4.16.2004

Focaccia

I usually make my focaccia according to Dan Leader's recipe. It's a straight dough that sits in the fridge for about a day. It's alright, but I could be swayed to another prep. I've been recently hooked on this new site The Artisan. They have a fantastic treatment of yeast (fresh, dry, instant dry); how it's manufactured and how active dry differs from instant active. I've recently used instant active in my baguettes and have had no regrets (honest, someday that'll be posted here).

I tried their Focaccia recipe the other night (the one using the starter, half way down the page. I loved it. Trish did too. Because the week was hectic, it was unfortunately finished after dinner, but it still made for a nice after dinner nosh. It was even great the next day. I think I should've cooked it a tad longer but I was pretty thrilled with it. It was nice and thick too, a personal preference of mine. Give it a shot, really easy. I did use a bread machine for the initial knead (I used a 10 minute machine knead) and topped mine with fresh rosemary sprigs and very coarse crystalline sea salt. Yum.