Subscribe to thisThe Infamous Rosemary Focaccia
seems to me i've received more correspondence about this bread recipe than any other. some adore it and most find it impossible to make. simple as it is, as the highest water content (hydration) bread in the book it has turned out to be the trickiest. so i'm delighted that my friend jan in san diego recently wrote me how much she loves this bread--which she makes often--along with a photo of what the dough (batter) looks like after mixing!
see how it looks like melted mozarella cheese? nothing like a picture. and be sure to dimple it deeply all over right before baking to get the large irregular holes.
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Comments
Rose,
I received your Bread Bible for Christmas and started using it to make breads soon after. I never made bread in my life before, but I really enjoy it (although it is cutting into my learning cake baking which I started last summer after getting the Cake Bible!).
I have to complement you on how wonderful the Bread Bible is. So far I've made the Levy's Rye, the Olive bread, the Prosciutto ring, your variation of the no-knead bread, and tonight the rosemary focaccia. During the course of making these I've used the stand mixer method, the food processor method and the by-hand method. Your instuctructions are absolutely impeccable. Every bread I have made so far has been exactly as you describe it in the book - from the biga, to the kneading, proofing, shaping - everything - it has been absolutely wonderful. (I am also quite anal when it comes to using the exact ingredients and measuring everything - so much so that I drive my family crazy.)
I realize from the blog that there were some comments on finding the rosemary focaccia in the BB challenging, but it was exactly as you described. It took about 28 minutes for the dough to form a smooth shiny ball, but after the dough raised for 4 hours and again during the final proof, it was so light and bubbly, it was amazing. The only thing I may do differenly the next time is use a little less oil in the pan and on top. I used the heaping tablespoon in the BB recipe and I noticed that the recipe using Harvest King on the blog uses a little less, which I think would be just perfect.
Thank you again for making it so easy for novices to discover the wonders of baking.
Brian
Posted by: Brian | March 4, 2007 9:05 PM #
brian--thanks for the terrific note. i'm delighted you're having such great success with the recipe.
it's almost midnight here on the east coast but i'm waiting for some brownies to come out of the oven so still up! (but not for long)planning the cranberry walnut bread for chicken sandwiches on the way to salt lake city next weekend for annual ski trip.
Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | March 4, 2007 10:54 PM #