Focaccia saves the day

Labor Day weekend is about when I start seeing Mother Nature yielding to autumn's arrival, even with summer putting up a good fight.  This year, I've seen leaves on the trees starting to turn colors on the undersides of branchings, proud of their colorful petticoats but too shy to show them like Hattie McDaniel's character in Gone With The Wind.

This is also the time of year when things seem to get busy all of a sudden.  Schools start their new year.  Farmers are bring in the last of their summer crops and the first of the autumn crops.  Cooks are carefully planning their seasonal menu changes.  Summer salads phase out and fall soups and stews take their place.

In a restaurant and at home I have found myself wanting for one magical item to tie meals together at this joint in the seasons.  And the one thing I've found to save the day is focaccia.

Focaccia is an Italian flat bread, made with the most basic of bread making ingredients: flour, water, oil, yeast, salt.  It can be served with a salad or a soup for a complete meal.  It can be topped with herbs, or vegetables, cheese, or fruit.  It can be split and used for sandwiches.  And large batches can be made and stored in the fridge or freezer for up to a week to be baked fresh as needed.

If you've never made bread from scratch before, I find focaccia to be a good place to start.  The dough is easy to make if you have a heavy duty mixer with a dough hook (like a Kitchen Aid), and it is a managable dough if you'll be mixing it by hand.  Because it is a flat bread, you don't need to worry about forming a loaf.  And because it is a rustic bread, you don't need to worry about getting it into any particular shape.

My favorite recipe for focaccia comes from The Secrets Of Jesuit Breadmaking by Brother Rick Curry, S.J.  The recipes are easy to follow, and Rick Curry has a wonderful way of telling stories to give the breads context for their history and traditional use.  I started making focaccia regularly when I met him at a conference while I was in college and though I've worked with other bakers and other recipes, I come back to his recipe whenever someone asks me.  Though this recipe is based on his recipe, I've made it my own, as many bakers will.  Feel free to experiment with it and adapt it at your whim by adding in herbs of your favorite kind, or pressing some cut veggies into to dough before baking.


Focaccia (to save the day)

Ingredients for the dough:
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast (or two packages active dry yeast)
1 1/2 cups warm water ( about 100 F)
1 teaspoon sugar
4 cups unbleached all-purpose or bread flour
1/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons salt

Optional ingredients for garlic herb focaccia:
1 tablespoon garlic powder (for savory focaccia)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Ingredients for proofing and baking:
olive oil
kosher salt
any topping that strike your fancy

Directions (since Rick Curry describes the by-hand mixing directions in his cookbook, I've described the machine mixing directions here):

In a small mixing bowl or a two cup spouted measing cup, combine yeast, warm water, and sugar.  Stir to dissolve yeast then let sit for about five minutes to allow the yeast to "proof."  Yeast and water mixture should look foamy.  Then add the olive oil.

In the mixing bowl of a Kitchen Aid, combine flour and salt.  Using the hook attachment and the lowest speed, slowly pour in the liquid mixture.  Continue mixing until a loose dough is formed (about 60 seconds after all the liquid is poured in).  Removed the hook, letting it rest in the bowl, and cover with plastic wrap.  Let sit in a warm place for 20-30 minutes.  (This step of resting the dough is known as autolyze.)

After the dough has autolyzed, remove the plastic wrap and return the hook and bowl to the mixer.  Add remaining optional ingredients if desired for a savory garlic and herb dough.  Mix the dough on a medium speed for 6-8 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic (sprinkle a little dough along the sides of the bowl after 2 minutes of mixing if the dough is wet and still sticking to the sides of the bowl).

When the dough is ready, place a few tablespoons of olive oil in a clean large bowl or stock pot.  Place the dough in the bowl and turn it so the olive oil coats it on all sides.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or the stock pot with its lid and let it sit undisturbed in a warm, draft-free place until the dough doubles in size (1 - 2 hours).

Once the dough has risen, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface large enough to roll out the dough.  Roll the dough out until it is about 1/2 inch thick and lay it out onto a baking sheet lightly greased with olive oil.  (It is more important the dough be rolled to 1/2 inch thick than that all the dough fit on one baking sheet.  Use additional baking sheets if yours are too small for all the dough to fit when rolled out to 1/2 inch thick).  Cover the baking sheet with a clean tea towel or other thin kitchen towel and let the dough rise again until it doubles in bulk (about 30 minutes).

Preheat your oven to 425F as soon as you've covered the baking sheets and your oven should be ready at about the same time your dough is.

When the dough has doubled in bulk, remove the towel.  Use a fork to prick all over the surface of the dough then drizzle or brush the dough with additional olive oil and a sprinkling of salt.  Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

Reduce the heat to 375 F.  At this point, you can remove the pans from the oven and top with additional ingredients if desired (sauteed onion, roasted garlic, sliced cherry tomatoes, grilled summer squash, shredded hard cheese like Romano or Asiago, etc). Bake at 375F for an additional 20-30 minutes until the edges of the focaccia are nicely browned and the center is cooked all the way through.

Remove focaccia from baking pan and let cool on a rack for at least 20 minutes before cutting and serving.