“Luck of the Irish” Garden Focaccia
While I have baked A LOT of bread during COVID-19 (make sure to check out our banana bread and no knead bread recipes), until this weekend I had yet to try my hand at Garden Focaccia. While the pictures are beautiful, I was intimated by the idea of baking focaccia until my husband Ryan reminded me that we had a recipe from our Stirred Travel cooking adventure outside of Sicily.
So with Ryan’s encouragement and St. Patrick’s Day inspiration from @30minutefoodie, yesterday Sam and I made “Luck of the Irish” Garden Focaccia using the Stirred Travel recipe below.
We also tried our hand at making @kingarthurbakig’s golden focaccia recipe. Turned out great if you are looking for an alternative recipe but takes at least 14 hours to make the “starter”. Or, QFC sells focaccia dough in a can if you want to skip the baking part and just focus on garden art.
We used an eggplant and corn kernels for our pot of gold; chives and green onion for grass; green bell peppers for shamrocks; yellow bell pepper for a sun; and black pitted olive pieces for the ground/rocks. The rainbow consists of cherry tomatoes, red, orange, yellow, and green bell peppers, orange carrots, and a red onion. Sam was very sad we couldn’t come up with a blue strip for our rainbow, any suggestions?
“Stirred Travel” Focaccia Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cups water, room temperature
- 4 cups “00” flour
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 1/4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1.75 teaspoons fine salt
Topping
- dried rosemary, to taste
- fresh ground pepper, to taste
- 3.5 tablespoons olive oil
- 8 teaspoons water
- 1.75 teaspoon coarse salt
Instructions
Whisk together the water, yeast and 3/4 cup flour. Leave on the counter for approximately 2 hours until looking alive (bubbly & yeasty smelling).
Using a mixer with a dough hook attachment, place starter batch in the mixing bowl and add remaining 3 1/4 cups flour. Turn to medium-low speed and mix for 10 minutes. Increase speed to medium, add salt and mix for further 5 minutes. The final dough should be glossy and elastic.
With lightly oiled hands, reach down the sides of the dough and bring the lower edges up and over in a folding motion. Turn 90 degrees and repeat this, then reset for a further 30 minutes.
Gently tip the mix into a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper, and cover the surface of the dough with 2 1/4 teaspoons olive oil. Gently smooth out the dough, taking care not to tear it. Let prove for 30 minutes, then top with rosemary, salt and pepper to taste, and leave prove for a further 30 minutes.
Whisk together the olive oil, water and salt topping, and pour over the top of the focaccia. Press down with your fingers, almost right through the dough, from top to bottom. Place in 425 degree oven to bake for around 25 minutes or until golden on both top and bottom.
Notes: If you are making Garden Focaccia, I recommend only placing half the topping on the focaccia dough before adding your art so that it will stick to the dough instead of sliding off. I also used my finger to rub olive oil on the top of the vegetables before placing in the oven to help them roast while baking the focaccia.
Have you tried your hand at Garden Focaccia during COVID? St. Patrick’s Day might be just the time to try!
