Focaccia, take three!

Profile picture for user Skibum

Well friends, three days of steady rain have given me some time to bake.  I call this a successful bake as the crumb is nice and open and the crust has a real snap when you bight into it. Perfect with just herbed EVOO.

This bake was 300 grams total flour @77% hydration. Ten percent of the flour was durham semolina and the balance strong bread flour about 6g salt and 1Tbs EVOO. I abandoned P. Reinharts dough handling suggestions. The batch was refrigerated overnight and this morning divided in half. I used a pan oiled with evoo and topped the loaf with herbed evoo, salt, pepper and dried oregano, basil and Italian seasoning. After 15 minutes rest I topped and docked the dough with my finger tips, coaxing into a roughly square shape.

I baked this in the pan on my pizza stone for 10 minutes with steam @ 500F and another 7 minutes at 485F convection.

Fresh out of the oven and still retaining some dimples. Looks closer to what Focaccia is supposed to look like.

I can't resist showing off the Lupins flowering in my front bed garden. They are putting on a real show this year. I counted 20 developing flower spikes so the show should continue for a while.

Happy baking! Ski

I think you have this one perfected, thanks for the method and the ingredients. It's now on my short list.

Profile picture for user Ru007

Looks awesome! Great job! 

How much yeast is in the dough?

happy baking :)

Profile picture for user Skibum

In reply to by Ru007

RU really 007? I used 50 grams of liquid levain @ 100% hydration, a natural yeast starter. You could substitute 1-11/2 tsp active dry yeast.

Happy baking! Ski

for me! I'm really enjoying using SD, so i'll give this a try with my starter. 

LOL! I wish i was 007! 

Thanks Ski :)

Je pense aussi qu'elle soit parfait! I hope I got my French right. That is a fantastic bake. I'm hungry right now for some pasta and this!

An unusually mild winter coupled with an early, mild and wet spring has my garden looking as good as ever.  The sub alpine environment in my small mountain town can be pretty unforgiving at times. Not this year though!

Happy baking! Ski

Love those lupines! That's a color I haven't seen before. Being from Texas, ours are mostly blue.

Well blue lupins would be pretty as well. My garden is having an unusually good year this year thanks to a mild winter and warmer and wetter spring than usual.

Happy baking! Ski

Did you use ice water or room temperature water for this bake?

I made one last week with Peter's ice water method and while it tasted fantastic it was more of a flatbread than a focaccia.

. . . room temperature water. I have never tried Peter's ice water method and may have to give it a try. If I remember correctly TxFarmer's famous baguettes use a similar technique.

Happy baking! Ski