The other day, I told a friend I would make and bring focaccia to her party.
I started with a recipe sent to me years ago by my college friend, David. As you can see, he has quite the scientific sense of humor.
Sadly, while beautiful to behold, it did not come out well. It was one big, thick cracker – hard as a rock. What could have gone wrong?? Science is suppose to be… well, science!
I panicked, as I needed to produce good focaccia in the few hours remaining till the party started. I reached out immediately to friends Lynn and Lee, collectors – nay curators – of trusted recipes. They had their perfect recipe, which they sent posthaste. (FYI – Lee is also a scientist.) How did we survive such crises without the immediacy of email?
The next batch of focaccia came out perfectly, but almost repeated the disaster of the first attempt. For some reason, I decided to check the bread at 20 minutes, just over half the prescribed baking time. It was already a deep golden brown. I immediately took it out of the oven and tested it. At 20 minutes, it was perfect.
In the end, David’s recipe is perfectly fine; it simply needed to be taken out of the oven sooner, as I discovered with Lynn and Lee’s. You see, both recipes had similar instructions – “bake 35-45 minutes” on one, and “for 30 minutes, till golden” on the other.
While the ingredients and dough were similar, they gave two different timings. The key to success, for me, was the addition of color as an indicator. Time and color are two very different instructions, right? One assumes these two indicators would happen simultaneously… yet they didn’t. I went with color the second time and was very happy I did.
Scientists always insert that there is a perfectly good scientific reason for these anomalies. They are probably right. Oven temperature. Type of pan. Placement in the oven. Moisture. Yeast. Blah blah blah. For those of us non-scientists, we just do what looks and feels good. It’s our own kind of science.
The science of science is funny, isn’t it?
~ David
Rosemary Focaccia
Minimally adapted from Lynn and Lee’s recipe.
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (1 packet)
2 tablespoons powdered milk
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus and extra 1/4 cup
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for topping
1/3 cup white wine, room temperature
2 sprigs rosemary, stripped and coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt, such as Maldon
Measure the water in a shatter-proof beaker and microwave for 30 seconds. It should be slightly warm to the touch. Add the yeast and milk powder and stir to combine.
Place 3 1/2 cups flour in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steal blade. Add the salt, olive oil, and wine, and pulse 5 times to combine. With the motor running, add the water/yeast mixture through the feed tube in a steady stream, but do it quickly so the flour doesn’t have a chance to clump.
Once all the ingredients are combined, process for an additional 30 seconds until it has formed a smooth and shiny ball around the blade.
Spread the remaining 1/4 cup flour on your board or countertop, and knead the dough for a minute or so to absorb just the right amount of extra flour. Make a smooth ball,
Oil a large mixing bowl. Place the dough ball rounded side down into the oil, then turn. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm, draft-free place and allow to triple in volume – 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
Meanwhile, brush the bottom of a 12-inch by 18-inch jelly roll pan with olive oil. When the dough has tripled, spread it evenly in the pan to create a rectangle. Use the palms of your hand, as fingertips can easily tear the dough.
Brush the top of the dough lightly with olive oil, then cover with plastic and allow to rise/rest again for 30 minutes. Set the oven rack to the bottom third, and preheat to 400°F.
When the dough has finished its final rise, poke it all over with your fingers to create little dimples, then drizzle with olive oil. Spread the oil gently with a brush, but leave oil in the dimples. Sprinkle evenly with the rosemary and salt, and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or – as the recipe states – until golden.
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Eha
June 23, 2019 at 12:15 amAll my life long have resided in the science rather than the arts side of the world but discovered a long way back that plain common sense beats all 🙂 ! As here !! Have never made focaccia tho' love it dearly: well, common sense has a solution to that also . . . thanks !!
Cocoa and Lavender
June 23, 2019 at 1:56 pmAnd I am the opposite, Eha – always on the arts side, not science. But I have found science can work really well in recipes… combined with a little art! Let me know if your common sense gets you into the kitchen to make some focaccia!
Eha
June 24, 2019 at 5:28 amAnd, David, why can a medico and economist not love music, art and books . . . *smile* ?
Cocoa & Lavender
June 27, 2019 at 7:31 pmNo good reason at all!!
2pots2cook
June 23, 2019 at 12:47 pmYou are my hero : "we just do what looks and feels good" is so very true to us, music – art – chocolate type of people. Enjoy the day 🙂
Cocoa and Lavender
June 23, 2019 at 1:58 pmThanks, Davorka – I love “chocolate type of people!” Have a wonderful day!
Frank
June 23, 2019 at 4:35 pmFunny, being basically a "creative" type, I steered clear of baking for years in large part because it really did seem a bit too much like chemistry. I got over it and started some simple baking later in life—and foccaccia is one of my favorites!
Cocoa and Lavender
June 23, 2019 at 6:44 pmI feel like I have both sides of my brain working for me … at least in the kitchen! Glad you got around to baking some things, Frank!
Anonymous
June 23, 2019 at 6:36 pmI would like to know what I could sub for the milk powder. Could I just skip that ingredient? We have stopped eating any animal products.
Cocoa and Lavender
June 23, 2019 at 6:45 pmHi there! You could skip it altogether, or reduce the water by one cup and substitute a 1/4 cup of almond or soy milk.
Fran @ Gday Souffle
June 23, 2019 at 9:34 pmFor this recipe, I can see that 'art meets science' with making the dimples on top of the dough- that makes it so much fun! BTW, I never thought of adding white wine to focaccia before- would that be considered art or science, I wonder?
Cocoa and Lavender
June 27, 2019 at 1:53 pmThanks, Fran – I’m trying to find out the history of adding wine. It has shown up in several recipes. Maybe it’s juts for flavor?
he needs food
June 23, 2019 at 10:52 pmAhhh the science of making good bread. I guess it comes down to what looks and feels right; plus, of course oven temps, types etc etc.
Cocoa and Lavender
June 27, 2019 at 1:54 pmIndeed, John, it’s all that!
natalia20041989
June 24, 2019 at 10:54 amI also love to make homemade foccacia, it is so good☺
Cocoa and Lavender
June 27, 2019 at 1:54 pmThanks, Natalia – the most fun is eating really good focaccia!
Sippity Sup
June 24, 2019 at 10:55 pmScience never beats instinct and yours is right on! GREG
Cocoa and Lavender
June 27, 2019 at 1:54 pmMuch appreciated, Greg!
Gerlinde de Broekert
June 25, 2019 at 1:54 amI love to bake but I never baked focaccia. Now I have a recipe when I want to bake it. Thanks David. I would never make it as a scientist .
Cocoa and Lavender
June 27, 2019 at 1:55 pmYou and me both, Gerlinde – I do everything by feel and instinct!
Valentina
June 26, 2019 at 3:38 amLOVE Focaccia. I used to make it all the time before having a child with Celiac. Making bread with gluten flying around the kitchen makes me nervous. I love, love the rosemary with the salt, olive oil and the light texture of the bread. My favorite part was poking the dough with fingers, and having the oil seep into it. 🙂 I'm terrible with science and just accept it does what it does.
Cocoa and Lavender
June 27, 2019 at 1:57 pmI get how that must be for you / maybe sometime I’ll send you a batch to a safe location! And I, too, accept science (with a grain of salt…) – but always wonder, “What if it’s wrong?”
Cathy @ She Paused 4 Thought
June 26, 2019 at 4:11 amTime and color are two very different instructions… spoken like a master. It is something that experience can only differentiate. I would love to know the science behind adding wine to the focaccia, as that is a new one for me. Either way, it looks perfectly fabulous.
Cocoa and Lavender
June 27, 2019 at 2:00 pmI’m working on finding out why the wine was added… my guess for the moment is flavor! Thanks for your question, Cathy – I’ll keep looking into it!
Kelly | Foodtasia
June 26, 2019 at 5:36 amDavid, I'm so craving this focaccia for breakfast! It looks so light and flavorful. I think of cooking times as mere suggestions. Ovens can run cool or hot. Other indicators such as look, temperature, and feel are much more accurate.
Cocoa and Lavender
June 27, 2019 at 2:02 pmI think that most of us who cook a lot work by intuition. Maybe not to start but after years of experience. Thanks, as always Kelly, for your comment!
Kitchen Riffs
June 26, 2019 at 3:38 pmFocaccia is terrific — and I've never made it! Definitely want to try it sometime. My mother was always a stick-to-the-letter-of-the-recipe type. Years ago she asked how long to cook one of my recipes, and she just couldn't wrap her head around my answer: cook until done. And then told her what "done" might be (and of course it can vary — think the difference between rare and medium steak; or golden and overdone focaccia). She really needed to have a precise time — that was the sort of cook she was. Me? I season to taste. And cook until done. 🙂 Anyway, fun post — thanks.
Cocoa and Lavender
June 27, 2019 at 1:59 pmMy mom, you and I are a lot alike. My mom’s sister, though, was like your mom. There’s room for us all, I guess!
Jean | DelightfulRepast.com
June 27, 2019 at 7:42 pmDavid, the variables make all the difference, don't they? Your friend's recipe called for a smaller pan than you used, so that would have been a thicker bread and take longer to bake. Everyone's oven is different. Every batch of dough is its own living self. I go by smell, too, as well as color. My husband had something in the oven and a timer by his side and I went in to pull it out of the oven, and he said but it's got 7 minutes to go. I said, no, it's done, I can tell by the smell.
Cocoa & Lavender
June 27, 2019 at 10:44 pmAh – the recipe in the photo isn't the recipe I used – in fact, the pans were the same size. So that is one variable out… but there are so many more! Yes, maybe it was the aroma, Jean, that caused me to look in the oven at 20 minutes! I think you are onto something!
Colette (Coco)
June 27, 2019 at 8:51 pmOh, Foccacia, how I adore thee….
A glass of Italian red wine, some good olio, balsamico and a BOATLOAD of fresh foccacia, THAT's what I call dinner! Now that I have your recipe, I'm in real trouble. xx
Cocoa & Lavender
June 27, 2019 at 10:45 pmSounds like the perfect recipe fro Friday night, Colette! xo
Inger @ Art of Natural Living
July 4, 2019 at 12:51 amAll's well that ends well I guess, though I was starting to feel a bit of panic just reading this. I usually check baked goods perhaps 5-10 minutes early but that wouldn't have saved me either. Must try now–focaccia has been on my list and now you've done the hard work 🙂
Cocoa & Lavender
July 6, 2019 at 11:38 pmI like Jean's comment that we need to be aware of the aromas, too. Let me know what you think if you try this, Inger!
Christina | Christina's Cucina
July 7, 2019 at 1:51 pmI love focaccia, but for some reason, never think to make it! Yours looks lovely and if it stays cool enough, I just may make some this week! THanks, David!
Cocoa & Lavender
July 7, 2019 at 9:13 pmThis particular recipe is perfect for sandwiches!