Rosemary Focaccia
Date Completed: 5/22 - 23/2021
I made bread! The America’s Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook helped me do it. This Rosemary Focaccia recipe came from the Yeast Breads and Pizzas chapter.
I learned about sponges and how they lend chewier texture and nuttier flavor to rustic loaves.
I found this recipe quite approachable. There were not any complicated techniques required. No kneading either! Most of this recipe involved stirring together a few ingredients and then letting them sit for several hours before the next step.
I completed this recipe over the course of a weekend. The sponge on Saturday and everything else on Sunday. With this particular recipe, though, you could even do it on a work-from-home weekday!
Getting started with the process: On Saturday I combined flour, yeast, and water that I measured at exactly 110 degrees. I wasn’t sure how long to microwave the water to get it to the right temperature. Thirty seconds was definitely too long, but I let it sit at room temperature until it cooled to the right point.
I stirred that for 1 minute, according to the recipe. This seemed like a long time? Once finished stirring, I covered the bowl in plastic wrap and let it sit on my counter.
I came back to it just about 24 hours later. The sponge was fairly bubbly! The second step almost exactly mirrored the first: add flour, yeast, and water. Then stir for 1 minute.
That sat for about 15 minutes before I sprinkled on 2 teaspoons of Kosher salt. Then again stirred for 1 minute.
The next few steps involved letting the dough rest for thirty minutes. Then using a rubber spatula to fold it over itself eight times. I repeated that for a total of three rounds.
It did give me time to chop up the fresh rosemary! I had spent earlier rising times sharpening my knife to make sure I could chop the rosemary effectively. Note to self: be better about sharpening your knives.
Now it was time for things to get exciting! I heated up the oven to 500 degrees with my pizza stone sitting inside. I divided the dough between two heavily oiled cake pans. Heavily = 2 tablespoons PER pan! Typing of this post I now realize that I was also supposed to salt the pans. Oh well!
I plopped the (very wet) dough in the pans and made sure both sides were coated in oil. After a quick rest, I pushed the dough out to the edges of the pan and poked it all over with a dinner fork. Fun!
I sprinkled the rosemary on top and let the pans rest for about 10 minutes.
They went into the oven at the same time. The pans didn’t quite fit on my pizza stone, but we did the best we could! They were rotated halfway through anyway. I baked until the tops were golden brown. My goodness they looked beautiful!
The loaves cooled on a wire rack. The recipe said to brush them with any remaining oil from the pans, but I didn’t really have any leftover oil. I ended up skipping that step! Then I waited impatiently for a taste!
Taste Report:
I just have to say it: delicious! One bite of this bread made me feel quite proud!
It had an overall chewy texture with an extra crisp crunch from the top and bottom crust. The edges were quite dense while the middle had more air bubbles. The flavor predominantly came from the olive oil, and the rosemary made it all extra savory.
It tasted great by itself, with chicken caesar salad, and with a ravioli dinner. We ate one loaf throughout the week and saved the other in the freezer. I can’t wait to pull it out soon!
Mess Report:
The overall mess wasn’t too crazy for this bread. The hardest part was washing off the bowl and the wooden spoon that I used for mixing because the dough had been so sticky!
After this first success, I’m even more motivated to build my bread-baking skills!
