Steak Salad
Old School
I spend a lot of time pondering bread. I take it very seriously and it is quite an endeavor for me to justify the bread that I choose to eat. I make something that should be simple, so complicated. When I walk into a store I head right to the paper-wrapped bags of bread. Potato, Giuseppe, Baguette, and Pugliese, to name a few. Squeeze a little. Reminds me of the Charmin commercial when I was a kid. “Don’t squeeze the Charmin!” I can't help it, I always break that rule. I am forever looking for that specific crunch with the delightful spring in the center. You know it when you feel it. The crustiness of the outside with the soft airiness of the inside. The idea of freshly baked bread is intoxicating.
When I was a kid, it was a completely different story. In my early teens, my family used to drive by the Wonder Bread factory in southern Illinois. We would take trips back to northern Ohio to visit our grandparents and mom’s friends. We could smell the fermenting bread in the air. It was a brand that was a staple growing up in the Midwest of the United States. More sugar than flour. OK, that is probably exaggerating, but that is what it tasted like. We had no idea what old-school bread was like, let alone what a sour starter was. I say starter, and all I can think of is Anthony Bourdain talking about "Feeding the Bitch" in his book Kitchen Confidential. Being a servant to the ever growing entity that is a bread starter.
Bread production is an art of its own. There are chefs all over the world who specialize in this wizardry. Great manipulators of glutenous things fermented. I am such an admirer of yeast. It is simple in its function, but it produces something complex; a product that people enjoy, lust after, or absolutely avoid. CO2 is produced when sugar is fed to yeast cells, which in turn produces the tiny bubbles in your bread. It is such a wonderful thing to observe. It’s alive!!! Creating a starter is like creating a living blob from the 1950s horror flick. It will take over your kitchen if you feed it enough. Constant management is required. This will either completely stress you out, or make you love pets in a way you never thought possible. I, on the other hand, am going share an area of bread-making that is more manageable and less intense. One that is completed in a few hours, not a few months, years, or even decades.
It's alive!
Focaccia
Focaccia is a very versatile recipe. From this recipe, you can produce bread, pizza dough, and rolls, to name a few. I love putting this dough together in the focaccia fashion. Topping it with confit garlic, salt, and olive oil. True love. Pushing the dimples into the bread and watching it grow. The fact that it actually fries in the oil that you use is so wonderful. That, my friends, is what gluten-filled dreams are made of.On to the recipes...
Ingredients
• 6¼ cups bread flour• 2¼ tsp. active dry yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp. Diamond Crystal salt
• 5 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• Flaky sea salt
• Confit Garlic (recipe below)
• Rosemary
Recipe Preparation
• Combine flour and 2½ cups room-temperature water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Mix on low speed, scraping down sides and hook as needed to incorporate any dry flour until a shaggy dough forms. Remove dough hook and cover bowl with plastic. Let sit while you prepare the yeast (you can leave the dough in this state up to 2 hours).• Stir yeast, sugar, and ½ cup warm water with a fork in a small bowl to dissolve. Let sit until yeast is foamy, about 5 minutes.
• Pour yeast mixture into stand mixer bowl and mix on low speed until dough absorbs all additional water, about 1 minute. Add kosher salt and continue to mix, increasing speed to medium, until dough is extremely elastic and very sticky (it will look more like a thick batter and will stick to sides of bowl), about 5 minutes.
• Pour 3 tbsp oil into a large bowl and swirl to coat sides. Scrape in dough. Cover and place in a warm spot until dough is doubled in volume, 2–3 hours.
• Drizzle 2 tbsp olive oil over a 18x13" sheet pan and use fingertips to rub all over bottom and sides. Using large spatula or flexible bench scraper, fold dough inside bowl a couple of times to deflate, then scrape onto prepared baking sheet. Using oiled hands, lift up dough and fold over onto itself in half, then rotate baking sheet 90° and fold in half again. Cover dough with a piece of well-oiled plastic and let rest 10 minutes to let gluten relax.
• Uncover and go back in with oiled hands, gently stretching dough across length and width of baking sheet in an even layer, working all the way to edges and into corners. If dough starts to spring back, let sit 5–10 minutes and start again.
• Let sheet pan sit in a warm spot until dough is puffed and bubbly and nearly doubled in height, 45–65 minutes. Place a rack in center of oven; preheat to 450°.
• Remove plastic and drizzle dough generously with more oil. Oil hands again and press fingertips firmly into dough, pushing down all the way to bottom of pan to dimple all over. Spread confit garlic across the top. Sprinkle generously with sea salt and chopped rosemary.
• Bake focaccia until surface is deep golden brown all over, 25–35 minutes. Let cool in pan 10 minutes. Slide a thin metal spatula underneath focaccia to loosen from sheet pan and transfer to a wire rack. Let cool completely before cutting.
Confit Garlic
• 18 oz EVOO• 24 ea pealed garlic cloves
• 1 oz fresh thyme on sprig
• 1 tbs koshar salt
Heat EVOO in a pot over low heat. Add garlic, thyme and salt; stir to coat. Reduce heat to low. Cook on stove top for about one hour till golden brown.
Focaccia Crostinis
• 2 oz EVOO• 10 slices of Focaccia
• Koshar Salt To Taste
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper TT
Lay out Focaccia slices on a sheet pan. Drizzle with EVOO. Season with salt and pepper. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes, or till golden brown.
The Bread of the Matter
We are always looking for those simple things in life that really make us happy. Bread just tends to be one of those things for me. There is nothing like the smell of bread baking in the oven. For me it is about the process. I love watching the dough rise, the bubbles form, making the garlic into caramel goodness, flakey salt that looks like pyramids, and most of all the crunch of really well baked bread.
Enjoy!
