I love happy kitchen surprises. Given my age and culinary experience, nothing much phases me these days. But, I’m no baker. I don’t do desserts and it’s so much easier to buy a good French or Italian loaf than to make one, but I made an exception yesterday.
Two reasons. First my newest toy, a full-sized convection oven. Yes, I’ve had it for a year but use the top regular oven because it’s small and I’m usually cooking for two. But lately I’ve been playing with the convection roast and bake options. And second, a new recipe, well not really. I based the focaccia recipe on The Moosewood Cookbook (Katzen, Ten Speed Press 1977) but used all AP flour (I usually use 00 flour and whole wheat), added a bit of Lyle’s Golden Syrup with the yeast, and used only 1.5 tsp yeast. But I really used my version of Cuisinart’s 1970’s manual for pizza dough I’ve been making since those days.
The dough was a dream to work with. I recently repotted and placed outside last year’s rosemary so I chopped a bit of that and added it to the dough. I used rapid rise yeast, let it rise for an hour, punched it down and let it sit ten minutes, then patted it out to an oblong shape, pressed dents into it, brushed it with olive oil. I added kosher salt, a bit of pepper, and more fresh rosemary and baked it for 20 minutes on roast (convection). Let it sit on a rack for 15 minutes and tore into it as part of a cold dinner featuring Black Forest ham, hard-cooked eggs, tomato wedges, aged cheddar, veggies and marinated olives. Yum!
I just love it when dough works like a dream then cooks like one too. Makes me think that if I’ve the right banetton, I can give French boule another try! Happy cooking! Dee
Cooking with Dee 