So I made another focaccia!

I got this one from the website of King Arthur’s baking products (www.kingarthurbaking.com), the recipe of Gael Clauson, who bakes regularly in the Baker’s store in White River Junction, Vermont. According to the website, Gael bakes fresh, hot focaccia for customers on Saturday mornings. I can’t think of anything better on a chilly New England Saturday morning than a slice of fresh hot and spicy bread slathered with cream cheese or marmalade with a steaming cup of coffee. Makes me long for my wonderful years in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts (which is not too far away).

So I played a bit with Gael’s recipe, which called for semolina flour. I substituted whole wheat flour because that’s what I had on hand. The recipe calls for olive oil, but on a whim, I substituted my homemade garlic-infused olive oil, a rich and flavorful condiment I’ve been making for several years now (I’ll tag that recipe at the bottom of this post, just in case you want to try it; it goes wonderfully with most green veggies in an air fryer). As a nod to King Arthur’s flour products–which I use exclusively–I listed them by brand in the ingredients [editor’s note: I get no support from King Arthur].

The recipe calls for round cake pans, but I love using my 8×8 square baking pans, so I used them instead. This was about the easiest bread I’ve made, three and a half hours start to finish with two rises.

Ingredients:

2 cups (454g) lukewarm water
1 tablespoon (14g) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon (18g) table salt
2 tablespoons (25g) olive oil
1/2 cup (82g) King Arthur semolina or whole-wheat flour
4 1/2 to 5 cups (540g to 600g) King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour
2 to 3 tablespoons Herbes de Provence
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons (25g) olive oil for the pan
herbes de Provence

freshly snipped chives
coarse salt

coarsely ground black pepper, optional
extra-virgin olive oil

Preparation:

1. Measure all the ingredients in grams–you’re baking here. Spend the twenty bucks on a digital scale. If you plan to do much baking, you’ve GOT to measure in grams for everything!
2. Combine the water, sugar, yeast, salt, and olive oil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and yeast.
3. Stir in the semolina or whole-wheat flour, then 4 1/2 cups of the all-purpose flour, the herbs, and the black pepper. Knead the dough — by hand, mixer, or in a bread machine set on the dough cycle — until it’s smooth. It’ll be quite soft. Gael says, “Your finished dough should be like a marshmallow, very easy to knead. It should clean the sides of the bowl, if you’re using a mixer. If the dough seems too slack, add more flour a tablespoon at a time until it comes together. It should feel moist and soft; tacky like a sticky note, but not sticky.” I started with 540 grams of AP flour, and measured 60 more in a separate bowl, and added a little more, two tablespoons at a time until the dough came together and cleaned the sides of the bowl. Trust the process. It WILL come together, but you’ll likely need most of the last 60 grams of flour–I did.
4. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and turn the dough on all sides to coat with oil. Cover it loosely with plastic wrap, and let it rise for 90 minutes in a warm place–like your oven with only the light turned on–or until doubled in size.
5. Gently deflate/de-gas the dough by pressing lightly. Turn it out onto a lightly floured counter; it should feel like a big marshmallow, very pliable.
6. Lightly grease two 8″ or 9″ cake pans, and drizzle 1 tablespoon garlic oil or olive oil into each pan, brushing it across the bottom. “The oil will ensure that the bottom of the focaccia will be crispy and tasty,” says Gael.
7. Divide the dough in half and gently shape it into rounds to fit whichever pans you’ve chosen. Place the rounds into the prepared pans, cover the pans, and let the dough rise for 45 minutes in a warm place (not the oven this time, you’ll need it) until puffy.
8. While the dough is rising, preheat your oven to 425°F.
9. Use your fingers to gently but firmly dimple the dough, making focaccia’s signature little hills and valleys. Sprinkle the top with herbes de Provence and some freshly snipped chives, a bit of coarse sea salt for crunch and flavor, and coarsely ground black pepper. Drizzle with garlic oil or olive oil.
10. Bake the focaccia in the middle of the oven for about 30 minutes, or until it’s lightly browned and baked through. It should be brown and crispy on the bottom.
11. Remove the focaccia from the oven, and turn it out of the pans onto a rack to cool just slightly before serving. Serve with warmed marinara sauce as a dip, or just as is with soup or salad.

Tips from a professional baker:

• Substitute an overnight rest in the refrigerator for the dough’s first rise, if desired. Let the dough come to room temperature before proceeding with the rest of the recipe.
• For heartier bread, choose any of the following toppings (or whatever strikes your fancy): chopped fresh rosemary, grated Parmesan cheese, chopped Kalamata olives, halved grape tomatoes, shredded Asiago cheese, crumbled feta cheese, mozzarella cheese, anchovies, oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, diced red peppers.

Recipe from Gael Clauson, courtesy of kingarthurbaking.com