The Focaccia Flop (well, sort of)

jaynie (75)Memberin WORLD OF XPILAR • last month

About a year ago I began my journey into the making of sourdough bread, and whilst I know that there is still plenty I can learn to better that skill, I have reached a point where I make a pretty darn tasty load of sourdough, even if I do say so myself.

I am pleased to say that it gets enjoyed enormously by my fourteen year old son (which excites me GREATLY) as it is a LOT healthier than store bought bread. I used to bake quite often for the local community but lately I have not even been able to do that because of how quickly my little man is ploughing through the loaves with ham, cheese and lettuce sandwiches haha!

Anyhooo... on to the Focaccia flop lol - I saw this video the other day and It was a woman making the most delicious looking sourdough focaccia topped with caramelised onions, thinly sliced potatoes, fried mushrooms and grated cheese. Just describing it to you is making me salivate, lol - no... I have not eaten haha!

Now, I know people make all kinds of things like flat breads etc. with sourdough discard and though I have made an attempt or two at that, I have never really given it much of a chance, but the look of this focaccia just sparked every ounce of enthusiasm in me, so I decided to give it a try.

And let me just say that, though I titled this post as a "flop", I am probably being unnecessarily judgmental considering it was my first ever attempt - though it was not perfect by any stretch... it was indeed tasty - and in fairness, I was being impulsive... so I did NOT follow the full set of instructions - time (patience) being the main thing I ignored and likely the sole reason it flopped haha! Anyhoo, I thought I would share the recipe with you - which actually TELLS the correct way of making it - despite me not following the instructions, lol!

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Essentially, the dough recipe itself is pretty much the same as it is for making a loaf of bread. 400g warm, filtered or bottled water, 100g of bubbly starter & 500g of bread flour. Mix that all together and then set it aside for one hour covered with a kitchen towel.

From that point the process is pretty similar too. After the first hour, you give the dough a set of about six stretch and folds and then cover it for another 30 minutes and repeat the stretch and fold. Then set it aside for about 1.5 hours and allow it to rise a bit.

After that you can transfer it to a greased oven pan and give it one more stretch and fold. Then let it sit, covered for about four to six hours. This is the part I did not do, lol - hence I did not get the best rise out of it.

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Then it is time to top it with a little olive oil and whatever food items you choose. I was a little heavy handed with the olive oil - accidentally so haha - as I was trying to take a photo whilst pouring it so my focus was in the wrong place... and oops! oh well, lol!

As I was just testing things out, I only topped the dough with a little freshly chopped rosemary, freshly ground salt and some chopped garlic! Baked that at 350 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes... and other than the one or two bubble rises from the dough that got a little scorched - it turned out pretty decent looking - it just wasn't quite as light and fluffy as it should have been because I did not allow the dough to rest for 4 hours, I put it straight into the oven because it was already like 8pm at night and I was not going to sit there until past midnight waiting haha!

Anyways, as they say - If at first you don't succeed... :)