Focaccia by Reinhart

And the bread baking continues! Next up on my Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge was Focaccia, beloved by Americans everywhere as a sandwich bread and pizza base. This recipe I liked from the get-go, as it began with a poolish (a wet starter) and was a very wet dough. You know what that means? Big, beautiful holes!
At least that's how his focaccia was pictured. And how how said it was supposed to turn out. Mine? Well...


Not so much. It was gorgeous, though--light and airy, very soft, and a wonderful flavor from the pre-ferment. I skipped the herbed oil and went with a light brushing and some coarse salt. It reminded me a lot of my favorite restaurant bread, the rosemary loaves you get at Macaroni Grill (if you have one of those near you.) So it wasn't bad bread, not by any means (as evidenced by the huge chunk of it I consumed while it was still warm and crisp), it just wasn't what the author envisioned. He said in his instructions that I may need to add more flour than his recipe called for, to get a ball of dough instead of doughy soup, and I definitely did. Really wet doughs like these frequently take a long time mixing before they begin to form any real gluten, so I waited until his recommended kneading time was up before I began adding in flour. I added just enough to get a dough ball that was still extremely sticky, and clung like mad to the bottom of the bowl. I guess I added a bit too much, though, because my focaccia, although very light and soft, didn't have those gorgeous holes I wanted.
I actually want to try this one again. The bread was really, really good. I can only imagine what it would be like if it were a wetter dough!
This reminded me of a similar recipe I like, a Pizza Bianca I found in a Martha Stewart Magazine. That dough was so wet, I had to knead it in the mixer for 20 minutes before I even started to get any gluten. It's crazy when it actually happens with a dough like that--suddenly, long stramds of dough begin to form like spiderwebs around the edge of the bowl, and then in an instant you go from hearing the slapping of the shapeless mass, to the thwap-thwap of a ball of wet dough.
I'm thinking this dough may benefit from a similar treatment. Keep it very wet, without adding additional flour, and then just let it knead until I see some action happening. I always get very big holes on the Pizza Bianca that way--maybe I can accomplish the same thing here. It's worth another shot--the flavor was great.
I had started to think maybe I just screwed this one up, but looking at the other BBA'ers breads, I see the result was similar. OK, I don't feel so bad now!


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