Baking by Hand (13 page)

While your dough is proofing, place your baking stone on the lowest rack in your oven, and your cast-iron pan on the highest rack. Preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C. When the dough is totally relaxed and you can press your finger into the surface and the print holds, you’re ready to top and bake them—otherwise known as “the fun part.”

It’s easiest to top your focaccia slabs right on the peel, so you can easily slide them onto your baking stone. If you’re concerned about toppings dropping into the oven, line the peel with parchment paper and shape the focaccia on top of that. While the dough is still on the table, pat a loaf out until it is almost completely flat; then transfer it to the peel. Using your fingertips, dimple the surface while stretching out the dough to form a thin, rough rectangle. Top the focaccia with whatever topping you like (suggestions follow). Now, grab three ice cubes from the freezer. Being careful to not keep the oven door open too long and let the heat out, open the oven, slide your focaccia onto the stone, throw the three ice cubes into the cast-iron pan and close the door. Bake until the exposed crust is golden brown, about 25 minutes. Consume immediately!

SEA SALT AND HERB

This is a very simple, but classic topping, and there aren’t many rules to making it. Before loading your slab into the oven, dimple the surface with your fingers, drizzle with a good olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt, or kosher salt if you don’t have sea salt on hand. Only the heartiest of herbs, like rosemary, should go onto the focaccia before you put it into the oven (they can handle the heat and retain aroma after cooking). Otherwise, sprinkle on a few pinches of coarsely chopped fresh herbs of your choice while the loaf is still warm. This topping is not heavy enough to hold the surface down, so you may want to give the dough another 30 minutes or so to proof before throwing it in the oven.

SWEET CORN AND CHERRY

This is such a wonderful topping when it’s late summer and corn, cherry tomatoes and basil are in abundance at farm stands or in your garden plot. Toss all of the ingredients together and spread generously on your slab—and leave a few fingersful in the bowl to scoop into your mouth. It’s a pre-focaccia amuse bouche.

2 cups/320 g cherry tomatoes, quartered

2 ears corn, kernels cut off the cobs

6 large leaves fresh basil, coarsely chopped

2 tbsp/30 ml extra-virgin olive oil

1 tsp/3 g kosher salt

Mix everything together, spread evenly on the focaccia and bake as directed.

GOLD POTATO AND BLACK PEPPER

Growing potatoes in our garden was a fantastic experiment we tried one recent summer, and it resulted in bags of beautiful spuds that lasted us all of a month. Slice them as thinly as you can for the focaccia, even using a mandolin if you have one. You’re looking for the edges to brown and crisp up during their time in the oven. Too-thick slices will just become soggy.

Coarsely ground black pepper

2 to 3 large Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced very thinly (⅛ inch/3 mm)

Extra-virgin olive oil

Dimple the surface of the focaccia, then sprinkle lightly with a layer of black pepper. Layer the potatoes in an overlapping fashion up and down the length of the slab until completely covered. Sprinkle again with black pepper and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Bake until the edges of the potato have curled and browned, and the crust is golden.

ROASTED MUSHROOM AND ONION

There is no doubt that mushrooms, onions and thyme are a combo Andy would put on just about everything if he could. No big surprise that focaccia is pretty awesome with it as well. It got top scores at our focaccia tasting party.

1 ½ lb/700 g mixed fresh mushrooms (button, shitake, oyster and so forth), cut to similar sizes

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1 tbsp/15 g unsalted butter, softened

½ tsp/3 g fine sea salt

1 large onion, peeled and sliced ¼ -inch/5-mm thick

Extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C. Toss the mushrooms with the thyme, butter and salt. Arrange in the center of a sheet pan. Place the onions around the mushrooms on the sheet pan and drizzle the onions with olive oil. Roast until the mushrooms and onions start to brown and have lost much of their moisture but are not completely cooked. Cool, and layer the mushrooms and onions on top of your focaccia just before baking.

TOMATO AND DRESSED GREENS

There’s a restaurant near our house that offers a “Caesar Salad Pizza” that we think is just awesome. Hot crustiness with a crisp, cool salad dropped on top—there you go. It works especially well if you put the greens on the focaccia and serve it immediately, so you get the full contrast.

4 or 5 roma tomatoes, or 2 or 3 large heirloom beefsteak tomatoes, sliced ¼-inch/5-mm thick

Fine sea salt

Extra-virgin olive oil

Local arugula, mizuna or other fresh lettuce

Red Wine Vinaigrette (see
here
) or your house dressing of choice

Dimple the surface of the dough with your fingertips and lay the tomatoes down. Do not overlap—they’re much too waterlogged to stack on top of one another. Sprinkle with salt and drizzle with olive oil before baking; they’ll still be moist when the sides of the crust are golden brown. After removing from the oven, dress your greens with the vinaigrette and pile on top of the still-hot slab. Cut into large slices and serve.

• Yield: Four 1-lb/450-g fougasse

• Desired Dough Temperature: 85°F/30°C

• Mixing Time: 40 minutes

• Bulk Fermentation: ~3 hours

• Proofing Time: ~1.5 hours

• Baking Time: ~25 minutes

• Cooling Time: ~15 minutes

Mix your biga (see
here
).

9 oz/255 ml 75°F/20°C water

15 oz/425 g white bread flour

¼ tsp/1 g instant yeast

1 lb 3.5 oz/550 g biga

1 lb 4.75 oz/590 ml 90°F/32°C water

1 lb 7 oz/650 g white bread flour

3 tsp/22 g fine sea salt

¾ tsp/3 g instant yeast

9.5 oz/290 g kalamata or Sicilian olives, pitted (if making Olive Fougasse)

1 cup/180 g shredded Parmesan or other hard cheese (if making Cheese Fougasse)

½ cup/80 g sunflower seeds and ½ cup/80 g sesame seeds, blended (if making Seeded Fougasse)

In a large mixing bowl, combine your biga and water, and remember to keep that water warm to give your yeast a comfortable atmosphere to grow. (It will help even mixing if you break the biga up into smaller pieces as you add it to the water.) Then, dump your flour on top of the liquid ingredients, and mix it by hand for about 30 seconds, until it comes together in a shaggy mass. Don’t forget to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl regularly; you want all of that flour hydrated and don’t want to see any dry spots. Set aside in a warm place, at least 80°F/25°C, for 30 minutes. If you’re having trouble finding your warm place, it’s time to use your trusty heat lamp.

Sprinkle the salt and yeast on top of the dough and grab a four-finger pinch of the dough and pull. It should stretch out like chunky taffy rather than just tear off. Incorporate the salt and yeast into the dough, continuously pushing the sides of the dough into the middle while turning the bowl. After a minute of this, the dough should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl and developing a bit of a sheen, and you shouldn’t feel any crunchy salt crystals (add your olives at this point if you’re making Olive Fougasse). This dough will be significantly looser, or wetter, than other dough recipes in this book. Cover the bowl, and put it in your warm place for 30 minutes.

Turn your dough onto a lightly floured surface and give it your four-fold (see
here
). It should make a tight little package and after every fold the dough’s volume should increase. It should consistently feel warm and active. Roll the dough over and place it, seam side down, back into the bowl. Repeat every 30 minutes (you’ll fold the dough four times in total). After the fourth fold, leave the dough alone to develop volume for the last hour; those bubbles are what will make up the nice, open crumb of your focaccia. You’re looking for the dough to be strong but puffy, warm to the touch and able to hold a fingerprint when pressed into the surface. The whole process will take about 3 hours.

When the dough is ready to divide, turn it out onto a well-floured work surface—this dough is a bit sticky, so some extra flour is necessary here. Divide it into four 1-pound/450-g pieces, and gently preshape each one into a round (see
here
). Let these pieces rest, covered with a cloth, for at least 1 hour.

While your dough is proofing, place your baking stone on the lowest rack in your oven, and your cast-iron pan on the highest rack. Preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C. When the dough is totally relaxed and you can press your finger into the surface and the print holds, you’re ready to top and bake them.

It’s easiest to top your fougasse right on the peel, so you can easily slide them onto your baking stone. If you’re concerned about toppings dropping into the oven, line the peel with parchment paper and shape the fougasse on top of that. While the dough is still on the table, pat a loaf out until it is almost completely flat; then transfer it to the peel. Finish patting out until completely flat.

If making Olive Fougasse,
no further topping is necessary.

If making Cheese Fougasse,
spray your fougasse with water and sprinkle your cheese on top of the loaf, about ¼ cup/45 g per loaf.

If making Seeded Fougasse,
spray your fougasse with water and sprinkle an even layer of seeds on top of the loaf, about ¼ cup/40 g per loaf. Top with a pinch of fine sea salt.

Grab your pizza wheel, and cut a pattern of slits into the surface of your dough and spread out evenly with your fingers. There is no shortage of traditional fougasse patterns, but I’m big on dedicating a pattern to a flavor and keeping it consistent.

Now, grab three ice cubes from the freezer. Being careful to not keep the oven door open too long and let the heat out, open the oven, slide your fougasse onto the stone, throw the three ice cubes into the cast-iron pan and close the door. A second spritzing of water into the oven is not necessary unless you’re making plain fougasse, as the toppings will keep the surface moist. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the sides of the crust are golden brown and the toppings have a nice, roasted color (depending on the topping). Eat immediately, or when your mouth can handle the heat.