The Week 21 challenge, flour, got postponed for over a month. Originally, my plan for the "from scratch" challenge was to make focaccia, but I pushed that back to the flour challenge once that was announced because it seemed to fit better there. We were waiting on yeast anyway at the time, so it didn't really matter where we put it. For my first time making focaccia, I decided to follow a recipe I found on Inspired Taste for an easy rosemary garlic focaccia bread. Easy sounded good since I was (and still am) a novice bread maker.
[Note: I made this back in July, and it was our third time baking with yeast, so we still didn't really know what we were doing. Initially, I wanted to post our bread/yeast adventures in order, but who cares about order anymore as the end of the year approaches? I'll admit that it's a little strange finishing and editing this post I started back in July now that we know so much more about bread, and also having recently posted about baking a loaf of bread, but I guess I should just try posting more timely...]
The ingredients for the focaccia were:
- 1/2 cup of olive oil, plus extra for oiling the bowl and baking pan ($1)
- 1 spoonful of minced garlic ($0.10)
- garlic powder ($0.03)
- rosemary ($0.10)
- thyme ($0.10)
- freshly ground black pepper ($0.02)
- just under 1 tbsp of yeast ($0.19)
- one small squeeze of honey ($0.10)
- 2.5 cups of flour, divided, plus extra for flouring surface/hands ($0.47)
- 1 cup of warm water ($0)
- 1/2 tsp of salt ($0.01)
The cost of the focaccia was approximately $2.12. I don't think I had ever realized how inexpensive it was to make your own bread. Paying with your time and labor, I guess! We paired the focaccia with a simple pasta dish with spinach and turkey meatballs, so my estimate for dinner (without knowing the exact costs of any of those) would be somewhere around $10. Not bad for a lot of food.
3. Add 1 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of the infused oil to the bowl with the yeast. Stir and let sit for at least 5 minutes. Make sure the oil is cool before being added so it doesn't kill the yeast.
4. Add 1.5 cups of flour and the salt. Stir until mixed together and a dough has formed.
5. Knead on a floured surface (I did it in the bowl, adding flour to the outside of the dough and my hands, maybe not the best idea looking back) about 10-15 times. [Ours felt really wet and sticky. Knowing what I know now after taking some bread-making classes, I should have tried adding more flour before kneading.]
6. Oil a large bowl. Put the dough in the bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let sit for 1 hour so it can rise.
7. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Using a 9x13 baking pan or dish with tall sides, grease the pan with 2 tbsp of the olive oil mixture. If not oiled enough, add some regular olive oil.
8. Transfer dough to pan, press down to the edges, and then dimple the dough with your fingers.
9. Top the dough with the rest of the infused olive oil, and then let the pan sit for 20 minutes for the dough to rise again. [Not sure ours did.]
10. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove and cool on wire rack.
- 1/2 cup of olive oil, plus extra for oiling the bowl and baking pan ($1)
- 1 spoonful of minced garlic ($0.10)
- garlic powder ($0.03)
- rosemary ($0.10)
- thyme ($0.10)
- freshly ground black pepper ($0.02)
- just under 1 tbsp of yeast ($0.19)
- one small squeeze of honey ($0.10)
- 2.5 cups of flour, divided, plus extra for flouring surface/hands ($0.47)
- 1 cup of warm water ($0)
- 1/2 tsp of salt ($0.01)
The cost of the focaccia was approximately $2.12. I don't think I had ever realized how inexpensive it was to make your own bread. Paying with your time and labor, I guess! We paired the focaccia with a simple pasta dish with spinach and turkey meatballs, so my estimate for dinner (without knowing the exact costs of any of those) would be somewhere around $10. Not bad for a lot of food.
The steps to make "easy" focaccia were:
1. In a small skillet, heat 1/2 cup of olive oil with the minced garlic, garlic powder, rosemary, thyme, and black pepper over low heat for about 5 minutes, constantly stirring and making sure the garlic doesn't burn. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
2. In a large bowl, mix the warm water, yeast, and honey. Stir and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
1. In a small skillet, heat 1/2 cup of olive oil with the minced garlic, garlic powder, rosemary, thyme, and black pepper over low heat for about 5 minutes, constantly stirring and making sure the garlic doesn't burn. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
2. In a large bowl, mix the warm water, yeast, and honey. Stir and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
3. Add 1 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of the infused oil to the bowl with the yeast. Stir and let sit for at least 5 minutes. Make sure the oil is cool before being added so it doesn't kill the yeast.
4. Add 1.5 cups of flour and the salt. Stir until mixed together and a dough has formed.
5. Knead on a floured surface (I did it in the bowl, adding flour to the outside of the dough and my hands, maybe not the best idea looking back) about 10-15 times. [Ours felt really wet and sticky. Knowing what I know now after taking some bread-making classes, I should have tried adding more flour before kneading.]
6. Oil a large bowl. Put the dough in the bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let sit for 1 hour so it can rise.
7. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Using a 9x13 baking pan or dish with tall sides, grease the pan with 2 tbsp of the olive oil mixture. If not oiled enough, add some regular olive oil.
8. Transfer dough to pan, press down to the edges, and then dimple the dough with your fingers.
9. Top the dough with the rest of the infused olive oil, and then let the pan sit for 20 minutes for the dough to rise again. [Not sure ours did.]
10. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove and cool on wire rack.
Looking back at this bread experiment (which, as I mentioned, was the third time using yeast after the fun coconut buns/coconut cake experiment, and then some Afghan naan), I really had no idea what I was doing. I still consider myself a beginner at making bread, but I've learned a lot from some really knowledgeable people in the interim, so I kind of wish I had finished writing this post before that so I could see how far I've come. That night after I made the focaccia, I went reading other recipes and comments on how to make focaccia, and came across people using dough hooks and stand mixers, and they were testing their dough with the windowpane test. I hadn't done any of that, and I didn't even understand what the windowpane test was (I do now!), but something at the time told me that my focaccia hadn't come out quite right, didn't really rise enough, or some other issue that I couldn't identify, which is why I ended up researching. My guess now is that the dough wasn't the right consistency at the kneading step (probably needed more flour), and probably wasn't kneaded enough. No way I'm going to know unless I try it again sometime, and since I love focaccia, I probably will.
Technique aside, how was the bread itself? It was delicious! Maybe it wasn't as fluffy as restaurant or bakery focaccia, but the infused olive oil had great flavor and we all liked the bread. Even if it wasn't perfect, I was happy with how it turned out. Definitely want to give focaccia another try sometime.
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