Focaccia with red onion, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives and Italian herbs | bitterbaker.com

Focaccia with red onion, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives and Italian herbs

Here it is – the focaccia recipe that was featured on The Seattle Globalist! Seriously a recipe to die for. Or I mean, it’s next to impossible to go wrong with kalamata olives, red onion, sundried tomatoes and Italian herbs. But still. If the smell of this doesn’t make your mouth water, then you should see a nose doctor.

As crazy as it may sound, I try to make this recipe as rarely as I possibly can. And when I make it, it’s only for special occasions. Like for the live variety show (2 hours 45 minutes, hint hint) that the Globalist was hosting. It’s not because it’s a hassle to make (it’s actually super easy, just takes a bit of waiting). It’s only because I don’t like eating only bread for dinner. And when I make this bread, that’s what my dinner is. I may or may not have eaten two or three pieces even before I was ready to shoot the pictures. You can imagine how much was left by the time I was done with the photos.

Focaccia with red onion, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives and Italian herbs | bitterbaker.com
Heaven on a plate, that’s exactly what it is.

Still, I’d encourage you to make this. If not only because everyone should have tried a really (really, really, really) good focaccia at least ones in their lives. See this recipe as an early birthday present from me!

Focaccia with red onion, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives and Italian herbs

Total time: 2-4 days to prepare the dough. Then another 4-5 hours to let the dough rise and baking the focaccias. Makes 2 focaccias. Recipe for the dough adapted from Karen’s Kitchen Stories.

Ingredients

  • 1.25 tsp active dry yeast
  • 2 cups warm water
  • 567 g (20 oz) bread flour
  • 2.5 tsp sea salt
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Toppings

  • 1/2 red onion
  • 50 olives
  • 2/3 cup sundried tomatoes in oil
  • 2 tbsp Italian herbs, or oregano

Focaccia with red onion, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives and Italian herbs | bitterbaker.com
See the blistered crust? If I can do it then so can you!

Instructions
Mix some of the warm water with the active dry yeast to let it foam up and get active. Mix in the remaining water, sea salt and bread flour. Let the dough rest in the bowl for 5 minutes, then add the olive oil and mix further for about 1 minute. Put the dough in a new, lightly oiled bowl and let it rest 10 minutes. Take out the dough on an oiled surface. Stretch it out and fold it over itself from all four sides, using your hands or a scraper. Turn the dough upside down and put it back in the bowl. Let it rest 10 minutes. Repeat the stretch-and-fold method three more times, and let the dough rest in the bowl for ten minutes after each stretch-and-fold treatment. After the final stretch-and-fold (four total), cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let ferment in your fridge for 2-4 days.

Day 2 (or within four days)
I took out my dough from the fridge on the third day. When you take it out, let it first sit in room temperature for three hours. You can leave the plastic wrap on. Prepare the topping by slicing the red onion and olives in thin slices. Chop the sundried tomatoes and mix everything together with the Italian herbs.

When three hours have passed, carefully take out the dough on an oiled work bench. Stretch out the dough to a 9″x9″ square. Cut the dough in half. Spread out a third of your toppings on top of the focaccias. Fold each piece in thirds. Place the pieces on a lightly oiled parchment paper or a baking sheet, seamside down. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest 1 hour.

Focaccia with red onion, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives and Italian herbs | bitterbaker.com
Spread out your toppings…

After one hour, carefully stretch out the focaccias. Try not to punctuate any of the air bubbles that have formed. Spread out a second third of your toppings on top of the focaccias. Fold in thirds, flip upside down and put them back on the parchment paper. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest another hour.

Focaccia with red onion, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives and Italian herbs | bitterbaker.com
…then fold the dough in thirds, like this. Place seamside down on a parchment paper.

Preheat the oven to 500°F. As quick, and as painless as you can, transfer the focaccias from the baking sheet to a greased oven tray (this is hard, I know! But as long as you do your best, you’ll be just fine, and the focaccias will turn out great). Spread the last third of your toppings on top of the focaccias. Press your fingertips down on the focaccias, to create little dents in the dough. Bake at 500°F for ten minutes, then turn down the temperature to 450F and bake another 20 minutes. If the focaccias have plenty of color, but don’t sound hollow when you knock on the bottom, flip them upside down and bake for another 5-10 minutes.

Let cool on a rack.

Focaccia with red onion, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives and Italian herbs | bitterbaker.com
Serve with a light and fresh salad, to compensate for the focaccia’s slight greasiness..

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    Five cheese pizza bread | bitterbaker.com

    Five cheese pizza bread

    First off, don’t forget about tomorrow people! I’m joining The Seattle Globalist on a live webcast show at 3 pm PT. The Seattle Foundation is organizing a day of giving big, a day to donate to all the non-profits that make our society a better place to live. So share some love and GiveBig, you too! And of course, I’d be honored if you wanted to tune in at 3 pm to watch my 15 minutes of fame. I’ll be sharing a new recipe that has yet to be published here on bitter baker.

    And now. What you’ve all been waiting for… the bread! No matter how greasy the name may sound, it’s actually not that bad. I like greasy pizza every now and then, but mostly I’m just after the taste of sundried tomatoes and the Italian herbs. Which is exactly what you’ll get with this bread. Pizza flavor minus the greasy part. Everybody wins, right?

    Five cheese pizza bread | bitterbaker.com
    Five different kinds of cheese, and yet it’s not too greasy. Must be a magic bread, or what do you say?

    I never would have thought of making this loaf, if I hadn’t gotten this comment on my Pizza monkey bread muffins: “These muffins look great! I wish there was some quicker way to make them :D“. I totally understand, sourdough takes a lot of time sometimes – and time is not always something you have plenty of.

    So of course, there sure is a quicker way to make them! But since I like trying new kinds of bread, I made this five cheese pizza loaf, which is even quicker than the muffins. All you have to do is throwing the dough in a spring form pan. Can’t be much easier and quicker than that.

    Five cheese pizza bread | bitterbaker.com
    Make this next time your having an Italian themed dinner.

    I’m totally in love with this bread. It’s so soft and moist, and literally melts in your mouth when you bite in to it. I warm it up just a tiny bit in the microwave and one, two, three slices later, I don’t even need to think about dinner anymore. After all, it’s called pizza bread.

    Five cheese pizza bread
    Total time: 2.5 hours. Makes 1 large loaf. 

    Ingredients

    • 2 cups of warm water
    • 1 tbsp active dry yeast
    • 1 tbsp sugar
    • 0.5 tbsp sea salt
    • 2/3 cup chopped sundried tomatoes in oil
    • 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
    • 630 g (22.2 oz) bread flour
    • 1 tbsp olive oil

    Toppings

    Instructions
    Activate the yeast in the warm water together with the sugar for a few minutes. Add sea salt, sundried tomatoes, italian seasoning and bread flour. Knead to a dough (should remain a little sticky, but not unmanageable). Let the dough rest in its bowl for five minutes, then mix in the olive oil. Let the dough rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

    Tip out the dough on a lightly floured working bench. Stretch it out a little and place the egg and the shredded cheese in the middle. Fold the sides over the cheese and egg, so they’re no longer visible. Take a dough cutter and start chopping the dough in little pieces. The egg and the cheese will make it into a gooey mass. When done, place the pieces in a greased 9” spring form pan. Let rise 30 minutes.

    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Sprinkle some (or lots of) parmesan cheese on top of the monkey bread and bake for 1 hour.

    Let cool in the spring form pan for about 10 minutes. Then take it out of the form and let cool on a rack before you cut in to it – this will allow the dough to cook all the way through and you don’t risk having doughy pizza bread.

    Five cheese pizza bread | bitterbaker.com
    Looks kind of cool, cutting it like a cake, don’t you think? But it’s not sweet, I promise.

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      Oat bran bread rolls | bitterbaker.com

      Oat bran bread rolls

      Sometimes you don’t realize how much you like something until you’ve been without it for a while. And while that holds true for many important things in life like love and friendship, it also holds true for smaller things, like food.

      When I made these oat bran bread rolls, I hadn’t had sourdough bread in a while (I know, hard to believe, right?). Maybe that’s why I thought they were so delicious. Or maybe because they actually were.

      Oat bran bread rolls | bitterbaker.com
      Breakfast anyone?

      All I know is that they’re like oatmeal in a little bun. Which is all I need. Sometimes months go by and all I want (and have) for breakfast is oatmeal with milk and ground cinnamon. Is there any other breakfast that is that good for you, and keeps you full until lunch? I don’t think so. The only exception would be these rolls. I’ll have to put them up to a test. Soon.

      Oat bran bread rolls | bitterbaker.com
      If you don’t usually have bread for breakfast, I’d eat these squares with soup or a hearty chili.

      Oat bran bread rolls
      Total time: 16-20 hours to get the pre-dough active. Then another 6-7 hours to let the dough rise and baking the oat bran bread. Makes 16 bread rolls.

      Ingredients
      Day 1

      • 100 g (3.5 oz) white starter
      • 369 g (13 oz, not fluid!) filtered water
      • 300 g (10.6 oz) bread flour

      Day 2

      • 1 tbsp sea salt
      • 1 tbsp honey
      • 130 g (4.6 oz) light rye flour
      • 45 g (1.6 oz) oat bran
      • 78 g (2.8 oz) bread flour
      • 1 tbsp olive oil

      Toppings
      oat bran

      Oat bran bread rolls | bitterbaker.com
      I usually put all my bread in the freezer right away. That way I can take out a roll or two and have them fresh whenever I want to.

      Instructions
      Mix starter, water and flour in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in room temperature for 16-20 hours, until the pre-dough is active and looking bubbly.

      Add se salt, honey, light rye flour, oat bran and bread flour. Mix to a dough. Let the dough rest 5 minutes, then add the olive oil. Let rise in the bowl, covered with a kitchen towel for about 3 hours, until doubled.

      Sprinkle oat bran on your working bench. Tip out the dough onto the oat bran and sprinkle more oat bran on top of the dough. Stretch into a square and cut the dough in 16 squares. Place them on a greased oven tray and let rise, covered with a kitchen towel, until doubled in size, 2-3 hours.

      Preheat oven to 500°F. Spray some water on the bottom of the oven and bake the bread for 10 minutes. Lower the temperature to 450°F and bake another 10-15 minutes.

      Let cool on a rack.

      Oat bran bread rolls | bitterbaker.com
      Make sure you like bitter baker on Facebook, so you don’t miss out on all the fun stuff!

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        English muffins | bitterbaker.com

        English muffins and Seattle Globalist live webcast show

        I borrowed this really cool cookbook from my friend called Make the Bread, Buy the Butter. If you ever wondered if homemade mayonnaise is better than store-bought – and/or if it’s cheaper – you’ll need this book. It tells you all that, and more.

        English muffins have been on my list of things to bake a long time now. So when I found the recipe for these (seriously my favorite bread to toast), I just had to make it right away. They kind of look like real English muffins, too, don’t they? If there’s one thing I like, it’s when recipes turns out the way I expect them to.

        English muffins | bitterbaker.com
        Make your own English muffins. Definitely better than the store-bought kind.

        The recipe was a piece of cake to follow, too. So make these next time you’re making eggs benedict. I myself have serious plans to try this version of the classic: BLT Eggs Benedict with Avocado Hollandaise.

        Oh, oh, oh!! Almost forgot. Guess who’s participating in The Seattle Globalist‘s all-day LIVE webcast for GiveBig‘s day of fundraising? Yes, me! I’m so excited. Won’t tell you too much, but you’ll see 15 minutes of me and a recipe that has yet to be published on bitter baker. Make sure to save the date for May 15th, which is when all the fun will be going down.

        Seattle Globalist GiveBig fundraising

        English muffins
        Total time: 3 hours. Makes 16 English muffins. 

        Ingredients

        • ¼ cup warm water
        • 1 tbsp active dry yeast
        • 2 tbsp sugar
        • 2 tsp sea salt
        • 4 cups all-purpose flour
        • 1 large egg
        • 2 tbsp melted unsalted butter
        • 1 ¼ cup warm milk

        Toppings
        cornmeal

        English muffins | bitterbaker.com
        Serve with soft boiled eggs, or make a real eggs benedict if you have time.

        Instructions
        Mix warm water, yeast, sugar, sea salt and 2 cups of flour in a bowl. Add the egg, butter and milk. Add the remaining 2 cups of flour and knead until a smooth dough. Add extra flour if you need it, but not too much, you still want a soft and moist dough.

        Oil another bowl and place the dough in there. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rise until doubled, about 2 hours.

        Sprinkle a work surface with cornmeal. Place the dough on the cornmeal and sprinkle the top with more cornmeal. Roll the dough into a 9 “x 15” rectangle, about ½ inch thick. Don’t stretch the dough. Cut out the muffins (use a 3-inch biscuit cutter if you have one, otherwise a glass in similar size). Reroll the scraps and cut out the rest of the muffins.

        Heat a cast-iron skillet until very hot.

        Place as many muffins in the hot pan as will fit without crowding. Immediately turn down the heat to medium so the muffins cook through without burning – 10-15 minutes per side. They should be a light hazelnut brown.

        Let the muffins cool on a rack. Split with a fork before toasting. Store in a bag at room temperature for up to a week, or freeze them directly.

        English muffins | bitterbaker.com
        What’s your favorite kind of bread to toast?

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