Focaccia

Focaccia is a flat Italian bread which is usually seasoned with olive oil and some herbs, sometimes topped with onion, cheese and meat. The dough is similar in style and texture to pizza dough. The recipe of the focaccia I made I got from Ana y Blanca, who is mastering a fantastic Spanish foodblog: Juego de Sabores (Game of Flavors). Use 'the Blogs & Sites I like' for visiting her website. Ana uses a starter before making the final dough, which she allows only 15 minutes to develop. That's new to me, but I followed her in doing so. The result was great. Find my AGA way of making her focaccia below.

A few hours before making the focaccia prepare the olive oil: mix 30 to 50 ml of olive oil with a few crushed cloves of garlic and the leaves of one or two branches of rosemary.

Starter:
- 100 g flour
- 80 g water
- 2 g dry yeast
- a teaspoon sugar

In a medium bowl, whisk together the hand warm water, the yeast and the sugar. Add the flour and mix it until a smooth dough forms. Cover the bowl with plastic and place it on a rack on the warming plate of the Aga for about 15 minutes.

Dough:
- 400 g flour
- 200 g water
- 3 g dry yeast
- 10 g salt
- most of the olive oil (garlic and rosemary taken out for later use)

Add the hand warm water and the yeast to the starter and mix it well. Also add the olive oil. Then add the flour and the salt and stir until the flour has absorbed the fluid, using a rubber spatula. Now transfer the dough to the working surface. Don't dust it with flour and start kneading the dough the Bertinet way. This way of kneading is actually a constant stretching and folding the dough, using your fingertips. Check my post about Sourdough Bread with Spelt for a more detailed explanation. After 10 to 15 minutes of kneading the dough is ready for its first proofing. Put it back in the bowl and cover it with plastic (I always use a transparent plastic pedal bin liner for this). Let the dough proof on a rack on the warming plate for about an hour. It has to double in size.

Take out the dough, knead it and fold it a few times, flatten it and form a flat focaccia on the lightly floured working surface, using your hands. Transfer the focaccia to a sheet of baking paper and put this in a large baking tin. Grease the surface with the remaining olive oil and spread the crushed garlic and the rosemary leaves over it. Make holes in the surface by pressing the dough almost to the bottom using a fingertip. Cover the tin with plastic and let the dough proof until doubled in thickness on a rack on the warming plate of the Aga (it takes about an hour).

Prepare the roasting oven by putting a small baking tray containing some hot water on a rack high in the oven. Because baking bread means creating steam. Now transfer the tin with the proofed dough to the floor of the roasting oven and let in bake for about 15 minutes. When the surface starts getting brownish, transfer the focaccia to the baking oven for another 15 minutes. Let it cool down on a rack and eat it with butter and evt. some salt. This bread accompanies the slow cooked shoulder of lamb (my previous post) in a great way!

Klik hier om dit recept in het Nederlands te lezen.