I wanted to make some focaccia, but I didn't like the idea of using nearly a cup of olive oil in the standard Bread Baker's Apprentice
recipe. So I decided to use the Pain a l'Ancienne technique which creates a rustic dough that develops its flavor over a long fermentation period.
I also decided to use a basil infused olive oil to top the focaccia rather than the herb oil recipe in the Bread Baker's Apprentice because I didn't want chopped herbs on top of the bread. I didn't think it would freeze well that way.
I had great success - the focaccia had an extremely light texture and good flavor. The rustic Pain a l'Ancienne dough is very sticky and therefore hard to handle, but definitely worth it! In the end, I only used about 1/4 cup of olive oil, a large calorie savings.
recipe. So I decided to use the Pain a l'Ancienne technique which creates a rustic dough that develops its flavor over a long fermentation period.I also decided to use a basil infused olive oil to top the focaccia rather than the herb oil recipe in the Bread Baker's Apprentice because I didn't want chopped herbs on top of the bread. I didn't think it would freeze well that way.
I had great success - the focaccia had an extremely light texture and good flavor. The rustic Pain a l'Ancienne dough is very sticky and therefore hard to handle, but definitely worth it! In the end, I only used about 1/4 cup of olive oil, a large calorie savings.
Dough before the final rise
Slab of focaccia
Cut into triangles
Looks great. I have a focaccia recipe from Peter that was published in Fine Cooking from 2004. It calls for 5 1/2 cup bread flour, 2 1/2 c. water. 2 tbl plus 1 tsp sugar, 3.5 tsp kosher salt, 1 packet instant yeast and 10tbl olive oil. I'll have to go back and look in my BBA to see if its the same recipe.
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