Focaccia Caprese

We are already three months into this new year. Yet, this is my first post of the year. Despite intentions to the contrary, the blog has ended up being neglected. As always, the Blogging Marathon is what I've relied on to bring some action back into the blog. This time round, I've chosen to blog on flat breads from around the world for three days. By choosing this particular bread, I am also able to tick off one of the breads from the list of breads that the We Knead to Bake group has chosen to bake.
Focaccia is an Italian flat bread and Caprese refers to something that comes from Capri - an island off the coast of Italy. The topping on a focaccia caprese is tomatoes, fresh buffalo mozzarella and basil. I have made some changes to the original recipe, the major one being that I have used whole wheat flour in place of all purpose flour, and the minor ones being the use of Italian seasoning mix in place of dried oregano and the use of grated mozzarella and parmesan in place of slices of buffalo mozzarella.

What you need:
For the dough :
Whole wheat flour -  3.5 cups
Instant yeast - 2 tsp
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Oil - 1/8 cup (Original recipe calls for 1/4 cup)
Lukewarm water - 1 to 1.5 cups

For the topping:
Tomato - 3-4, sliced into thin circles
Grated mozarella and parmesan - 1/4 cup
Parsley - some, chopped fine

For the herb oil :
Oil - A little less than 1/4 cup
2 large cloves of garlic minced
Italian seasoning mix - 2 tsp
Mix these ingredients together and set aside.

To make the dough :
Take the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add water, a little at a time and mix to form a pliable dough. Add oil and knead well. Let this rest in a well oiled bowl until doubled in volume. This took approximately two hours.

Divide the dough into two parts. Roll out each part roughly into a rectangle of 11" by 7". I patted it out into a rectangle by hand, to give it a rustic look. Transfer on to a baking tray and let it rise for 20 minutes. Drizzle some oil over it and give it a dimpled look using your fingers.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 18 - 20 minutes or until the focaccia starts to turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and drizzle the herb oil over the focaccia. Arrange the tomato slices evenly over it and sprinkle some grated cheese and some chopped parsley on top. Top with some more of the herb oil and bake again at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 5-8 minutes until the cheese just melts. Remove from the oven and top with some more fresh chopped parsley.

Cut into slices/wedges and serve while hot.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

Torcettini - Yeasted cookies

The fourth bake chosen by Aparna for We Knead to bake is a yeasted cookie called Torcettini. Before reading the recipe that she sent out to the group, I had no idea that a cookie made using yeast as one of the ingredients even existed. This cookie, from the town of Saint Vincent in Valle d'Aosta, a small mountainous region in Italy, is quite easy to make and tastes crisp on the outside and chewy and soft on the inside. It is not overly sweet and makes for a wonderful tea-time snack.
 

What you need: (Original recipe adapted by Aparna from A Baker's Tour by Nick Malgieri)  

All purpose flour/Maida - 1.5 cups
Warm water - 1/2 cup
Active dry yeast - 1 1/4 tsp
Unsalted butter - a little less than 2 level tbsp, cold and cut into small pieces
Lemon zest - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Sugar - 1/3 cup

Dissolved the yeast in warm water and keep aside, covered for about 10 minutes until frothy.
Mix the maida, salt and butter together in a large mixing bowl, until crumbly. Add the lemon zest and yeast mixture. Knead to a smooth, pliable dough. Place the dough in a well oiled bowl, turning over so that the dough is well coated with oil. Cover and keep aside until the dough rises. This dough doesn't really double, but looks puffy, and when you pinch out a small bit, the inside looks like a honeycomb. Punch down the dough, transfer it to an airtight container or cling wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour or for upto 24 hours. Mine was in the fridge for close to three hours.

Shaping the cookies
Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll out into an approximately 6 inch square. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into four strips of roughly equal width. Cut each strip further into six pieces, making 24 pieces in all.
Roll each piece into an approx. 5 inch rope. Sprinkle a little sugar on your counter top and roll the rope on the sugar, taking care to coat the dough on all sides uniformly. Make a loop with the rope, crossing it over before the ends.
Place the torcettini on an ungreased baking pan, leaving an inch between them. Keep aside for 15-20 minutes until they rise a little.
Bake in a preheated oven at 160 degrees centigrade for about 25 minutes until golden brown. Cool completely and store in an air tight container at room temperature.


Note: The original recipe asks that you bake the cookies in a pan lined with parchment paper. However, after reading comments from others in the group about how the caramelised sugar from the bottom of the cookies made them stick to the parchment, making it difficult to remove, I decided to bake them directly in the pan. The cookies could be removed easily from the pan once they had cooled.
These are crisp on the outside the day they are baked, but become softer from the next day. I actually liked them better the day after they were baked.

Herb and cheese pull apart bread

To bake good bread has been a dream of mine for  a while now and so, when Aparna who blogs at My Diverse Kitchen and is an accomplished baker called for people to join her in baking a bread a month through this year, I did so without thinking twice about it. The very first bread that our group which is called We Knead to Bake has baked is a herb and cheese pull apart bread. Aparna gave us the basic recipe and the freedom to alter the ingredients as per our taste. I am glad that I didn't do much altering and that the bread proved to be quite a hit at home.

 What you need: 

For the Dough: 

Warm milk - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1 tsp
Instant yeast - 1 tbsp
All-purpose flour - 3 cups
Salt - 1 tsp
Butter, soft at room temperature  - 25 gms which is approx 2 tbsp
Garlic paste - from 7 or 8 cloves of garlic
Milk - 3/4 cup + a couple of tbsp to brush over the bread
For the Filling:
Melted butter - 1 to 1.5 tbsp
Finely chopped corrainder/cilantro - a handful
Crushed ajwain/omam/caraway seeds - 1 tbsp

Grated cheddar cheese - 1/2 cup (I used cheese that was flavoured with pepper....if using plain cheese, you could add crushed pepper to the filling if desired)

Method:

In a small bowl, mix the sugar, instant yeast and the 1/2 cup of warm milk. To this, add the flour, salt, softened butter and garlic paste. Mix well and knead to a smooth, pliable dough.

Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl, turning the dough to coat it completely with oil. Cover and let it rise for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until almost double in volume.
Dust your work surface lightly with flour. Deflate the dough, shape it into a square and roll the dough out into a larger square that is about 12’ by 12”. Brush the surface of the square with the melted butter.
Evenly sprinkle the chopped corrainder, ajwain and then the grated cheese. Gently run a rolling pin over the topping to ensure that it doesn't fall off later when you are stacking the bread.
Using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter, slice the dough from top to bottom into 6 long and even strips.
Lay each strip on top of the next, with the topping facing upwards, until you have a stack of the strips
You can put the 2 strips cut from the sides in the middle of the stack so it looks neater. Usinga pastry scraper or a sharp knife, cut straight down through the stack dividing it into 6 equal pieces (6 square stacks).
The stacking of strips is what I was not able to do, mainly I think, due to the fact that I had not dusted my work surface with enough flour and the strips were at risk of getting torn. So I decided to roll the strips from one end to the other, making six humongous rolls. I then arranged these rolls side by side in a round baking pan.

Cover the pan with a moist towel and allow the dough to rise further for an hour.
Lightly brush some milk over the top of the rolls. Bake the dough at 180C (350F) for about 30 to 40 minutes until it is done and the top is golden brown.

Taste wise, this is a wonderful bread, and paired with soup, makes for a filling meal. I will definitely be baking this again, and hopefully, will get the stacking part right this time so that the bread will look as good as it tastes.