Potato Rosemary Focaccia

[Baked on 23 Mar 2013]
Some weeks back, I chanced upon an Indonesian bakery magazine and saw a very lovely picture of a Potato Rosemary Focaccia. I couldn't help but to really want to try to bake this focaccia. Since it was printed in Indonesian Bahasa, I post a copy in the Singapore Homebakers' Facebook. Alice kindly did the translation for me. I've hence, uploaded the document back into the group to be shared with the rest of the homebakers.

The bread was rather sticky and difficult to handle. I oiled the table-top and tried to knead them smoothly. It didn't turn out smooth though. I proceeded to just spread them out on my tray and let it proof. It proved beautifully and baked well. I placed it on the lowest rack of my oven to prevent burning the top. It baked well and was moist. It tasted even better when slightly toasted with cheese.

Recipe for Potato Rosemary Focaccia, by Chef Rahmat, Sous Chef Hotel Borobudur, Bakery Magazine - Vol.1 No. 5/May 2011
(Makes a 11" x 14" tray pan)

Ingredients:
Sourdough:
200g bread flour
10g instant yeast
100ml water

Method:

1.Beat all ingredients with electric mixer for 8 minutes
2.Cover dough with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight


Bread:
500g potato – steamed
10g rosemary
50g olive oil
300g bread flour
250g sourdough
10g salt
5g instant yeast
10g bread improver (I omitted this)
50g water

Method:

1 .Beat steamed potato with electric mixer till smooth.
2. Add in rosemary and oil, mix well.
3. Add in bread flour, salt, yeast and bread improver and mix low speed.
4. Add in sourdough, beat at high speed for 10 minutes until well mixed.
5. Rest the dough, covered with cling wrap.
6. Place the dough on an oiled tray pan.
7. Brush oil on the dough, sprinkle rosemary, ground pepper and salt.
8. Rest for 20 minutes , and then bake for 15 minutes at 200C at the lowest rack.
9. Remove from the oven, let it rest for 30mins before removing from the pan.

Herbed Wholemeal Focaccia

[Baked on 9 Mar 2013]
I haven't been baking bread for a long time. I wished I have more time to bake breads. Given a choice to bake, I'll go for breads! Unfortunately, baking bread takes a long floor time. Since I didn't do bread-baking planning, I wasn't able to make pre-fermented dough.  So I made an easier recipe. This is from "bake!". This focaccia bread is easy to make as it does not require much kneading, and the end result is holey and good. You may replace the wholemeal flour with plain flour or bread flour to get a softer bread.

Recipe for Herbed Wholemeal Focaccia, adapted from bake! by Nick Malgieri
(Makes a 11" x 9" loaf)

Ingredients:
120g Wholemeal flour
465g Bread flour
2 tsp Sea salt
7g Instant yeast
420g Warm water, about 43C
60g Olive oil
3 tsps Silician herb mix
A dash of Cayenne pepper

Some dried sage leaves
Some garlic chopped coarsely
Sea salt
Olive oil

Method:

1. Stir the flour and salt together and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the yeast into the water. Wait for 2 mins and whisk again to make sure the yeast is completely dissolved. Whisk in the oil.
3. Use a large rubber spatula to smoothly stir half the flour mixture into the liquid. Stir in the remaining flour mixture, using the spatula to dig up any unmoistened flour from the bottom of the bowl. Add in the herb mix and mix well.
4. After all the flour is moistened, use a dough hook to mix thoroughly, for approximately 5 mins. The dough will still be moist. 
5. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and let the dough rise until it has doubled in size, about an hour.
6. Scrape the dough into the prepare baking tray. Use the flat palm of your hands to press the dough into the tray. Make sure the dough covers the entire base of the tray.
7. Let the dough rise for another 1 hour.
8. Once the focaccia is fully risen, use your index finger to dimple the top all over. Drizzle some olive oil over the surface, sprinkle sage leaves and chopped garlic, followed by sea salt.
9. Place the focaccia in the preheated oven of 200C and bake for about 25mins or until the top is browned.
10. Remove the focaccia from the tray after baking.
11. Cool completely before serving.

Rosemary Focaccia

It was a long time since I can enjoy the early morning sunrise.  On usual weekdays, I would have left the house for work. On usual Saturdays, I would have been at the Serangoon stadium for my usual slow jog. On usual Sundays, I would still be in my dreamland. So this morning, with a layer of clouds hovering in the city skyline, I decided to take some pictures... zooming in to the new Marina Bay Resort and the Singapore Flyer. Here's sharing with you on the beautiful early morning before the sun appears today.

If possible, I prefer to bake breads on Saturdays as I have the whole day to do it. Breads have very take very long floor time! I made Rosemary Focaccias from my previous bread workshop. This recipe produces very very wet dough. It took me a long time to knead the dough (using the mixer)! Even after three hours of two floor time, the dough just didn't rise to double the height. Okay, I said to myself, nevermind, just bake it. However, the moment I put it into the oven to bake, it rose thrice its height! Was this recipe like this?  I really cannot recall! Anyway, after baking, it rose really well, and the holes were real neat. That was what it mattered right? Whew!

Thanks to my dear friend, Grace, I was able to use the cake container she gave me to keep my focaccias, and transport them over to my mum's house for my siblings! No wastage of plastic bags... Hooray! This container is very useful. Big and tall enough for a 9" cake. Now, even two thick focaccias can fit in. Handy!

By the way Grace, do you find any difference in my pictures? Looks sharper and nicer? Heehee... A good teacher produces a good student! ;))

I was elated!

Two weeks ago, I received an email from "Andrews McMeel Publishing" asking if I would be interested to receive a book called "Bread Matters" by Andrew Whitley. Of course I said "yes" and gave them my shipping address. I was looking forward to receive the copy of the book from them. The good catch was that, I was not even obligated to mention this in my blog, wasn't that great?

I was elated when I got this in my mail this morning. The book is a new copy, with no pictures. The book has very good theory and explanation of the ingredients being used for breads. Accordingly, it's supposed to be suitable for homebakers, which is us! I shall read through this book in detail, try the recipe, and share to you soon.


My day is very fruitful today. Very very fruitful. I woke up very early in the morning and went to the gym to exercise. Came back to prepare my dough for my focaccia. Followed by shortcrust pastry, then ingredients for my muesli bars.

The focaccia dough was actually a failure. I added too much water and instead of dough, it became a BATTER! OMG! I wondered what would happen if I proceed to let it proof. Nevertheless, I refused to throw the batter into the bin. I continued with the steps as if it was dough, even though it was really really very wet and sticky.

Finally, I baked it in the oven without sprinkling some olive oil on top. I was already disappointed by the outcome, so didn't bothered too much about it before baking. Fortunately, the focaccia turned out to be alright. I've learned my lesson well this time!


My second bake, muesli bar didn't turn out well too! What happened to me today? Wobbling hands due to exercise? Ah...no excuse no excuse! I added too little butter and light corn syrup into the mixture, so it didn't blind well when I baked it. Actually, I like my muesli bars to be natural - less sugars and less fats. It was supposed to be healthy snacks right? So in the end, I broke them up into smaller bite size pieces and name it Granola Bites!


In the afternoon, I still managed a trip out to Tampines Giant to buy groceries and other household items. Came back to prepare dinner for the family. I made chicken pies using shortcrust pastry. Fortunately, the pies turned out to be good!

Chocolate Fudge Cake

There were quite a number of raves about the steamed moist chocolate cake from Peng's Kitchen. One was from SSB, and the other from a colleague. When I saw how beautiful it was, I was tempted to try this also.

I did it as a Father's Day cake for my father-in-law. I frosted the cake with chocolate fudge. The overall taste and texture was really good. It's really worth making.




On the same day I steamed the cake, I also made a focaccia bread. My colleague gave me a jar of Rustic Tuscan Seasoning that she had bought from US previously. The seasoning smell very good. It was meant for chicken basically. As I don't roast chicken that often, I've decided it should go into my focaccia. True enough, with this seasoning, the focaccia was extremely extremely good!

Today's Bakes

I done lots of bakings & cookings today! I can't believe I can do so many things in a day! But of course, these are done with sacrifices like not playing with my children and reading up on other recipes etc etc. There is always an opportunity forgone when doing something instead of doing another. This was my schedule for today:

8am - Fried Carrot Cakes for family of 6 using last night's steamed radish cake.


9am - Went marketing.
9.45am - Prepare & mix for Rosemary & Garlic Focaccia.
10.45am - Prepare & cook Fried Hokkien Mee.


12noon - Took lunch: Fried Hokkien Mee.
12.30pm - Baked Focaccia & prepare tart crusts. Blend papaya milk.



1.30pm - Baked tart crusts & prepare cream & milk fillings.
2.00pm - Baked cream & milk tarts.


3.00pm - Prepare quiche fillings.
4.00pm - Rolled quiche crusts & baked.
4.30pm - Cooked quiche fillings & baked.
5.30pm - Finished baking & bathe.
6.00pm - Took dinner: Quiche.

Recipes for the above bakes are from:
Rosemary & Garlic Focaccia ~ Happy Home Baking.
Steamed Radish Cake ~ Cafe of the east.
Cream & Milk Tarts ~ Alex Goh's Irresistable Pastry.