Spring Focaccias with the BBB

When I first saw the beautiful picture of a spring herbed focaccia with fresh garden greens and pansies, I still knew I was going to look for spring fruits and not vegetables.  I'll never get rid of my sweet tooth so I might as well make the best of it.  I looked up seasonal fruits for April and May.  Some of these may be a bit early in some areas, but here they are starting to be seen in the farmer's market.  I quickly narrowed my choices down to nectarines, blackberries, and goat cheese with honey.  I was thinking of some complementary flavors as well and confirmed them along with some extras, in my hitherto unused Flavor Bible.  Such a cool resource, check your local library!  The original recipe used a sourdough focaccia, which is cool and would probably last well.  I was going to do that, but then found my recipe for Dan Lepard's focaccia and I love his breads!  So I went with that.  I did end up having to add a tbsp more water to my American flour because the original recipe I was using called for tipo 00 flour which has a lower water absorption.  The King Arthur flour I used made a very strong dough.  I could have done one less stretch and fold because I was doing double folds where you do the thirds both lengthwise and width wise.  So really I ended up with six folds instead of three.  But it made a fabulously chewy focaccia with plenty of holes, wonderful texture and crispy crust.  I love how the whole thing turned out and would make it again in a heartbeat.  We had it for dessert.

While I hadn't planned on doing another flavor variation, I was inspired by the contents of our CSA bag that morning and stuck the other foot in.  The Flavor Bible helped me out there too.  I had lovely little spring onions and asparagus to use.  Add a leek, garlic, potatoes, and some fontina cheese and we had dinner, further topped with basil and shaved Parmesan.  Almost didn't need the Parmesan, the fontina was great on its own.

 

This made a great light, but filling dinner.  I recommend making sure it comes out of the oven at dinner time, or is reheated right before dinner.  It is at its best when it is nice and hot.

Youngest daughter wasn't convinced by the nectarines in the sweeter focaccia, but she was obviously delirious.  The whole thing was phenomenal.  I might bump up the candied ginger because it mellowed wonderfully in the oven.  It really was one of those things that practically makes you swoon when you taste it.  Hubby even said it could replace coffee cake for breakfast.  He prefers less sweet anyway.  The lime zest gave a perfect balance of bitter and a subtle hint of flavor, beautifully rounded out by the lime thyme.  That thyme goes so well with the fruit, I could cry.  Tempted to try it in an ice cream.  If you can get your hands on some lime or even lemon thyme, I highly recommend it.  I love the brightness of it, and that hint of citrus flavor it adds is just subtle enough.

If you'd like to try out your own idea for a spring focaccia, check out the host kitchen's post at Bread Experience.  Bake it and submit your picture and/or blog post to her by the 29th and you will get a Buddy Badge to display and be included in a buddy round up.  She used a fabulous sourdough based focaccia recipe, but your favorite focaccia will be just fine.  I was thrilled with Dan Lepard's recipe.  No surprise there, I had high expectations for it.  I think I did use almost all (like 75-80%) if not all regular all purpose flour instead of my usual spelt.  Maybe I will try it with spelt next time and see if I can coax that wonderful chewiness and thin crispy crust out of it.  This time I wanted insurance!  Here is the recipe I used, it takes a while but is mostly hands off time so it can be started in the morning and be ready for dinner.

Dan Lepard's Focaccia with a Spring Topping
makes 2 9x13" flat breads or one half sheet flat bread

Preferment:
200g water, room temp
150g flour
2.5g instant yeast (That's about ¾ tsp, or a generous 1 tsp active dry yeast)

Dough:
150g water, room temp (I needed one more tbsp than this)
15 ml olive oil plus more for folding
375g flour
10 g fine sea salt

In a large bowl, mix together the ingredients for the preferment.  Cover and leave in a warm spot for an hour.  Give it a stir, then cover for another hour.  It should be bubbly and increased in size by almost double.  It may take more time in a cool kitchen.

Mix in the water and oil for the dough, then add the salt and flour until roughly combined.  Cover and rest for 10 minutes.

Oil your hands and the work surface with a little olive oil.  Work the dough by holding with one hand and gently stretching out with the other hand.  Fold it back on itself and then rotate the dough.  Do this folding knead about 10 times.  Re-oil the surface if it starts to stick.  Cover and rest for 10 minutes.

Repeat the kneading process twice more with 10 minute breaks.  The dough should now me smooth and elastic.  Cover and rest for 40 minutes.  (Divide dough now if making two smaller flat breads.)

Now the dough will go through some stretch and folds to promote the big holes in the finished bread.  Stretch and press the dough out into a rectangle.  Then fold into thirds, one end in first and then the other.  Try not to degas the dough too much as you do this.  Cover and let rest for 40 minutes.

Stretch and fold the dough twice more, waiting 40 minutes between folds.  When the dough has been folded 3 times, cover and rest for 30 minutes before final shaping. 

Line baking tray(s) with parchment and rub the paper with olive oil.  Place the dough in the center and lightly flatten with the tips of your fingers.  It's okay if it springs back.  Cover and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425º F.

Gently pull the dough out by the corners toward the edges of the tray, lifting and stretching.  Press out from the middle with fingertips if needed, just don't deflate the dough.  To make a plain flat bread, sprinkle with a little water and oil.  Otherwise, drizzle with a little oil and arrange desired toppings before baking.  Bake for 15 minutes, (I added a bit of steam initially), then reduce heat to about 390ºF and bake for another 15 minutes or until done.  Cool on a wire rack.  The topped focaccias are delicious when eaten warm, like pizza.

What I used for my toppings:

Spring Fruit Focaccia:

Drizzle of olive oil

1-2 tbsp candied ginger, minced

zest of half a lime

1 medium nectarine, sliced

1 small pkg blackberries

Goat cheese

Honey

1 tbsp fresh lime thyme, chopped

Mix the ginger and lime zest together and sprinkle over the dough.

Arrange the nectarines on top of the dough.  If the blackberries are the huge, cultivated ones, they may need to be cut in half before adding them.  Mine were that type.

Break small chunks of goat cheese and sprinkle them evenly over the top of the fruit.  Drizzle a small amount of honey (like a teaspoon or less) lightly over the top of everything, avoiding the edges.  (It will burn on the pan if it drips over.)

Bake the bread.  Remove from the oven and drizzle all over with a good teaspoon or so of wildflower or blackberry honey.  Then sprinkle evenly with the lime thyme.  Enjoy warm.  It reheats wonderfully as well.

Potato Asparagus Leek Focaccia:

Plan ahead and cook the potatoes while the dough is resting.

2 small yellow potatoes, thinly sliced

4-5 asparagus spears, cut diagonally into 1 inch chunks

4 spring onions, sliced

1 small leek, sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

olive oil

fontina cheese

fresh basil, chiffonade

Parmesan cheese, shaved (optional)

Put the minced garlic in a little dish with enough olive oil to cover and set aside.  Put the sliced potatoes in a small pot of lightly salted water and bring to a boil.  Simmer for about 8 minutes, just until al dente.  Add the asparagus the last minute or so to blanch.  Drain and set aside in a pot of cold water to hold until ready to use.  The leeks and onions can go in the cold water pot as well and drain all before topping the bread.

Spread the garlic and olive oil over the dough.  Arrange the potato slices evenly over the dough.  Repeat with the asparagus, onions and leeks.  (I ended up with a little too much topping and overloaded my bread a bit.  Still tasted good though!)

Arrange thinly sliced fontina over the top and bake the bread.  When bread has cooled slightly, top with basil chiffonade and shaved Parmesan if desired.