When I saw the focaccia that Alan of travellingfoodies made last Sunday , I have been dreaming about it for a few nights. You see, she is not only an eloquent writer but also a very artistic photographer. Any simple food that goes through his camera will come out as 5 stars cuisine. Don’t just listen to me, hop over to her blog and see for yourself. Oh remember to read her notes on personal reflection at the end of each recipe. Those notes are informative and educational. I learn a lot from them. One of the many things I like about food bloggers are their willingness to share whatever knowledge they have about cooking, baking and other lessons they learned with no monetary benefits in mind. They are not the "No Money, No Talk" type.
So, here I am, The Copycat! I adapted Alan's focaccia recipe and made it with some modification yesterday. When it was in the oven, my whole house was filled with the aroma of rosemary. I could smell the fragrance from my office (my office is in my home) and heard my stomach growling. I went in to look at the bread several times as though the more I looked, the quicker it would baked. Finally, the moment I anxiously waited had arrived. "DING!", it was the oven bell! I dropped whatever I was doing in the office and rushed to get the bread out. GORGEOUS! Grinning from ear to ear, I came back to the office to tell my Quay Lo that I was extremely happy with the look and the taste of my focaccia. I want to say a BIG thank you to Alan for sharing this recipe and for the effort in writing easy to follow instructions that even this simple minded Quay Po can follow. Aren't you proud of me?
We had focaccia sandwiches for dinner last evening. Quay Lo and I loved the bread so much and we both agreed that we will make this again for company. This bread is so easy to make, it looks inviting and taste wonderful. Honestly, you can just eat as is, without anything else to compliment it.. Whoa!! It was DIVINE!
Ingredients:
Before baking
The final product
Ingredients:
300g bread flour
1/2 tsp dry yeast
20g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
50ml olive oil
200 ml warm water
2 tbs chopped fresh rosemary
1 sprig rosemary, leaves only
1 sprig rosemary, leaves only
2 sprigs rosemary (to infuse in olive oil)
3-4 cloves of garlic with skin
3-4 cloves of garlic with skin
15 pitted black olives, cut into rings
4-5 slices of sundried tomatoes in olive oil, thinly jullienned
1 roasted capsicum, cut into thin slices
Method:
In a glass of 50ml warm water, stir in yeast and sugar and set aside for 30 mins. Place two sprigs of rosemary and garlic clove with skin into the olive oil on medium heat till fragrant and set aside. When the oil is cool, remove the rosemary and dish out the garlic, removed the skin and minced them and set aside. In a mixing bowl, place bread flour, salt and mix roughly. Add yeast mixture, 2 tablespoons of chopped rosemary and garlic rosemary infused olive oil and 150 ml warm water. Use the hook attachment on low speed, mix the ingredients until a sticky dough is formed. Turn the speed to medium and knead the dough with a mixer until it is less sticky. Turn to slightly higher speed to knead that dough till they no longer sticks to the sides of the mixing bowl and comes off in one smooth lump. Pull a small piece of dough and stretch it and if you can stretch the dough till very thin and does not break easily, you can now form the dough into a ball and cover with cling wrap. Leave it in a warm area and let it rise for 1 hour, about double its original size. Apply some flour on the surface to roll out the dough to get rid of air. Sprinkle, sun-dried tomatoes, half of the olive rings, minced roasted garlic and roasted capsicum. into dough and knead them in. Place the dough onto a 8 in x 8 in square baking pan and flatten it outwards by pressing with your fingertips to fill up the pan. Cover again with cling film and leave to prove for another 30 mins. Dip an index finger into olive oil and make dimples about 1 inches apart all around the dough. Brush the top generously with olive oil and arrange the remaining olive rings Sprinkle rosemary leaves on the surface. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170C for 20-25 min until the surface becomes golden brown. Leave on rack to cool. Apply your creativity on how to serve the bread or just eat them as it is.
