No Need to Knead Focaccia

My camera is still broke but thank goodness my oven isn't! Today I baked focaccia bread from Suzanne Dunaway's No Need to Knead book on Italian breads. Since the NY Times No Knead Bread baked so successfully, I was delighted to find that there were more recipes just like it. Even though the book says that most of these bread recipes could be done in 90 minutes or so, I preferred letting my focaccia dough rise in the refrigerator for about 18 hours. Bread couldn't get any easier than this! :)

Focaccia
(from No Need to Knead by Suzanne Dunaway)

2 cups lukewarm water (85 to 95F)
2 tsp active dry yeast (or 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast)
4 cups unbleached bread flour
2 tsp kosher salt

olive oil
fresh chopped rosemary
sea salt

In a large bowl, mix the warm water and yeast together until dissolved. Stir in the salt and 2 cups of the bread flour and mix for about 2 minutes. Then add in the remaining 2 cups of flour and mix for another 2 minutes. I basically just stirred until the dough was well combined (didn't really bother looking at the time). Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in the refrigerator overnight. Two hours before baking, take the focaccia dough out and let it do its second rise in a warm place.

Preheat your oven to 500F. There are a variety of shapes you can do for focaccia but I did the traditional one in the jelly roll pan. Just pour your dough into a oiled jelly roll pan and with your fingers dipped in cold water, make dents in the dough and spread it outwards to fill the pan. Sprinkle the dough with the olive oil, sea salt, and rosemary to your liking. Turn down the oven to about 450F and then bake the focaccia for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Blog Update with a side of Coffee "Tea" Cake

My camera has been out-of-service over the last week so even though I have been cooking and baking, I haven't been motivated to post without having any pictures. I baked french bread, a jelly roll cake, ham and onion fritatta, timbale, and most recently Coffee "Tea" Cakes. These turned out absolutely wonderful and delicious and if any of you are scone fans, you'll definitely have to try these out.

Coffee "Tea" Cakes
(from Fine Cooking)

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup plus 1 tsp firmly packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp finely ground coffee beans (from about 1 heaping tbsp whole beans)
1/2 cup (1/4 lb) cold butter, cubed
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup cold brewed espresso or double-strength coffee
1 tsp granulated sugar


Preheat your oven to 350F.

For mixing all the ingredients, I used my 12-cup food processor. You can use a standing mixer or just a regular bowl but you'll need a pastry cutter to cut in the butter. Anyhow, combine together your dry ingredients namely the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brown sugar and ground coffee into your food processor and give it a whir until it is well combined. Add the butter in and pulse until the piece of your butter are the size of marbles (or so the recipe states but I just pulsed until it was like small pebbles like how I do with my pie pastry).

Next add your cream, vanilla and cold espresso and blend until just combined and your mixture has become like a dough. Put it out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and pat into a round about 6-8 inches wide. Sprinkle some brown sugar on top (you could also add some white granulated sugar as well) and cut the circle into 8 equal pieces. You won't need to separate them from each other as you do normally with scones.

Bake until firm but still springy, 40 to 50 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack and then recut your wedges to serve.