Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Foccacia - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 26th Installment.  The recipe is Foccacia.
 Second attempt - looks good, but is it really foccacia?
This was very tasty, and a multi-day odyssey - but seemed to turn out much flatter than I expected! I tried the recipe twice, and still didn't get what I expected, based on the photo in the cookbook.  
 
On the positive side: bread that is full of (and covered in) flavored olive oil is delicious! :-)  The dough was also very easy to mix and shape.

The details on my odyssey: the first batch was made in too much of a hurry, and did not get enough time to rise before its long (36 hour) stay in the fridge. It tasted good, but was a lot flatter than I thought this bread should be:
    
Batch 1 - not enough rising before going in the fridge
I would love to have a reliable recipe for Foccacia, so I decided to try again,I followed the recipe and recommended rising times to the letter.  The result was somewhat similar - a bit puffier, but not bubbly and puffy and soft on the inside.  It was more similar to a thick flavorful pizza crust.  My yeast is fairly new, so I'm pretty sure it's not that.  I left it out of the fridge for quite a while before baking, and it really puffed back up:
Batch 2 - Puffy dough after sitting in the fridge
I flattened it as described, for baking in a square, with slashes, and it never seemed to recover its loftiness.  I will look forward to seeing what my fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bakers did with this - maybe someone's got some good advice on how to get a puffier loaf.

9 comments:

  1. Hi Kathleen. Check out Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice or Artisan Breads Every Day for a reliable and super airy focaccia recipe. They are really good. I skipped the slashing and I'm not sure why the recipe called for it. Great blog!

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  2. Homemade Focaccia brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with herbs is always delicious and yours looks wonderful - but there are so many other wonderful recipes for Focaccia out there - no reason not to try some of them as well.
    Have a great Wednesday!

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  3. I was also a little disappointed by how flat this focaccia turned out. Fortunately, there are plenty of other recipes out there to try! And at least it tasted good!

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  4. Your focaccia did turn out good. And it is always good to shop around for a better recipe. I am thinking of giving Peter Reinhart's recipe a go.

    Thanks for baking along this week!

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  5. I really think it is the pulling the dough and then slashing it that keeps it from rising up again. I think if I made it again, I would dimple the dough, rather than slashing it.

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  6. Your focaccia looks really good! The final focaccia was much airier and picture when I only dimpled the dough, and when the dough was given more time to return fully to room temperature.

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  7. I chose to dimple mine rather than slash the dough. Not sure if that helped with the rising or not. I also did not get the air pockets that are normally seen with focaccia.

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  8. The second attempt definitely looks great. But the first one doesn't look bad at all. And as long as it tasted good, that's all that matters!

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  9. Odyssey :-)
    Great word for an epic bread journey.

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