Focaccia Therapy

Whenever life is life-ing a bit more than I care for, I make focaccia for therapeutic reasons.

I’ve been making a lot of focaccia lately.

From watching the yeast bloom, to watching the dough rise while it proofs (this is when the yeast pigs out on the sugars and starches to harness the energy to produce carbon dioxide gas which makes the dough grow double in size or something like that anyways) to feeling my hands in the dough, to hearing the buttered pan sizzling when I take it out of the oven, every single step is so soothing to me.

I’ve tried a lot of different focaccia recipes and my favorite one so far comes from Sarah Jampel at Bon Appetit It produces a soft, bouncy as a cherubs ass, with a crispy crust delicious focaccia. The only adjustment I made is to cover the dough for the final proof on step 4. I used a dishcloth that is now solely used for this purpose because I cannot remove the olive oil stains which fucks with my OCD and saran wrap does not work, it just sticks to the dough and trying to peel it off is a nightmare.

My favorite is to eat focaccia with aged Balsamic vinegar and a high quality olive oil. If you’ve not tasted a high quality olive oil, this is your sign to go do so NOW. My spawn made us some breakfast sandwiches with the focaccia with ham, over easy egg and smoked gouda cheese, they were so delicious, it totally made having her worth it.

Recipe is linked here

The yeast blooming in the water and honey. Honey helps with the proofing, adds moisture, a richer flavor, makes it more tender and adds to the crust turning into a beautiful golden brown. In other words, DO NOT SKIP ON ADDING HONEY TO YOUR DOUGH.

Make sure give the bowl a light coating of olive oil and be sure to smack it, flip it, rub it down… Cover it tightly with saran wrap and let proof in the fridge for at least 24 hours. Just deal, its worth it.

Just look how beautiful she is, she is one big billowy, bubbly, well proofed dough. The 24 hour proof is so worth it.

Butter the pan as if your life depends on it. It may seem like a lot with all of the olive oil going on but when you take it out of the oven and here it sizzling away, you damn well better let me know how much you loved it.

Here she is, all poked, proofed and ready to get baked. I got the fresh rosemary from one of my friends NYC wrap around balcony garden but store bought is fine if no wrap around balcony gardens are within reach, peasants.

Now me and my focaccia are baked to perfection.

The breakfast sandwich my spawn made with ham, smoked gouda, an over easy egg and kewpi.

Paulette Goto