I have not published so much here at S&O lately.
It depends on two things.
I ‘m on vacation, and I have spent a lot of time with the family.
But I also had a plan.
My intention was to publish the most mouthwatering, incredible, delicious bread recipe of the year.
I had been experimenting for a week.
But I failed miserably.
So I had to bake something else. And it became sourdough Foccacia.
This is a quicker version of the recipe I published one year ago. It also contains sundried tomatoes, olives, pesto, and some Spelt flour.
I don’t think I have to say much more than that.
So let’s begin baking.
PREPARING THE DOUGH
There was no time for any preferment like the Biga I made in the old recipe. I had to come up with something for dinner that same day, so I mixed all ingredients except salt, oil, and toppings and let it rest for an hour.
After that, I added salt and performed a stretch and fold session.
Bulk fermentation
Most of the times, I try to find a warm place for bulk fermentation, but that was not necessary this time. We are suffering from a dry season with unusually high temperatures at the moment here in Sweden.
This day the thermometer showed 84ºF / 29ºC, so I just left the dough on the counter.
During the first 90 minutes, I performed a total of three stretches and fold sessions, one every half hour.
The total time for bulk fermentation was 4 hours.
FORMING
Forming a Foccacia is quite simple. I start by degassing the dough and form it into a rectangle. The pictures below are from the old recipe, and you can see how I formed the dough. I followed the same procedure this time. The only difference was that I drizzled pesto between the folds.
I oiled a steel tray thoroughly and formed the dough to fit into it.
After that, I pressed olives and pieces of sundried tomatoes into the top of the dough.
Finally, I drizzled olive oil over the dough and sprinkled dried rosemary nd sea salt over everything.
FINAL RISE
Lately, I have refused to give a specific time for the final rise.
I won’t do it this time either.
It depends on so many local factors like temperature, the strength of the starter, and much more.
Observe and touch the dough instead. The finger poke test gives you a hint when the dough is ready.
You make a little imprint on the top of the loaf by pressing your finger on it.
If the imprint springs back and fills up quickly, the loaf is probably under-proofed.
If the imprint springs back partly, the loaf is ready to be baked.
But If the imprint doesn’t recover at all, you probably have an over-proofed loaf.
BAKING
Preheat the oven to 480ºF / 250ºC.
Bake the Foccacia for 20-30 minutes. The crust should be golden brown, but not dark.
And don’t forget to add steam. It’s perhaps not so important for the oven spring when it comes to Foccacia, but the color of the crust will always be better with steam.
I let the Foccacia cool in the tray until I can handle it. Then I use to remove The bread from the tray and place it back into the turned off oven. There is still enough heat to improve the underside of the bread that can be a bit wet and mushy.
When all the photographs were taken, I and my family ate almost the whole sourdough Foccacia to a Bolognese ragout with pasta.
A terrific combination
For those who are curious about my failed experiments that I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I will only say one thing.
Never include Dijon mustard in your sourdough bread. It seems to be a bad combo.
Sourdough Foccacia with sundried tomatoes
Ingredients
- 330 gram water
- 370 gram Wheat flour
- 65 gram durum flour
- 55 gram Spelt flour
- 100 gram sourdough starter
- 13 gram olive oil
- 10 gram sea salt
- 2 tablespoon Pesto genovese
Toppings
- Sun dried tomatoes, black olives, rosemary, sea salt
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients for the dough except olive oil, pesto and salt. Make sure that all flour is hydrated. Let the dough rest for an hour. You can also let the dough autolyze for an hour. In that case, mix the starter together with the salt afterward.
- Add salt and perform one stretch and fold. Perform a total of 3 sets of stretch and folds during bulk fermentation, spaced out by 30 minutes.
- Let the dough rest for 4-5 hours at a temperature of at least 78ºF/25ºC if possible.
- Lightly flour your work surface and dump out the dough. Press out the gasses. Fold the dough from each side into the middle. Spread pesto between each fold.
- Form the doug to a size fitting to your baking tray. Oil the tray and place the dough in it. Press your finger tips through the dough in some places and brush the surface with olive oil.
- Add preferred topping.
- Bake the Focaccia in 480ºF / 250ºC for 20 - 30 minutes or until it has a nice golden brown color.
- Let the Foccacia cool in the tray until you can handle it. Remove the bread from the tray and place it back into the turned off oven for 5-10 minutes to get rid of the wet consistency.
