy milk anyway, I picked up a can of good Kalamata olives (I usually keep those and sundried tomatoes around, but I’d run out), and a few red onions in order to make a Greek variation of an olive bread.  What makes it Greek? – Other than the fact it stated so in the introduction to the recipe in one of my favourite cookbooks (“Mediterranean: A Taste of the Sun” by Jacqueline Clark and Joanna Farrow), it is also a known fact™ (to me, anyway) that Greeks think red onions go into just about anything but dessert.  Not that there is anything wrong with red onions – nor do I disagree with the fact that they are, in fact, very good in many dishes.  But then, I love Greek food, and I am biased in favor of flavor.  (And also, I make bad rhymes.)

The basic recipe (modified by me as I tend to tinker with just about any recipe which crosses my greedy paws) is surprisingly simple in preparation, and the result is aromatic, moist and good enough to pick the crumbs up off the board after cutting it.  Oh, and even without steam, in a simple (non-fan) household oven, this gets a lovely crumbly crust, perfect for messily ripping pieces off, dipping into some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, or just eating as they are all on their own.

Which is what we did.

For the dipping oil, I simply poured 1 tablespoon of good-quality balsamic vinegar and 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil into a bowl, added a pinch of sea salt flakes and a few dried chili flakes, and swished it around a little with a fork.  It needs nothing more than that, and you can easily skip the chili flakes if you aren’t a fan of capsaicin (I am but I won’t tell anyone else how to not abuse their chili!).

As to the bread itself – as I have mentioned, I have modified the original recipe a little.  The first change was to convert it from using dry yeast to fresh cake yeast (I like the latter better, and it’s what I had), and a few seasoning/flavoring ingredient changes.  The basic idea, however, remains the same.  I have also halved the quantity, because frankly speaking, at the rate we eat bread – even very good bread! – one of those loaves is more than enough for two hungry people for a couple of days.

The total preparation time (including 2 rises) of this dough is approximately 3 hours including baking.  The rising time will vary based on your yeast and room temperature, among other things.

Here is what you are going to need:

• A large mixing bowl
• Baking parchment
• Cling film
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced and sauteed in 1 tablespoon olive oil until soft
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (to saute said onions) + 1 tablespoon olive oil for oiling the bowl and cling film later on
• 1/2 cup pitted and chopped Kalamata olives.  You can use regular black olives, but the taste won’t be nearly as good.
• 3.5 cups good white flour.  I used simple white Swedish flour with declared protein content of 10% (10g/100g of flour).
• 1 teaspoon salt.  Use a measuring spoon for this, as most teaspoons are actually smaller than 5ml.
• 20g (a bit less than 1/2 of a block) fresh yeast
• 2 tablespoons finely snipped fresh thyme, lemon thyme, or oregany.  1 tablespoon if using rosemary.
• 1-2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 3-4 oil-packed sundried tomatoes, snipped into bits
• 1 teaspoon dried chili flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon caster sugar (white or golden)
• 1 cup (approx. 250ml) finger-warm water

How-to:

• Measure out the water and add the sugar, then crumble the yeast cake in, swirl a little and leave to stand on the counter for 5-15 minutes.
• Place lightly-sauteed onions, chopped olives, snipped sundried tomatoes, salt, spices and flour into a large mixing bowl.  Mix with a wooden spoon to combine.
• Once yeast is slightly (or more than slightly) frothy, swirl it around again.  Make a depression in the flour mix and slowly pour it in, mixing the liquid in as you go with a wooden spoon until all water is absorbed, then continue mixing by hand.  Add water a tablespoon at a time if the mix feels too dry.
• Turn the dough out on a well-floured surface and knead for ~10 minutes or more, adding flour if necessary, until the dough is smooth and elastic.  It’ll also show less desire to stick to your hands or the table surface at this point.
• Wash and dry the bowl.  (If you fill it with cold water immediately after turning dough out to knead, it makes said washing far, far easier.)  Oil the bowl with about 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil.
• Form the dough into a ball and place it in the bowl neat side down.  Turn it to coat and leave it neat side up.  Cover bowl with cling film and then a clean kitchen towel and leave in a non-drafty place at room temperature until doubled in bulk (took me 1 – 1.5 hours, but I did not watch it too closely – was busy eating lunch).
• Prepare a baking sheet with a layer of baking parchment on it.  Lightly oil a sheet of cling film with remaining 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil.
• Once the dough is risen, punch it down and turn back out on floured surface to knead.  Knead lightly until the dough is elastic again and form into a round loaf.
• Place the loaf onto the baking parchment and cover with the oiled film, oiled side down.  Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise until doubled in bulk (for another 40 min to an hour).

Oiling the film before covering the dough - very important! - prevents it sticking.

• While the bread is rising, preheat oven to 210-220°C on top+bottom heat (no fan or forced air).
• Remove cling film and slash the loaf several times with a serrated (bread) knife to avoid in-oven tearing.
• Bake in preheated oven for approximately 40 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the base.  Cool on a wire rack for 20-30 minutes until eating to avoid burning mouth.  (Also, the bread will slice much easier after it has cooled a little – warm bread tends to be fragile and tears up inside if you try to slice it too soon.)

Eat as you like – with or without dipping oil or salt flakes, toasted, or as a sandwich.  Baking may be a science, but the taste of this is pure joy!