2021 Baking Challenge Part 8: My First Time Making Foccacia

My baking challenge for September must have been telling the future somehow because I made focaccia and the first challenge of Bread week for the new season of The Great British Bakeoff just so happened to be focaccia! I made the focaccia on September 15th and that episode aired on October 8th. A freaky coincidence!!?? I think so! The recipe I followed was this one from A Spicy Perspective. Below are the steps to follow.

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The first step before even starting the bread was roasting the garlic. I followed the same blog’s easy directions on how to make the garlic the right smooth and nutty flavor perfect for the focaccia. The first step was to preheat my oven to 400 degrees and then cut the head of the garlic off so you can see all the cloves inside. I peeled off most of the excess papery layers from the outside. Then, I placed the garlic bulb into aluminum foil and drizzled it with oil and sprinkled salt and pepper. It was roasted for about 45-50 minutes before the cloves became soft and easily spreadable. I set it aside to cool completely before it was to be incorporated into the bread dough.

While the garlic was cooling, I added two teaspoons of honey to a 1/4 cup of hot water. I delicately sloshed the water around until the honey dissolved smoothly into the water and the water had cooled down to being luke warm. Then, I added the packet of yeast and let it bloom for 10 minutes.

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While the yeast was blooming, the cooled garlic was ready to be taken out of their shells and smashed into a smooth spreadable texture. Once the yeast had done some of it’s magic, I added one and a half cups of cold water, three tablespoons of oil, a bit of salt, and the smashed garlic to the bowl. I have a hand mixer so I don’t have a dough hook but it worked well enough to start incorporating the four cups of flour. I slowly added each cup to the bowl and slowly mixed for about 10 minutes while the dough started to come together. Then, I oiled down the edges of the bowl and covered the bowl with plastic wrap to allow the dough to proof.

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About one and half hours later, the dough looked incredible!! I am so mad at myself because I forgot to get a picture of how much it had risen. It looked so cool but you’ll just have to take my word for it. I mixed the dough for another thirty seconds and then transferred it to my well-oiled 11×15 baking pan.

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With my fingers, I pressed the dough out to the edges and then poked deep holes throughout it. In each hole, I placed an olive and then sprinkled pepper and sea salt and drizzled a bit more oil. Then, I grabbed a dry, clean dish towel and laid it over the dough to proof for another hour.

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After an hour, I preheated the oven to 400 degrees and put the dough in the oven to bake for about 35-45 minutes until the top was a beautiful golden brown color. I was so looking forward to trying it. The smells that floated throughout our apartment as it baked were amazing – buttery, salty, and savory from the olives. I let it cool for a few minutes and then I cut a big slice for Pete and I to try. Pete gave this bake a 9.3.

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Bread had been such a go to recipe at the beginning of the pandemic that I took a pretty long break from it (my last bread was the first challenge back in January). It was fun to make focaccia and not have my olives pop out while it baked. I’m excited to try more varieties – with rosemary or roasted tomato! Have you ever tried to make focaccia at home? Do you have any other fun bread recipes I should try? If so, send them (or any baking challenges) my way!

Sending you all lots of love,

Alanna