Sourdough Focaccia

I have experimented with and am sharing with you today the best focaccia recipe ever. Seriously. It is so good, if I wasn't already full (from eating said bread) and pregnant (so, therefore, extra full) I would eat another slice before wrapping it up and going to bed. You must try it. Recipe below.

But first, I have two focaccia stories to share with you.

The first time I ever made focaccia I was in high school, probably my junior year. My advanced Spanish class, along with all the other language classes in my school, were participating in a "Cultural Awareness Night" where every student did something related to learning about a different culture and shares it. Maybe it's learning about the castles of Ireland or Dia de Los Muertos and making a tri-fold display on poster board to put up in the lunchroom, maybe it was learning a traditional Peruvian song and singing it, maybe it was cooking a culturally-specific food, whatever it was, we all had to do it and present it on the same night while our friends and parents milled around, probably astonishingly bored.

My Spanish teacher was great. She allowed us in the advanced classes quite a bit of leeway; as long as we were learning the language, we got away with a lot. And since I was the co-President with my best friend Kara of the "Spanish Cultural Society" (Both name of the society and the co-presidency agreed upon by us to look better on our college resumes - but primarily the purpose of the society was to cook Mexican food and eat it potluck style once a month or so :) ummm . . . you could say that I pretty much had the pick of topic for my project.

Enter my dear friend Joel. We decided to work together on this project and in turn, because we are both mildly type-A over-achievers, decided to merge two projects - make a video about something cultural and make a cultural food. We made a cooking show. In Spanish. We made focaccia and gazpacho. And we even had commercials (I promise you, cross my heart, that I know how to say "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful" in Spanish for said commercial while tossing my hair, a la a fancy shampoo commercial. Seriously.) I was destined to be a Food Network star before the Food Network was even barely around.

Anyway, we were so worried about filming the show, and the commercial and learning the unfamiliar vocabulary (do you know what "Tablespoon" is in Spanish? Or "knead"?) that we were running a little behind and our warm water to mix the yeast into became ice cold. So, I heated it up. In the microwave. And proceeded to kill the yeast. Which we didn't really know until our focaccia turned out like a brick.

The following recipe, luckily, does not . . . .

Okay, second focaccia story. Not so embarassing and much shorter. (I know! How many stories can one have about focaccia??)

In college my best girlfriend, Kristina, and I, when we wanted to treat ourselves, would go to a "fancy" Italian restaurant named Lorenzo's in Mesilla. We frequently went there for lunch (because it was cheaper) and always, always had one of their sandwiches and an iced tea. Served on this amazing bread, the bread was crunchy, tasted buttery and salty and perfectly soaked up the flavors of the salami's and vinaigrettes and artichoke hearts we craved. We even ordered a side of the bread on occasion to nosh on before our sandwiches arrived. This was before low-carb. I have craved those sandwiches. Their Italian food, so-so, those sandwiches, amazing.

This next recipe tastes exactly like Lorenzo's bread. I even made sandwiches with it, using leftover roast chicken, salad greens mixed with a dijon balsamic vinaigrette and tomatoes, and I almost had a heart attack, it was so good. Such a simple sandwich, using leftovers in my fridge, and immediately it took me right back there, to those special afternoons with my good friend and the amazing, amazing bread. Such simple ingredients, such good memories. I will be making this again and again. Try it!

I made my focaccia with white starter (because I hadn't used it in almost two months and had just fed it) and all purpose flour this time, but will be experimenting with my wheat starters and flours . . . the batch pictured I took out a teensy bit early. It should be slightly browner, but it is good just the same!

Sourdough Focaccia
makes one large loaf
adapted/inspired by recipes in Essentials of Baking and Saveur Cooks Authentic Italian

In a bowl, combine the following ingredients to form a sponge:

1-1/2 Cups sourdough starter (always feed your starter the day before you are going to bake and stir before measuring)
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tablespoon honey
1 cup flour

Allow sponge to ferment and bubble for about an hour until bubbles of differing size are on top.

Add to sponge:

1/2 cup olive oil
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons fine sea salt

Mix ingredients together and turn out onto a floured board, kneading for 5-7 minutes. Depending on the hydration of your starter, you may end up adding 1/4 - 1 cup of flour while kneading. The dough will be soft and slightly moist from the oil and the kneading. Form into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

Using a large, rimmed baking sheet, add 1/4 cup olive oil to the bottom of the pan, swirling to cover the bottom and sides. Once dough is risen, gently press dough down and then place your dough in the prepared pan. With your fingers, press dough into the bottom of the pan until it fills the pan. If your dough is very elastic and pulling away, allow it to rest for about five minutes and then continue.

Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rise until roughly doubled in size, about an hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Farenheit. Once dough is ready, lightly dock dough with your fingers all over, leaving little impressions. If the dough is a little dry on top, brush on a bit more extra virgin olive oil and then sprinkle with coarse sea salt (mine was not dry; extra olive oil had spilled over onto the dough when I pressed the dough into the pan so all I did was sprinkle with salt. You be the judge of your dough.)

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from heat and allow to cool in it's pan on a rack.

Allow to cool at least twenty minutes before eating it (this was all we could manage for dinner tonight! Longer would be better!). Eat immediately or within a day or two. Wrap securely with plastic wrap for fridge storage.

Great sliced into wedges and served with minestrone or cut into roughly six inch squares, sliced in half horizontally and made into a sandwich (*sigh* That sandwich was awesome.) I'm a purist, so I like it with just olive oil and salt on top, but feel free to add fresh herbs to the dough, caramelized onions on top or even a sprinkling of kalamata olives or tomato sauce.

Enjoy!